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Reducing the risk of abandonment of assistive technologies for people with autism

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conference contribution
posted on 2005-01-01, 00:00 authored by P Francis, L Firth, David MellorDavid Mellor
This paper reports on an investigation that found that conventional techniques for including users in technology design are likely to fail if the user has autism. The heterogeneity of autistic symptomatology across cognitive, social, behavioural and communication domains suggests a 'single user' environment, while rendering typical design interaction techniques meaningless, making the need for assistive technologies great, and the risk of abandonment high. This complex problem of urgency and constraint was addressed through a Delphi study with a panel of psychologists critiquing design activities for people with autism. The major finding is that while each of the activities may work if modified, all require that the designer is well acquainted with autism in general and has a close working relationship based on trust with the individual user. If these requirements are met, there is no reason that the abandonment rate cannot be reduced.

History

Event

International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (International Federation for Information Processing) (2005 : Rome, Italy)

Pagination

1104 - 1107

Publisher

Springer

Location

Rome, Italy

Place of publication

Berlin, Germany

Start date

2005-09-12

End date

2005-09-16

ISBN-13

9783540289432

ISBN-10

3540289437

Language

eng

Publication classification

E1.1 Full written paper - refereed

Copyright notice

2005, Springer

Title of proceedings

Human-Computer Interaction-INTERACT 2005, IFIP TC13 International Conference Proceedings

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