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TopVisual Technologies For Visual Thinkers: Projects Aimed At People With Autism
The world of autism is complex, and a good way of understanding it might be to listen to the words of people with autism spectrum disorders who have been able to describe their inner world, such as Temple Grandin, a professor of animal science at an American university, who has Asperger’s Syndrome. “I think in images. Words for me are like a second language. I translate spoken and written words into colour films, with a soundtrack and everything, which pass through my head like a videotape. When someone talks to me, their words are immediately translated into images.”
A number of scientific studies2 have confirmed that people with ASD activate especially those areas of the brain that evoke visual and spatial images, which causes difficulties in conceptualising abstract ideas. Therefore, the methods that are most widely used today with people with autism are also highly visual, such as the TEACCH Programme and the PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT): Use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit, and securely retrieve information.
Independent Living: Ability to perform the activities of daily life with no or little help from others.
Recommender systems: Systems that guide people to interesting materials or services based on information from other people, providing recommendations based on opinions/behaviours of others.
Mentor: Someone who oversees the career and development of another person through teaching, advising and providing psychological support.
E-Inclusion: Approach to preventing digital exclusion, i.e prevent that disadvantaged people and disadvantaged groups could be left behind in the development of the information society.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID): An portable storage system that uses an object (tag) applied to a product for the purpose of identification and tracking using radio waves.
Accessible Lifelong Learning (ALL): Focuses on access to education and lifelong learning which are both more and more mediated through ICT.