Open Platform 'Approach'

        'Approach' is an open platform by and for the autistic community.             It is designed to bring like-minded people closer.  

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Sensory Overload (Interacting with Autism Project)

© 2012 Some people with autism have difficulty processing intense, multiple sensory experiences at once. This animation gives the viewer a glimpse into sensory…

For some, world can be a confusing place.. 

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Service points to develop.

Todays workshop went on from 12:30 to 19:00 and it's been an absolute overload! However these are initially the established touchpoints:

1. The intended service needs to be a gateway from digital to real world.

2. It has to be autism friendly, rather autism specific or even autism exclusive.

3. It will be a peer-to-peer network linking social and professional outputs.

4. The service will enable people to create personal portfolios to capture and display interests, skills, and social requirements.

5. This service will enable people to create social interplay scenarios, considering the most important moments of real world touchpoints, such as where, when and how a certain social event could take place.

6. This service will allow people to establish common ground of interests and connect like-minded people to meet and discuss their experiences in real world.

7. The service will coordinate real world interactions and create triggers to help establish conversational starting points.

8. This service will unlock the potential of peoples social skill set and appropriate these abilities to a well considerate social scenarios.

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Describe it like this!

Social Peer Network will create contact point and peer support, facilitate and improve the unmet social needs, create infrastructure to share experiences and trigger conversations in both - online and real world. It is built to link people together, facilitate public inter-play and shape the social and civic experiences.

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After a long day of planning and organising I can finally look forward to hosting a -Saturday Workshop- with a bunch lovely folk who have not turned me down and agreed to participate in sharing their experiences on social, environmental, health and other autism related challenges. To facilitate this workshop the agenda for the day is as follows: 

1. Create our own avatars with the “Avatar Sheet”  framework. The aim is to create user profiles which will be put through user scenarios!

2. Explore variety of different social scenarios through “Explore Event” framework. The aim is to identify certain everyday scenarios and the key moments within.

3. Pin-Up & Discuss. With this technique we will be able to discuss in detail which scenarios and moments have the most value. We might even do a quick vote! 

4. Storyboarding. This technique will let us imagine realistically ideal scenarios. The aim is to propose What? needs to be designed to achieve such future scenarios. 

This is as far as the workshop game plan goes and because WorkHard - PlayHard is the main token I've got some surprise board games, plenty of snacks and drinks and if people would be keen then possibly game of darts, table tennis and other activities to let loose! 

Let's go!

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First workshop this Saturday 2nd of May is in preparation. I'm looking for adults on high-functioning end of the spectrum to participate with their invaluable input to co-design peer network that meets the social needs of autism. Here's a short description captured from Facebook event page -Hi, I'd like to take the initiative and invite you to my studio, to have an opportunity and introduce you to the project I'm working on a little bit more in detail. -I'm seeking your expertise and input. Product Design at GSA is focussed on designing for social good and through last four years of my studies I have specialised to design for the social sector and working cooperatively with the experts in given fields and co-design with the intended audiences. -We could start with tea and cookies (suggestions for drinks, snacks or fruit are welcome) and with short intro from me where I would present directions, insights, opportunities and ideas of how we could design a peer network that meets peoples social needs. The workshop will explore different social scenarios where autism manifests as a challenge or barrier and will explore how might we create a way to overcome and manage these situations. -I will have prepared some tools and techniques how we could map out scenarios where design intervention could take place. Spoiler - We will create our own avatars and it will be a crafty workshop! Let us explore! "What if we could design... ?" -All are welcome! No special requirements - other then interest to take part, share experiences and have a good time together! -Martins

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Opportunity, Challenge, Scenario, What if...? Looking forward to explore and co-design with participants the potential of these concepts. All insights and opportunities are rooted in research.

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Hello, this is a part of the Servicing Autism project and my name is Phil. Learn about my story and I encourage you to share your experiences, because “knowing that people have similar problems is comforting.” Here is my story - what's yours?

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What is Servicing Autism?

Hi, Servicing Autism is my new blog where I will post insights and design opportunities from my research project on Autistic Spectrum Disorder. I'm soon to be a Product Design graduate at Glasgow School of Art and this is my final year project. I am designing for social sector and behavioural change and with this project I'm hoping to achieve greater understanding of needs and barriers of people who are living on the spectrum. I welcome everyone to share their thoughts and comments on the latter posts in my blog Servicing Autism.

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“Around 1 in 100 people are living with autism. They are our colleagues, friends,classmates and neighbours. Take some time to understand.”

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“Imagine living a life where the world you perceive and experience around you is entirely different than that of your peers, and your family — where you feel… misunderstood.”

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The most obvious is the least obvious. We need all kinds of minds.

Stephen Clark, University of Cambridge