Designing technology for spatial needs: Routines, control and social competences of people with autism

Abstract

Over the years, the relationship between technology and people with autism has been framed mainly in a medical model, where technology is primarily aimed at mitigating deficits and providing helps to overcome limitations. This has yielded a variety of Human-Computer Interaction designs addressed to improve the autistic individuals’ daily tasks and behavior. In this article, we want to explore a different approach, by proposing a phenomenological take on the autistic lived experience, which could integrate the results achieved by the medical model, and offer a “first person perspective” on autism. More precisely, by adopting a cognitive approach to urbanism we want to explore how autistic individuals conceptualize and experience the spaces they inhabit. To this aim, we interviewed 12 adults with a diagnosis of autism asking them to recount their everyday movements and city living activities. Building on the study findings, we identified three kinds of spaces that characterize their life and outlined a series of design considerations to support technology interventions for satisfying their spatial needs. Then, during a design session, we developed our conceptualization as well as our design suggestions, yielding a more nuanced picture of how space is subjectively constructed by autistic people.