Knowing me, knowing you: perspectives on awareness in autism

Abstract

Purpose: This paper raises important questions from the different perspectives on autism research that arose from a seminar on autism and technology, held as part of an ESRC-funded series on innovative technologies for autism.Design/methodology/approach: The paper focuses on the roles of technology in understanding questions about different perspectives on autism: how do people on the spectrum see neurotypicals (people without autism) and vice versa?; how do we use eye-gaze differently from each other?; how might technology influence what is looked at and how we measure this?; what differences might there be in how people use imitation of others?; and finally, how should we study and treat any differences?Findings: We synthesise common themes from invited talks and responses. The audience discussions highlighted the ways in which we take account of human variation, how we can understand the perspective of another, particularly across third-person and second-person approaches in research, and how researchers and stakeholders engage with each other.Originality/value: We argue that the question of perspectives is important for considering how people with autism and neurotypical people interact in everyday contexts, and how researchers frame their research questions and methods. We propose that stakeholders and researchers can fruitfully engage directly in discussions of research, in ways that benefit both research and practice.

‘Whose agenda? Who knows best? Whose voice?’ Co-creating a technology research roadmap with autism stakeholders

“…and whether there should be 'Theories of mind' rather than a dominant 'Theory of Mind' (see also Beck 2018). Mark Bushby, an autistic self-advocate who presented at the second seminar (see Yuill et al 2015), cautioned about the danger of 'neurotypical syndrome', which is 'assuming their way is the right way and that way is superior' (http://digitalbubbles.org.uk/?page_id=904). This position also aligns with Davidson's (2008) analysis of online representation and inclusion of autistic people as noted earlier, and challenges the idea that utilising technology to support and enable communication and interaction is inevitably a 'collusion' with the social difficulties that individuals experience (see Parsons and Mitchell 2002).…”

Virtual reality and robots for autism: moving beyond the screen

“…The “Innovative technologies for autism: critical reflections on digital bubbles” seminar series is funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council to explore and critically reflect on the design, development, evaluation and use of technology for, by and with autistic people. The first two seminars focussed on innovative technologies for supporting social communication and engagement, respectively (Parsons et al , 2015; Yuill et al , 2015), while the third seminar considered the participatory design of such technologies (Brosnan et al , 2016). This paper adds a further perspective by focussing on recent innovations in the field, considering their relative affordances, costs and benefits and the ways in which such technologies might mediate different types of interactions (human to human and otherwise)[1].…”

“…The first two seminars focussed on innovative technologies for supporting social communication and engagement, respectively (S. Parsons et al, 2015;Yuill et al, 2015), while the third seminar considered the participatory design of such technologies (Brosnan et al, 2016). This paper adds a further perspective by focusing on recent innovations in the field, considering their relative affordances, costs and benefits, and the ways in which such technologies might mediate different types of interactions (human to human and otherwise) 1 .…”

Interdisciplinary perspectives on designing, understanding and evaluating digital technologies for autism

“…One of the ways in which we might learn to communicate more effectively is to engage with the different views and perspectives of people from very different disciplines. We draw upon discussions from the fifth seminar in an ESRC-funded series focusing on “innovative technologies for autism” in the UK to highlight and discuss some of these different perspectives (see also Parsons, Yuill, Brosnan and Good, 2015; Yuill et al , 2015; Brosnan et al , 2016; Good et al , 2016), with the aim of identifying some fruitful avenues for future research.…”