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K. Spiel, Ch. Frauenberger, O. Keyes, G. Fitzpatrick:
"Agency of Autistic Children in Technology Research-A Critical Literature Review";
Acm Transactions On Computer-Human Interaction, 26 (2019), 6; 1 - 40.

Autistic children are increasingly a focus of technology research within the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) community. We provide a critical review of the purposes of these technologies and how they discursively conceptualise the agency of autistic children. Through our analysis, we establish six categories of these purposes: behaviour analysis, assistive technologies, education, social skills, therapy and well-being. Further, our discussion of these purposes shows how the technologies embody normative expectations of a neurotypical society, which predominantly views autism as a medical deficit in need of `correction´. Autistic children-purportedly the beneficiaries of these technologies-thus become a secondary audience to the largely externally defined purposes. We identify a lack of design for technologies that are geared towards the interests, needs and desires of autistic children. To move HCI´s research into autism beyond this, we provide guidance on how to consider agency in use and explicitly allow for appropriation beyond externally driven goals.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3344919

https://publik.tuwien.ac.at/files/publik_283237.pdf

Project Head Christopher Frauenberger:
OutsideTheBox

Project Head Christopher Frauenberger:
Social Play Technologies