Abstract
The current research, focusing on Social Innovation and Inclusive Design, seeks to understand and explore the interpersonal communication of children with autism spectrum disorders. The main objective is to contribute to the development of the cognitive and social skills of these children, improving and facilitating their difficulties in three domains: verbal language and communication; interpersonal relationships and in the field of thought and behavior. In order to help solving these problems, Cubo has been developing, an innovative system of universal and inclusive communication, composed of a new universal and alternative/augmentative alphabet and digital object that promotes autonomy, social integration, personal development and interpersonal relationships. This first paper aims to inform and promote the discussion of the process and results of the ongoing research, describing the first phases of the design process itinerary and methods applied, as well as the description of the following phases that cause multidisciplinarity and co-creation.
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Notes
- 1.
«Thinking globally means recognising and celebrating human diversity. It means embracing difference, be it physical, intellectual, cultural, aspirational, or of lifestyle […] The design challenge is to include, and not to exclude unknowingly […] Since then, inclusivity has moved from the margins of design thinking to the mainstream» [1].
- 2.
(ASD) means Autism Spectrum Disorders.
- 3.
- 4.
«An alternative augmentative communication system is an integrated set of techniques, aids, strategies, and capabilities that a person with communication constraints uses to communicate. Alternative and augmentative communication is considered to be any type of communication that replaces, amplifies or supplements speech»; «Alternative communication is a system that replaces speech and augmentative communication is a system that supports or complements speech» [11].
- 5.
When we refer to universal languages, we encompass all kinds of «functional languages», with utilities and information functions, world-wide recognized and understood, such as pictographic codes of signage and traffic signs and «graphic languages» [12] like the writings elaborated in antiquity. We also included within this spectrum the pictographic and ideographic language shared through the Internet - the Emojis. We have chosen to name this set of communicative languages as “universal languages”, because it is more practical to reference them when necessary.
- 6.
«The expressive possibility of reciprocal understanding between the beings of a group, of a community, of a species is by antonomasia one of the most important conditions, from the very beginning of life, for survival» [13].
- 7.
These graphic symbols were created in 1980 by speech therapist Roxanna Mayer-Johnson, who created an assistive technology company focused on augmentative communication products centered on these symbols. Later, this company was approached by DynaVox Systems [16] in 2004, and is now known by Boardmaker [17], which provides software that has a library of PCS symbols and tools that allow the construction of educational, recreational and augmentative and alternative communication resources.
- 8.
«The process is designed to get you to learn directly from people, open yourself up to a breadth of creative possibilities, and then zero in on what’s most desirable, feasible, and viable for the people you’re designing for. […] Empathy is the capacity to step into other people’s shoes, to understand their lives, and start to solve problems from their perspectives. All you have to do is empathize, understand them, and bring them along with you in the design process. […] Only by listening, thinking, building and refining our way to an answer do we get something that will work for the people we’re trying to serve» [20].
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Acknowledgements
CHAIA – Centro de História de Arte e Investigação Artística, Universidade de Évora, Portugal – CHAIA/UÉ [2019] – Refª UID/EAT/00112/2013 Project financed by national founds from FCT/Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia. We thank to Dr. Rui Negrão, Clinical Specialist Psychologist at the SOERAD Hospital Unit in Torres Vedras (Portugal) and Professor Célia Sousa Cordinator of the Centro de Recursos para a Inclusão Digital (CRID) do Instituto Politécnico de Leiria (Portugal), and their valuable contributions.
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Martins, S.E., Maldonado, P. (2020). Cubo: Communication System for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. In: Ahram, T. (eds) Advances in Artificial Intelligence, Software and Systems Engineering. AHFE 2019. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 965. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20454-9_37
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