Abstract
Interventions to support children with autism often include the use of visual supports, which are cognitive tools to enable learning and the production of language. Although visual supports are effective in helping to diminish many of the challenges of autism, they are difficult and time-consuming to create, distribute, and use. In this paper, we present the results of a qualitative study focused on uncovering design guidelines for interactive visual supports that would address the many challenges inherent to current tools and practices. We present three prototype systems that address these design challenges with the use of large group displays, mobile personal devices, and personal recording technologies. We also describe the interventions associated with these prototypes along with the results from two focus group discussions around the interventions. We present further design guidance for visual supports and discuss tensions inherent to their design.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 663-680 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | Personal and Ubiquitous Computing |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 2010 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by a grant from AutismSpeaks Innovative Technologies for Autism and an NSF CAREER Award #0846063. This work also benefited from a substantial equipment donation from Nokia Research Palo Alto. We thank the participants from across multiple Orange County school districts, the 4OCKids neurodevelopment center. We also thank Donald J. Patterson, Paul Dourish, and members of the LUCI lab for their edits and comments on early drafts. All work with human subjects was approved by the University of California, Irvine Institutional Review Board under protocol 2008-6146.
Keywords
- Assistive technology
- Autism
- Capture and access
- Education
- Visual supports