Anxiety and Autism

Abstract

For many people living with conditions such as autism, anxiety manifests so powerfully it has a big impact on quality of life. By investigating the suitability of truly customizable wearable health devices we build on prior research that found each experience of anxiety in people with autism is unique, so 'one-suits all' solutions are not suitable. In addition, users desire agency and control in all aspects of the system. The participative approach we take is to iteratively co-develop prototypes with end users. Here we describe a case study of the co-development of one prototype, a digital stretch wristband that records interaction for later reflection called Snap. Snap has been designed to sit within a platform that allows the distributed and sustainable design, manufacture and data analysis of customizable digital health technologies. We contribute to HCI with (1) lessons learned from a DIY co-development process that follows the principles of modularity, participation and iteration and (2) the potential impact of technology in self-management of anxiety and the broader design implications of addressing unique anxiety experiences.

HCI and Affective Health

“…Self-tracking technologies are systems that make use of personal data collection about the sufferers. A majority (19) of papers present novel designs [11,13,17,59,60,60,61,75,77,81,88,89,110,115,120,130,157,163,179], whereas nine [8,15,56,58,90,111,117,148,159] are concerned with methodologies for developing self-tracking technologies attending to the specificities of affective disorders.…”

“…The option to engage in reflection may not be taken on by all users, and those who chose to merely record fail to experience the benefits of reflection. Others argued for the value of increasing user's feeling of control by augmenting tracking technologies with support for reflection [16], or increasing user engagement with technology through DIY approaches to design [148]. Another emerging HCI area aims to acknowledge and proactively support the often invisible emotional labor [116,175] of researchers engaged in health technologies.…”

Personalized Spatial Support for People with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Moreover, it is worth to say that ASD can manifest itself in different forms, where limitations can range from people with multiple impairments to high-functioning autistic people, with no cognitive deficits [24]: even within comparable levels of skills, the ways ASD affects behavioral patterns, perceptual sensitivities, special interests vary widely making one-size-fitsall technology not viable [13]. Nevertheless, personalized technologies for autism are still very rare [29].…”

“…This turns into problems in managing unexpected events. ASD persons are often affected by high levels of anxiety that they hardly cope with, thus preventing them to accomplish their daily activities [29]. All these characteristics may imply peculiarity in spatial representation and the need of personalized supports for orientation and movements in urban environments.…”

Virtual Reality Experiential Training for Individuals with Autism: The Airport Scenario

“…A majority of people with ASD may perceive as stressful all kinds of unknown situations and thus tend to avoid novel experiences [14], often preferring deterministic situations and rigid and repetitious routines [14]. As consequence, they are less likely to explore new places, and more likely to revisit well-known locations [16].…”