Autism Strength
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Strength-based Technologies for Autistic Individuals
Brief Description of the Project: A strength-based approach assumes that individuals and communities are resilient, creative, and possess a deep self-knowing which informs solutions. Because of this, the voices of these individuals and communities must be privileged in a collaborative capacity throughout the design and development process. The purpose of this research is to understand the attitudes and experiences of autistic individuals to identify ways to support their perceived strengths in adult life. We aim to create actionable implementation guidelines for technology development. This process will be used to inform this development as it gleans vital feedback and representation from the autistic community.
User Recruitment: We are currently looking for autistic individuals who can participate in our study. We intend to have multiple focus groups and/or 1:1 interviews recruited through various methods, including flyering at WWU and in public places around Bellingham, email, word of mouth/referrals/snowball method, social media advertising/posts, and class announcements. If you are an autistic individual and interested in participating in our study, please send an e-mail to Professor Shameem Ahmed (ahmeds@wwu.edu or Shameem.Ahmed@wwu.edu).
User Recruitment Flyer:
Duration: Your participation will take approximately 60 minutes to two hours. You can participate via zoom/skype/Microsoft Team.
Compensation: Participants are offered a $10 Gift Card upon completion of a focus group session as compensation for their time.
Consent Form: The consent form can be found here.
Publication:
Jessica Navedo, Amelia Espiritu-Santo, and Shameem Ahmed. Strength-Based ICT Design Supporting Individuals with Autism.
ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ACM ASSETS). 2019.
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