Emma Ashwin

Developing IDEAS: supporting children with autism within a participatory design team

IDEAS (Interface Design Experience for the Autistic Spectrum) is a method for involving children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in the technology design process. This paper extends the IDEAS method to enable use with a design team, providing specific added support for communication and collaboration difficulties that may arise. A study to trial this extended method was conducted with two design teams, each involving three children with ASD, in a series of six, weekly design sessions focused on designing a math game. The findings from this study reveal that the children were able to successfully participate in the sessions and collaborate with other children. The findings also highlight the positive experience that involvement in such a process can offer this population.

IDEAS: an interface design experience for the autistic spectrum

Designing products and services to meet the specific requirements of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can be difficult due to their wide ranging and individual needs. Participatory Design (PD) is a design method that could be used to better meet these needs, by giving this population an opportunity to directly contribute to software designed for their use. Researchers have begun to involve children with ASD in the design process, but there is not yet a design method specifically adapted to support the potential difficulties this group may experience during PD sessions. This paper presents a new design method, IDEAS, which attempts to fulfill this need. The development of this method is described along with an initial pilot undertaken to determine the feasibility of using this method with an ASD population. The results indicate that the majority of children with ASD were able to produce a successful final design using this method, and have the potential to be involved in PD sessions as part of a design team.

Developing an embodied pedagogical agent with and for young people with autism spectrum disorder

This paper describes how we developed an embodied pedagogical agent (EPA) with and for young people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). ASD is characterised by impairments in social communication, imagination, and perspective-taking, which can compromise design and collaboration. However, if an ASD preference for visual processing can be supported by providing images of design ideas as they develop, these difficulties may be overcome. We describe a methodology that successfully supports the visualisation and development of EPAs using our prototype visualisation tool (EPA DK), enabling ASD users to function as active design participants.

Supporting children with autism to participate throughout a design process

A deficit in social communication is one of a number of core features of autism that can result in the exclusion of individuals with autism from the design process. Individuals with autism can be highly motivated by new technology, and the design of technologies for individuals with autism could potentially benefit from their direct input. We structured participatory design sessions using Cooperative Inquiry specifically to support the needs of individuals with autism. This video highlights how, when appropriately supported, the challenges of the social communication deficits associated with autism can be overcome and individuals with autism can take a full and active role within the design process.