Abstract
Developing technologies to support individuals with ASD is a growing field of research facing numerous challenges. First, while the individual with ASD is central, the motivations of others, such as parents, are often taken as the motivations of the individual. Second, the desirable cross-disciplinary pollination for improved intervention can often face difficulties due to a lack of a common language among disciplines. Thirdly, the literature often lacks enough information to allow a clear understanding of the targeted contexts and goals not enabling an assessment of outcomes and building on past advances. To tackle these challenges, we propose that families of Personas and scenarios are used throughout the design and development process, and as dissemination resources, and provide illustrative examples.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank all the researchers and professionals who contributed to the discussions leading to the illustrative examples of Personas and scenarios presented. A word of appreciation is also due to Ana Leal, MSc, for her work on the creation of the first versions of the Personas and Diogo Vieira, MSc, for his work on the first prototype of the application provided as an example.
Funding
Samuel Silva is funded by Portugal 2020 under the Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program, and by the European Regional Development Fund through project SOCA-Smart Open Campus (CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-000010).
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AT and SS conceptualized and supervised the research. SS wrote the manuscript with inputs and revisions by AT and both authors agreed on the final version.
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Silva, S., Teixeira, A. Design and Development for Individuals with ASD: Fostering Multidisciplinary Approaches Through Personas. J Autism Dev Disord 49, 2156–2172 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-03898-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-03898-1