The introduction was more difficult than I expected because it needed to do several jobs at once without becoming too long.
I needed to establish the wider context of independent travel, explain why airports became the focus, introduce the accessibility problem, position the research and make the personal motivation visible without turning the opening into a diary entry.
The project originally came from my own experience of independent travel and conversations with my sister, Summer.
I wanted to keep this because it explains why the subject matters to me, but I also needed to make sure the report moved quickly from personal motivation into a wider academic problem.
The introduction therefore begins with the relationship between independent travel, autonomy and access before narrowing into the airport context.
Airports became useful because they concentrate several different demands within one journey.
Navigation, security, queues, changing information, crowds, unfamiliar sensory environments and unexpected delays can all happen within a short period of time.
This allowed me to establish the airport not as one isolated sensory problem but as a complex system where sensory, cognitive, social and operational demands overlap.
The introduction then needed to explain the central tension that has developed through the research.
Airports increasingly provide support for hidden disabilities, but many interventions are fixed or shared. At the same time, the literature suggests that autistic sensory needs can be highly individual, contextual and fluctuating.
The introduction therefore needed to establish the gap between standardised accessibility provision and changing individual need.
I also decided to briefly introduce the four interconnected strands that later structure the discussion: independence and control, changing support needs, sensory regulation and fragmented travel systems.
This helps the reader understand the logic of the report before entering the literature review.
While drafting the introduction, I was also beginning to question how visible my own position should be.