Tag: tech

Google Accessibility Discovery Centre (ADC)

Greetings Earthlings! 🙂

This week I’d like to talk about a recent trip I took to Google’s Accessibility Discovery Centre (ADC) in Dublin- the first of it’s kind in the EU. Now I know you might be wondering what a trip to Google has to do with autism- but bear with me!

So the ADC is a dedicated space where researchers and engineers develop new technologies that can help people with disabilities including those with autism. Not only do they develop new technologies, Google also uses this space to engage more effectively with disability communities to better understand our needs. The space is specifically designed to facilitate different disabilities- it’s wheelchair accessible, the colour scheme was designed to suit different disabilities with muted tones, and the lighting can be easily adjusted for sensitivities.

There were a number of really cool, innovative technologies that will really help the quality of life for people with physical disabilities including games that can be controlled with a chin joystick and ones that track eye movements- you can literally drive a car on the screen using your eyes! They are also working on some amazing tools for those with nonverbal autism such as a picture based program where you can click on images to make sentences (kind of like the rapid prompting method). You can see this in the image below:

They also showed us around their suite of accessibility tools and extensions available when using Google Chrome, including dyslexic font to help make reading easier- who knew such things could exist?🤯 One of my favourite parts of the tour was the neurodivergent corner where they had a range of nifty sensory toys you could play with which were great for stimming. They also had some glasses for light sensitivity issues, loop earplugs and a sliding social battery pin- which I could really do with getting my hands on 🤣.

It is a really cool facility and it’s great to see new dedicated spaces like these that are working on making life easier for neurodivergents and others with disabilities. If you’d like to tour the ADC, you can email Google at adc-dublin@google.com to set it up- I highly recommend the experience! 😀

Hope you enjoyed this post dear Earthlings!

Have a lovely weekend!

Aoife

3

Autism and Robots

Greetings Earthlings! 🙂

Today I’d like to briefly discuss a somewhat unusual topic- robots and autism.

Yes, I know what you’re all thinking, Aoife has finally lost it- but just before you call in the men in the white coats, let me tell you about the clinical benefits of using robots for children with autism! 🙂

Image result for ah gif

Recent technological advances in the field of robotics offer great possibilities in the treatment of autism. As interactive robots are increasingly becoming more human like, this technology can be used clinically to help teach social skills to children with autism.

Whilst the research into the therapeutic benefits of robots is in it’s infancy, several schools across the globe have begun to use social robots reporting very positive results 🙂

So how do these robots work?

The robots engage autists with a specially tailored curriculum. For example, the robot makes a sad face or starts laughing and the child has to say what the robot is feeling, or when interacting with the robot if they do something that could hurt a real person, the robot will cry out so that the child can learn that this  behaviour is not appropriate.

It’s really cool! 😀

You can check out Milo below- one of the many models of social robots helping kids with autism worldwide (try not to let  him creep you out though, Kaspar the robot is way freakier….might have further to go in making these robots more approachable in my opinion 😬).

The benefits of using this technology currently include improved:

  • Engagement
  • Eye contact
  • Vocabulary
  • Attention
  • Self-motivation and regulation
  • Emotional recognition and understanding, and
  • Improvements in appropriate social behaviour

And all of this within just 1-4 months of using a robot like Milo! 😲

All in all the technology looks really promising in the treatment of autism, even if a few tweaks may be needed to improve the appearance of these robots 🙂 😛

robots

 

Aoife

 

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