Quieter spaces, training for front-line staff: How businesses are ensuring more inclusivity in public spaces

For most families in Singapore, a weekend family outing is a routine opportunity to relax and bond. Few will think twice about heading to a bustling suburban mall, dining at a popular restaurant or visiting a new attraction. Yet for some families, these trips can feel overwhelming, isolating and at times even discouraging enough to stay home.

Bright lights, noisy crowds and an unfamiliar environment can quickly become overwhelming for persons with autism and those with sensory sensitivities. At the same time, caregivers carry the constant worry of how their loved ones will be perceived or treated in public spaces. 

For Julie Nestor, that kind of uncertainty is exactly what Mastercard’s Time for Acceptance initiative is designed to address. She experienced the impact of this first-hand when she stepped into furniture store King Living, a Time for Acceptance partner.

Looking to buy a sofa, she and her son were greeted by staff who, instead of giving the standard sales pitch, offered practical advice based on her family’s needs. After sharing that her son prefers to eat his meals on the sofa, the staff focused on functional, practical solutions, recommending the best fabrics and options that would be easy to clean.

“Knowing their team understood autism and special needs made me feel very comfortable bringing him with me to the store to shop for a sofa, something I would not have done before,” recalls Julie Nestor, who is the executive vice-president of marketing and communications for Asia Pacific at Mastercard. “In the end, I purchased a fantastic lounge, so it was a great outcome for our family and for the business as well!” 

Building inclusion awareness

Nestor’s experience was precisely what the Time for Acceptance initiative aims to achieve across Singapore. Following Mastercard’s Acceptance Matters campaign in Singapore in 2024, which focused on awareness, the 2026 Time for Acceptance initiative shifts to helping businesses implement concrete, day-to-day measures like dedicated quieter sessions with reduced noise and crowd levels, sensory-friendly environments and front-line staff training.

The shift reflects a broader evolution in how businesses are approaching inclusion. To date, the initiative has brought together nine organisations across 47 locations in Singapore, while more than 220 front-line staff have also undergone training to better support persons with autism and their caregivers.

For Mastercard, the objective is no longer just about encouraging awareness, but to demonstrate how inclusion can be embedded into everyday customer experiences across retail, dining, attractions and community spaces.

To achieve this, front-line employees undergo specialised training programmes conducted in partnership with St Andrew’s Autism Centre (SAAC), where they learn how to spot signs of sensory distress, adjust environmental triggers and offer calm assistance.

The current list of partners includes Gardens by the Bay, Mandai Wildlife Group, Frasers Property Singapore, Starbucks Singapore and Commonwealth Concepts. By showcasing practical examples across different environments, Mastercard hopes to encourage wider adoption of similar approaches across Singapore.

According to Nestor, businesses can make the greatest impact by embedding empathy and inclusion into everyday customer experiences. “Awareness alone does not remove barriers to participation,” she notes, emphasising that while understanding autism is deeply valuable, families ultimately experience true inclusion through their everyday interactions in local spaces.

The key is in the details. Seemingly small adjustments, such as a quieter environment, clear signage or a staff member who knows how to respond appropriately, can make everyday outings easier and more comfortable for persons with autism and their caregivers.

“That’s why practical, everyday changes are so important because they help make inclusion tangible,” she adds.

Rather than focusing on a single venue or sector, Time for Acceptance was designed as a collaborative effort across multiple customer touchpoints. Families do not experience inclusion in isolation; they move between malls, restaurants, attractions and community spaces throughout the day. Mastercard’s role has been to bring organisations together to share ideas, demonstrate what works and encourage broader adoption of practical inclusion measures across different settings.

How organisations are creating inclusive spaces

Gardens by the Bay is one example of how participating organisations are implementing practical inclusion measures. Under Gardens by the Bay’s Quiet Morning programme, the Flower Dome or Cloud Forest opens an hour earlier on selected Saturdays throughout the year. During these specially curated sessions, operations are adjusted to create a calmer environment, while background music and announcements are lowered to reduce sensory stimulation.

Other participating organisations are implementing practical inclusion in different ways. Frasers Property Singapore has expanded its Inclusion Champions programme across its malls, while Commonwealth Concepts has introduced autism awareness training for front-line employees across selected dining outlets. At Mandai Wildlife Group, Mastercard’s Sensory Notes concept was piloted at Crimson Restaurant in Bird Paradise.

In the pipeline with several partners, the Sensory Notes menu concept entails describing dishes in clear, literal terms, including texture, taste intensity, preparation and presentation, to help diners make more informed choices, thus reducing uncertainty by better matching food selections with individual sensory preferences and expectations.

Taken together, these examples show how practical adjustments can be tailored to different environments while working towards the same goal: making everyday experiences more welcoming for persons with autism and their caregivers.

“Creating more inclusive experiences requires action across multiple touchpoints, not just within a single organisation,” says Nestor. “When businesses work in a more joined-up way across retail, dining, attractions and community spaces, families feel the difference. That’s why bringing partners together is such an important part of this initiative. It allows organisations to learn from one another and demonstrate that inclusion can take many different forms depending on the environment.”

Ultimately, Nestor says the goal is to make inclusion an everyday expectation rather than a rare exception. By demonstrating how relatively simple operational adjustments can improve everyday experiences for caregivers and persons with autism, the campaign aims to encourage wider adoption across Singapore.

For Mastercard, the long-term goal is not simply to support individual programmes, but to encourage more organisations to consider how inclusion can be embedded into their everyday operations.

Nestor says: “Inclusion is not about grand gestures. It is about whether a family can walk into a space and feel they can manage it, without everything becoming a stress point.”