Thinking of visiting the PA Trolley Museum? It’s now more inclusive than ever for neurodiverse visitors.

Photos by Ben Filio. Story originally published on the Remake Learning blog.

Each year, nearly 40,000 people visit the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum in Washington, Pa. They climb aboard vintage trolley cars that sport ads for old-timey root beer and shaving cream, and rumble down the tracks while learning the science and history behind a mode of transportation that helped many American cities and towns thrive in their early days.

But among these many thousands of visitors, one community in particular has a special passion for all things trains, trolleys and transportation. Folks on the autism spectrum are among the Trolley Museum’s most avid visitors, says Jocelyn Farrell, manager of STEAM and education programs at the museum.

So when Farrell began working at the museum and brainstorming with colleagues about creating impactful programming, she knew that serving the community of adults and children on the autism spectrum should be a top priority.

“There was really a need to say, ‘How can we as a museum — as an organization — become more accessible and inclusive?” she says. “Because at the end of the day, we want everyone to come here and have a great time. But we also want to make sure that we’re equipped to serve anyone who comes through our door.”

This work has led to a Moonshot Grant from Remake Learning, which funds an evolution in the training, programming and facilities at the Trolley Museum.

Like all Moonshot Grant-funded programs, this work explores new territory. The project has evolved along the way, building on the knowledge of other organizations and developing as Farrell and the rest of the museum team continue researching and gathering input.

MEETING A GROWING NEED

When members of Pittsburgh Museum Educators’ Roundtable (PittMER) gathered for a meeting at the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium recently, the topic was neurodiverse visitors.

As the zoo staff explained that they are seeing an increase in neurodiversity among their summer campers, the meeting attendees — more than two dozen folks from museums in the Pittsburgh area — described the same experience and were eager to better serve these local students.

“We’re seeing those kids coming in, not just through our education programs, but from schools on field trips, in summer camps and visiting with their families,” Farrell says. “So how can you serve kids coming through your programs who are showing greater need than what maybe your staff can handle, or that you have training for?”

She had seen a growing need for inclusive spaces and sensory-friendly programming in her previous job at the Carnegie Science Center, one of many Pittsburgh-region organizations giving attention to this issue. With the best practices she’d seen at the Science Center in mind, Farrell began researching.

A key first step: Along with the Trolley Museum’s executive director, Scott Becker, she consulted with The International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards (IBCCES).

Through IBCCES training for its staff and volunteers, the museum is now a Certified Autism Center. The training explored what it means to be neurodivergent or to experience autism, and how neurodivergent visitors may experience the museum and the trolley rides. This gave the staff solid knowledge for brainstorming new programming and other changes, and was enlightening for many volunteers.

“A lot of our volunteers are older. So for a lot of them, it was kind of their first time hearing these terms,” Farrell says.

NEW OFFERINGS, NEW UNDERSTANDING

Along with staff training, the museum has begun scheduling sensory-friendly hours when the lights are a bit dimmer, music and sounds are softer, and the trolley chosen for tours is one that rattles less than some of the others.

Visitors can also choose a silicone bracelet, available at the museum’s entrance, in red (indicating the wearer may feel overwhelmed or anxious, doesn’t wish to engage in conversation and will explore the museum at their own pace), yellow (the wearer may feel uncertain about interactions and prefers limited engagement) or green (the wearer is comfortable and open to interaction).

New sensory bags that visitors can borrow include noise-canceling headphones and sunglasses for those sensitive to bright light, along with fidget toys and other sensory objects, and a “cool-down timer” for those who need a break.

A guide to the exhibits, designed with help from IBCCES, is tucked inside the sensory bags and available on the website. It gauges the various exhibits on a scale of one to 10, in terms of sensory variables like tactile experience, loudness and brightness. So whether visitors wish to seek sensory stimulation or avoid it, they can plan their visit accordingly with no surprises.

Also, teens in woodworking class at nearby Trinity High School designed and built two sensory boards, which now hang in the museum’s classroom for use by students of all ages. The boards have moving parts including gears, laces to tie, doorknobs and more.

“If kids finish something early or they just get up, they can go play with it,” Farrell says. “It’s a quiet thing and a safe thing.”

And one last piece of progress may be most important: The museum now has an adult-sized changing table. This removes a major barrier that can keep families from enjoying the museum if they have an adult child that might require the use of a changing table.

“We were able to afford one that is fully electric,” Farrell says, “so it’s able to lower to the ground, which makes it so much easier, I’m told, for the caregivers.”

The changing table hadn’t been in the museum’s original Moonshot plan. It was inspired by a conversation with an expert from IBCCES, who explained that parents whose adult children need changing tables have no choice but to avoid public places that lack this amenity.

Farrell was grateful for the flexibility of the grant and her team’s ability to pivot once they discovered how meaningful this purchase would be. Their hours of research and learning — and the ability that the Trolley Museum now has to share their new knowledge with other organizations in the Pittsburgh region’s learning ecosystem — have been a powerful experience.

“It’s been really rewarding,” she says. “I’ve had so many conversations with people that I’ve probably never would have, and it’s been great advocating for this change.”