Austism Design Experts
Independent Co-Design Consultancy for Disability and Autism Services in Ireland
We provide independent, expert consultancy that places people with intellectual disabilities and autism at the absolute centre of project design.
About Us
We provide independent service-user consultation, transforming lived experience into compliance-ready evidence that strengthens design decisions, supports regulatory approval, and protects capital investment.
Our expert consultancy ensures inclusive, accessible environments are designed with direct input from people with disabilities and autistic people.
Our Core Principle
Nothing about us, without us
We support organisations to fulfil their legal obligation to closely consult with and actively involve persons with disabilities in all decision-making processes that affect them.
Independent Consultation
We conduct structured, independent consultation with people with disabilities and autistic people.
Expert Consultancy
We have extensive experience working with people with intellectual disabilities and autistic people, and the organisations that support them.
Compliance
We provide in-depth, documented audit trails of consultation to satisfy HSE, NDA and HIQA requirements.
Standards
We provide robust reports on how service users influenced the design of their own environment.
What we do?
Independent Service User Consultation
We conduct structured, independent consultation with people with disabilities and autistic people, ensuring organisations meet their obligation to “closely consult with and actively involve” persons with disabilities under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Article 4.3.
Compliance-Ready Consultation Evidence
We produce clear, defensible documentation demonstrating how lived experience influenced design decisions — providing boards, regulators, and inspectors with credible evidence of meaningful consultation for bodies such as HIQA, the HSE and the NDA.
Lived Experience Design Intelligence
We translate service user insight into structured design guidance that informs architects and project teams early — protecting capital investment and reducing the risk of costly redesign or retrofit.
Independent Social Value Verification
Our work provides credible third-party evidence of authentic engagement, strengthening applications for government funding and improving scores in public procurement processes.
View Our Services
Excellent service, very professional and knowledgeable. They provided us with a clear report on how our service users influenced the design of their own environment, which was invaluable for our HIQA registration process. Highly recommended for any organisation looking to ensure their services are designed with the needs of their users in mind.
Testimonial
Martina Moloney
Founder, aboutme.ie
Martina is the founder of aboutme.ie and a specialist in co-design for disability and autism services. She holds a Master’s Degree in Education and an Honours Degree in Social Science and has over 20 years’ experience of working across residential, day, and educational services supporting people with disabilities and autistic people.
Throughout her career Martina has managed residential and day services and has project-managed multi-million-euro capital developments designed for people with disabilities. She has taught in special educational settings, co-designed classrooms and sensory spaces with the pupils who use the space. Ensuring the child's voice was at the centre of the design. She has also worked as a consultant supporting organisations to ensure the people who use services are meaningfully involved in shaping the environments created for them.
Her work focuses on translating lived experience into practical design insight that informs architects, service providers, and project teams — ensuring disability services are designed with the people who will live in them from the very beginning.
Martina founded aboutme.ie to ensure that the voices of people with disabilities and autistic people are central to the design of services intended for them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Co-design is a structured approach that actively involves people who use services in shaping how those services are designed. In intellectual disability and autism services, this ensures environments reflect real needs, preferences, and lived experience — not assumptions. It leads to better outcomes, improved quality of life, and stronger regulatory compliance.
Any organisation developing or refurbishing services for people with intellectual disabilities or autism can benefit from our expertise. This includes service providers, architects, designers, schools, and project teams. We work with organisations of all sizes, from small community groups to large national bodies.
Ideally, at the earliest stages — feasibility or concept design. However, we can add value at any point by embedding structured consultation and ensuring lived experience informs key decisions before they are finalised.
By embedding lived experience early, we help identify issues before construction. This reduces the likelihood of costly retrofits, delays, or compliance challenges later in the project lifecycle.
Simply contact us to discuss your project. We’ll outline how co-design can be integrated into your timeline and deliver maximum value.
Customer Testimonials
Customer Testimonials
Highly Recommended
"aboutme.ie partnered with a local Community Childcare service to ensure their investment in a new space was guided by real demand and the authentic needs of the children using the service. Through a structured, child-led consultation process, we identified a critical strategic insight—while the initial focus was on pre-school provision, it was in fact after-school children who represented the greatest need and opportunity. By engaging directly with this group, we uncovered a clear vision for a flexible, multi-use environment that supports homework, social connection, independent snack preparation, and relaxed peer interaction. In response, we informed a design approach incorporating sliding doors and adaptable, movable furniture that can be easily reconfigured or stored, enabling the space to seamlessly transition across different uses throughout the day. We translated these insights into actionable, evidence-based recommendations, empowering the service to confidently realign its offering, maximise utilisation, and deliver a dynamic, high-value environment shaped by the children it serves."
Community Childcare Service
Professional
"aboutme.ie partnered with a local day service which supports people with intellectual disabilities to ensure a significant capital investment was strategically aligned with the real needs of those it serves. Through a rigorous, expert-led consultation and co-design process, we uncovered a more impactful vision—transforming an initial proposal for a sensory garden into a thoughtfully designed social space that promotes independence, connection, and everyday living skills. By elevating lived experience to the centre of decision-making, service users confidently shaped and presented a compelling design direction to the Board of Management. We then translated these insights into robust, audit-ready consultation evidence, strengthening governance, supporting regulatory compliance, and de-risking investment decisions. The result is a high-impact, user-led outcome—demonstrating how aboutme.ie delivers environments that are not only well-designed, but strategically sound, future-proofed, and deeply aligned with the people they are intended to serve."
Day Service
Peace of Mind
"aboutme.ie supported a local school to co-design a sensory room and classroom in a way that truly centred pupils’ voices. Their structured consultation ensured that children’s needs and preferences directly informed every stage of the design process. The result is a flexible, well-designed space that can be adapted throughout the day to meet the needs of different pupils, creating a more inclusive and responsive learning environment."
Local School
Get in Touch
We provide independent, expert consultancy that places people with intellectual disabilities and autism at the absolute centre of project design.
Contact us to learn how we can support your project.
Contact Us