Eligibility

Marco needs to travel from our house in Dulwich Hill to his new high school campus in Glebe on weekday mornings.

Well, while he was at primary school and junior high school, Marco was driven to and from school by us or our next door neighbour. Now he is older, we think he could use public transport, as we can't drive him every day. The light rail is close to both our home and his new school, so we think that is a possibility.

Marco has caught public transport before, but we've always been with him. So, it's not that he is unfamiliar with public transport, it's just that he needs support to establish a familiar routine. We know that he will be able to use public transport safely and independently after he's had some training.

His talking and listening communication skills are limited. He can converse in a basic way, and he communicates with us fine most of the time, because of course we have lived with him and know how to talk directly with him. But I am not sure how well he would go talking to light rail staff.

Marco's learning capabilities aren't the same as other children his age. For example, he cannot read with confidence, but like many other people on the autism spectrum, he can make sense of visual cues, provided he has the chance to become familiar with them.

Marco does have some difficulty with unfamiliar situations, but he is able to function independently when he is used to a fixed routine. As long as things go according to plan, he will be fine. It's when things go wrong that he gets confused. As mentioned, he relies a lot on visual clues to tell him where he is and what to do.

Typically he looks to one of us, or one of his teachers for support. In situations where we aren't directly there with him and things go wrong, he tends to go very quiet. But he does know to look for us to seek help.

Yes, but we haven't had to rely on one before. We will need to make sure he can use one before he starts travelling on his own.

It's about visual cues and routine.

For example, he could probably find his own way to his grandparents' house one suburb away! That's because we've done that trip so many times, and he knows the roads and signs along the way. There's a shop near my mother's house that he recognises, and that tells him that we're almost there.

But he wouldn't be able to make much sense of a map or a timetable.