Innovative technologies for autism: critical reflections on digital bubbles

自闭症是一种终身疾病，影响人们如何与他人互动和沟通，以及人们如何感知和思考世界。这是一个范围，包括有严重学习困难的人和那些智力水平非常高的人。ASC的诊断有所增加，英国估计至少有1/100人。ASC可能对社会发展、人际关系、获得社会支持、生活技能、就业和独立生活产生负面影响。然而，技术通常被视为对患有ASC的人具有特殊的吸引力，并且已经开发了许多技术支持（例如虚拟现实游戏，应用程序，社交机器人，嵌入式技术的对象）来支持患有ASC的人。技术在典型发展中人群中的使用一直受到媒体的可怕警告，称其正在切断人们的社会联系，进入“数字泡沫”。同样的焦虑也被表达在自闭症的技术使用上：它会增加社会孤立，还是会提供一种与其他人进行远程接触的方式？不幸的是，研究证据没有在学科内部或学科之间整合，很少提交给利益相关者进行讨论。关于这一主题的科学研究来自广泛的学科，包括教育学、心理学、计算机科学、人机交互和工程学，但这些学科也往往存在于各自独立的泡沫中。该系列研讨会旨在汇集不同的学科，以审查和批判性地评估技术可能支持或损害ASC患者福祉的方式，并将辩论的各个方面带给学院以外的利益相关者，包括ASC患者，家庭和护理人员，专业人员和从业人员。例如，目前的证据告诉我们什么，它如何帮助我们提出更微妙的问题，例如与其他人进行远程与现场互动的差异，研究人员是否对自闭症中的技术使用做出了不合理的假设，不同学科可以相互学习什么，以及如何通过直接参与的利益相关者的观点更好地了解辩论？这一系列的7个研讨会将汇集来自不同学科的学者和最终用户，以解决“自闭症和技术”议程中的6个核心领域：（1）社会：列出自闭症技术使用的可能好处和问题（2）发展：从婴儿到老年的所有生命阶段，从不同的方法和假设中学习（3）方法：看看这个问题是如何被研究的（例如，对照实验、分析互动视频、评估有效方法）（4）技术：根据所使用的技术类型以及如何使用，例如虚拟与现实世界，个人或共享，查看问题可能会有很大不同，替代或补充其他方法（5）学科：不同的学术方法如何相互促进和挑战（6）多样性：通过研究使用技术来支持一系列群体，例如老年人，痴呆症患者，那些沟通有限的人，更广泛地审视各种文化和一般人群，挑战关于技术使用的假设;精心设计和知情的技术发展可能使所有人受益。最后（7）我们汇集了所有的想法，并强调了未来合作和研究的领域。

Autism is a lifelong condition that affects how people interact and communicate with others, and how people sense and think about the world. It is a spectrum, including people with severe learning difficulties and those with very high levels of intelligence. Diagnosis of ASC has increased, with UK estimates of at least 1 in 100 people. ASC can have negative effects on social development, relationships, access to social support, life skills, employment and independent living. However, technology is often seen as having a special attraction for people with ASC, and many technological supports (e.g. virtual reality games, apps, social robots, objects with embedded technology) have been developed to support people with ASC. Technology use in typically-developing people has been subject to dire warnings in the press about the ways it is cutting people off from social contact, into 'digital bubbles'. The same anxieties have been expressed about the use of technology in autism: will it increase social isolation, or does it provide a way of engaging with other people in a remote way? Unfortunately, research evidence is not integrated within or between disciplines and rarely presented to stakeholders for discussion. Scientific research on this topic comes from a wide range of disciplines, including education, psychology, computer science, human-computer interaction and engineering, but these disciplines also tend to exist in their own separate bubbles. This seminar series aims to bring together different disciplines to review and critically evaluate ways that technology might support or impair the wellbeing of people with ASC, and to bring aspects of the debate to stakeholders beyond the academy, including people with ASC, families and carers, professionals and practitioners. For example, what does the current evidence tell us, how does it help us to ask more subtle questions, e.g. about the differences of remote vs. live interaction with other people, are researchers making unjustified assumptions about technology use in autism, what can the different disciplines learn from each other and how can the debate be better informed by the views of stakeholders directly involved?This series of 7 seminars will bring together academics from different disciplines and end users to address 6 core areas within the 'autism and technology' agenda: (1) Social: setting out the possible benefits and concerns in technology use in autism(2) Developmental: looking across all stages of life from infancy to old age to learn from different approaches and assumptions(3) Methods: looking at how the question is studied (e.g. controlled experiments, analysing videos of interaction, methods of evaluating what works)(4) Technologies: looking at how questions might be very different depending on the sort of technology used, and how it is used, e.g. virtual vs real-world, individual or shared, to replace or add to other approaches(5) Disciplines: how different academic approaches can contribute and challenge each other(6) Diversity: what might be learnt by looking at the use of technology to support a whole range of groups, e.g. the elderly, dementia sufferers, those with limited communication, and more broadly looking across cultures and the general population, to challenge assumptions about technology use; well designed and informed development of technology may extend benefits to all. Finally (7) we bring together all the ideas and highlight areas for future collaboration and research.