Beyond the screen
The ARI high-street rating.
In the UK we look for the food hygiene sticker before we sit down to eat. We think SEND families deserve that same instant clarity: one glance at a window that tells you whether this place has thought about your child.
It is an idea at the moment, and there is a great deal we have not worked out yet: what it would take to run, who we would need alongside us, whether a shop would even want the sticker in its window. We are thinking it through in the open, the way we are doing everything else.
How it would work
Parents become the inspectors.
Through the app, you would score a café or a shop on five everyday things. Those scores add up to a rating from one to five, and when a place earns it we would send them the sticker for their window.
No self-declared badges. No paid endorsements. Just families telling other families the truth about somewhere they have actually been.
What you would score
Five everyday things.
Not how good the coffee is. The things that actually decide whether a trip out works, and the ones you would want to know before you commit to going.
Sensory calm
How loud, how bright, and when
Somewhere can be calm at ten and unbearable by one. Whether there is anywhere to step away matters as much as the room itself.
Staff patience
How you are met on a hard day
Training helps, and in time we would like to be able to help with it. What you notice though is the person at the counter, and whether they take it in their stride when a visit starts to wobble.
Physical access
Getting in, round and out
Step-free entry, doorways and gaps a wheelchair or buggy actually fits through, and how quickly you could leave.
Predictability
Knowing before you walk in
Whether you can tell what is going to happen: how the queue works, where you sit, what the noise will be like today.
Facilities
Somewhere to change an older child
A baby changing table is not the same thing as a changing space, and the difference is felt long before you arrive.
One to five, and what each one would mean.
A place would start at the bottom simply by putting its hand up, and move up only if parents say it should. What we have written below is our first go at describing each level, and we would expect it to change once people who know more than us have had a look.
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Five · Sanctuary
Quiet hours, a sensory kit on hand, trained staff, Changing Places facilities.
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Four · Welcoming
Low-stimulation options, patient understanding staff, step-free access.
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Three · Aware
Staff briefed on SEND, some quiet seating set aside.
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Two · Willing
Signed up to the standard, first adjustments made.
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One · Registered
Joined the movement, self-declared, awaiting parent reviews.
Before it is built
What we still need to work out.
How much is enough to mean anything
One family's afternoon on its own probably does not tell you very much. We do not know yet how many visits it would take before a number meant anything.
What keeps it honest
Anything that affects where people spend money tends to attract someone trying to work it. We would never take payment for a rating, though we know that on its own would not be enough.
How a place comes back down
A rating that only ever goes up is worthless. A place changes hands and everything changes with it, so ratings have to age and be able to fall.
What it asks of the person scoring
It has to be quick enough to do on the way home, and it must never need anything about your child in order to work.
What this is not.
It is not an official standard
It would not carry any legal weight or replace anything official. It is families comparing notes, in a form a shop window can hold.
It is not a promise about your visit
Every child is different, and the same room can be fine one week and not the next. A rating can point you somewhere; it cannot tell you how the day will go.
It does not exist yet
There is nothing to look up yet. The sticker above is a drawing, and the words on this page are us thinking out loud rather than anything settled.
One app. One community.
We aren't just mapping the high street. We want to change the face of it.
If you know a place that already gets this right, that is where we would want to start. Tell us where it is and what makes it work.
And if you run somewhere yourself and would want the sticker in your window one day, there is a box for that on the same form.
Please leave out anything about your child's diagnosis or needs. It is the place we are asking about.