Amplifying Ability: Engaging Young People with Autism Spectrum Disorders Through Gesture, Movement and Sound Technologies

Drawing on many years of developing playful software applications with young people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders, this chapter will offer ideas on how gesture-based technologies can empower people who need high levels of support in their everyday lives. Our design goal has been to facilitate a mindful, non-goal-directed experience through a visual, interactive feedback loop. Using this model, dynamic effects are created as abstract interfaces react to bodily input through sound, touch and movement. This approach contrasts with the general bias for this audience, which is that should be primarily functional and predictable. The projects we describe have been underpinned by a diverse range of literature, including movement analysis, dance theory, exertion games, animation, embodied and interactive arts and psychological and pedagogical theories related to autism. However, it has been the real-world exploration of these ideas, applied through the iterative design of concepts with young people that provided an opportunity to observe unforeseen communicative possibilities, challenging our perception of both interaction and disability.