The Challenge
Mastercard believes a world where we all belong, is priceless. It has championed inclusivity by design through innovations like its Touch Card for blind and low vision people as well as broader inclusivity campaigns like the World’s First Wheelchair Ball-kid at the Australian Open. Dining out can be overwhelming for people with autism. From unpredictable noise and lighting to unfamiliar textures, smells and presentation, many restaurants unintentionally create environments that are difficult to navigate. With more than 290,000 Australians on the autism spectrum, Mastercard saw an opportunity to make dining more inclusive by design, not through grand gestures, but through practical, scalable change.
The Solution
The Inclusion Matters Hub is a B2B platform created to help businesses build more autism‑friendly dining experiences. At its core are 25 practical measures that venues can adopt to reduce anxiety and increase confidence for autistic diners and people with sensory sensitivities. Rather than asking individuals to adapt to the environment, the Inclusion Matters Hub helps environments adapt to people. The initiative starts where the dining experience begins: the menu. To launch, Mastercard introduced Sensory Notes, a system designed to help restaurants describe food in a more meaningful and accessible way. Co‑designed with the Autism Cooperative Research Centre and leading chefs, Sensory Notes go beyond listing ingredients to describe what a dish looks like, how it is plated, its textures, flavours and serving temperature. These details help diners better understand what to expect before ordering. To make Sensory Notes easy for chefs and venues to adopt, the team developed the Sensory Notes Language Wheel. Inspired by taste-profiling tools used in wine and coffee, the wheel provides a clear, structured system that standardises sensory descriptors across menus. It allows restaurants of all sizes to scale the system simply, while maintaining consistency and clarity. For neurotypical diners, this level of detail may seem insignificant. For autistic diners, it can make the difference between feeling anxious or feeling at ease. By reducing uncertainty, Sensory Notes help create calmer, more predictable dining experiences.
