Helping Children with Autism Adapt to a Digital World

A Change of Focus

From artificial intelligence (AI) companions that help children with autism feel more at ease to mindfulness applications that help them battle anxiety, emerging innovations are providing huge value to this community. However, as useful as many of these tools are, we still need a broader cultural shift within the consumer-technology industry.

“The Internet is the most empowering invention of the past century, [but] we need to focus on creating tools to assist persons with special needs,” said Amitabh Kumar, the founder of Social Media Matters. “I hope large tech companies can look beyond profits to create viable solutions. It's time to push for responsible social entrepreneurship rather than a market driven one.”

One solution from the technology industry has come in the form of a robot that helps children with autism to better recognize people’s facial expressions. Milo, the robot that the University of Bristol developed in the UK, makes a face to express a certain emotion, then asks children to identify what the robot is feeling by choosing an option from a list of choices on a tablet. Digital tools such as this can help the children overcome one of their biggest hurdles, which is keying in on social cues.

Unfortunately, as things stand now, we’re having to rely on niche products and software that specifically target children with autism from just a handful of companies. But we should be asking ourselves how we can make all digital content and services more accessible and inclusive to people with diverse needs. Prioritizing clarity, brevity, and engagement through content that resonates with young minds would be a great start.

Perhaps even more importantly, options that support easy personalization should be at the heart of any new development. There is a famous saying: “If you’ve met one child with autism, you’ve met only one child with autism.” So letting users choose their own setup is key to accommodating their sensory levels or format preferences. From enabling text-to-speech to providing multiple-color background options, even seemingly little things make a big difference.

User Experience Is an Important Frontier

Just as with architecture in the real world, those of us who design technology have a responsibility toward our users: to provide the best possible user experience. Incorporating elements that improve the user experience for children who have autism—such as the use of whitespace—might enable better, cleaner design solutions for everyone.

Visuals can be a great aid to autistic children, but we shouldn’t overdo them. The use of simple, nonaggressive graphic indicators is a great example of this. Children with autism value predictability. So rather than leaving them wondering whether there is a malfunction when a Web site takes a few seconds to load, incorporating progress indicators for more time-consuming interactions is a great strategy. However, designers should be wary of incorporating too many motion elements, which could result in sensory overload.

Instead of overwhelming children with too many options, always provide a logical, step-by-step progression and clear instructions. Avoid being vague at all costs: Replace a Click here link or button with a more straightforward description such as Start the lesson or Take a 5-minute exercise break.

A Web site or application’s copy plays a fundamental role in its use. Long paragraphs of text can be challenging and could even act as a barrier to a child’s proceeding with his or her journey. Share information in bite-sized chunks or bullet points. For the content itself, use precise language without metaphors, idioms, and overly complex associations.

Sensitive minds might also react negatively to overly bright colors. According to studies, all children who have been diagnosed with autism—but boys in particular—prefer brown and green to yellow. So using earthy, unsaturated tones is a good idea. Conveniently, many of the UX design suggestions that work well for children with attention-deficit disorder (ASD) are good practices to follow no matter the site, application, or audience. 

With today’s digital-age technology, we’ve never been better equipped to deliver value to children with autism. To help them reach their full potential, we must educate ourselves on their unique needs and consciously incorporate solutions for them into the work we do.