A Collaborative Talking Assistive Technology for People with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are characterized by difficulties of socialization, disorders of verbal communication, restricted and stereotyped patterns of behaviors. Firstly, the paper reports tools of the user-centered design (UCD) used as well participants involved in the design of interactive collaborative system for children with ASD. Then, we describe the UCD deployed to design a vocal communication tool (VCT) between an adult with ASD and his family caregivers. The analyses of interviews demonstrate a strong need for a collaborative assistive technology based on voice interaction to avoid the family caregivers repeating the same sentences to the adult with ASD and, to create a friendly atmosphere at home. Observations in a real life environment demonstrate that the VCT is useful and accepted by the adult with ASD and his family. The work is not complete and issues such as designing a spoken dialogue system in the smart home need further works. The study of the type of voice synthesis (human or text-to-speech synthesis) is also an open question.