90% of autistic adults and adolescents report that sensory issues cause significant barriers at school and work (Leekam et al., 2007). Wearable technologies offer the possibility to monitor environments and adjust user-experiences.
SensorAble proposes applying such technologies to reduce anxiety-inducing distractions and create prompts that may increase autistic individual’s attentional-focus and quality-of-life.
As well as targeting a group often neglected in research, this project contrasts with existing interventions that focus on ‘fixing’ socio-communicative difficulties by ‘teaching’ individuals to conform to their surroundings.
Instead, SensorAble aims to empower users to customize supports to their particular needs/preferences, and increase their comfort, productivity and autonomy.
Leekam, S. R., Nieto, C., Libby, S. J., Wing, L., & Gould, J. (2007). Describing the Sensory Abnormalities of Children and Adults with Autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37(5), 894–910. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0218-7