Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Salt Lake City International Airport unveiled its first sensory room, designed by KultureCity, to aid travelers with sensory challenges.
- Mayor Erin Mendenhall highlighted the partnership with KultureCity, emphasizing training for airport staff to assist those with sensory needs.
- The sensory room, featuring calming tools, is the first of three planned, aiming to inspire similar initiatives at airports worldwide.
SALT LAKE CITY — A new, unique space at the Salt Lake City International Airport will serve as a place for those with sensory overload to decompress.
The room features carpeted walls, bean bags, activity panels, visual light panels and air walls — a color-changing display that uses air to circulate small styrofoam balls.
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall and other leaders celebrated the opening of the new sensory room at the airport with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday.
Salt Lake City Department of Airports has partnered with KultureCity to create sensory rooms for fliers with disabilities who face sensory challenges. The new sensory room is the first of three the airport will eventually offer. Designed by medical professionals from KultureCity, the room provides a quiet space for anyone who struggles with noisy, overstimulating environments. This can include individuals with anxiety, autism, dementia, PTSD or any other condition that creates sensory-processing challenges. The room features carpeted walls, bean bags, activity panels, visual light panels and air walls — a color-changing display that uses air to circulate small styrofoam balls.
"Since opening the new SLC (airport) more than four years ago, we have worked to make the airport environment welcoming and inviting to all passengers," said Bill Wyatt, Salt Lake City Department of Airports executive director. "The new airport has been designed to be adaptable and to accommodate people of all abilities, and we continue to make improvements to achieve this goal."
Mendenhall proposed the idea of partnering with KultureCity to create sensory rooms over two years ago. She spoke at the event, clarifying the importance of providing training to help those with sensory challenges and explaining the city's relationship with KultureCity.
"We are creating these little nests of respite, and we're doing it with one of our greatest partners, which is KultureCity," said Mendenhall. "I met KultureCity years ago when we needed to improve our police department's training for officers engaging with individuals with different sensory needs. KultureCity stepped up, even though they had never done that training before, and they trained about 99% of our police, fire and 911. Everyone continues to receive the sensory training and has sensory bags in the back of their police cars."
In addition to the new sensory rooms, airport staff will be trained annually to recognize fliers struggling with sensory overload and how to help them. Staff will be able to provide KultureCity sensory bags that include noise-canceling headphones, weighted lap pads and fidget tools to those who need them.
Jane Moore and her 10-year-old son Winnie, who has been diagnosed with autism, were the first people to use the new sensory room. Winnie was able to test the various sensory tools in the room, and he deemed a color-changing bench and one of the textured wall hangings as his favorite parts of the experience.
"I love this place, Mom," said Winnie, as he requested to return to the sensory room next time they fly.
KultureCity is a nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding sensory accessibility and acceptance that has been working with Salt Lake City since 2020. In addition to training first responders, it also worked with the Utah Jazz to receive sensory-inclusive certification for all their games.
Executive Director Uma Srivastava shared the organization's hope for the impact of sensory rooms at Salt Lake City International Airport, emphasizing how many people can benefit from them.
"We hope that the sensory rooms here at the airport will encourage other airports around the nation, around the world, to open up these spaces to allow travelers to step away, decompress, before they go out to work, meeting, a holiday, or as they come back home after an exciting trip," said Srivastava. "As Mayor Mendenhall mentioned, 1 in 4 of us has a sensory need ... whether it's autism, anxiety, PTSD, dementia, Parkinson's, epilepsy, ADHD. Whether it's a physical condition or something invisible. Each of us sometimes does get overwhelmed."
The new sensory room is on Concourse A East, next to White Horse Spirits and Kitchen. The airport plans to open the other two sensory rooms in different areas of the facility as it continues remodeling, including one in Concourse B, to allow more fliers access to the resource.
