Autism and technology: beyond assistance & intervention

Technologies designed for people with autism are often focused on their particular functional limitations. We argue that this ignores a rich design space in which technologies could play more meaningful and multi-faceted roles in the complex life-worlds of people with autism. This one-day workshop will explore how to go beyond technologies that narrowly focus on concepts of assistance or intervention. We specifically ask a) how autism is conceptualised as a disability and how this impacts on possible roles of technologies, b) how to unlock novel design spaces methodologically and c) how to evaluate the experiences of people with autism with technology. As an outcome, we will collaboratively develop a manifesto to draw attention to the gap we have identified and develop a research agenda to address it.