About eight years ago, Douwe Boschma was on the market. This Dutch software developer was looking for a partner, so he took a peek at dating apps to try his luck. And he left scared. "My experience was that generic services were clearly lacking for people with autism," he summarizes. This condition affects, according to the World Health Organization, one in every 160 people, and involves a group of conditions characterized by some degree of alteration in social behavior, communication and language, and by a restricted repertoire of interests and activities , stereotyped and repetitive. "We need more time to get acquainted with newcomers to our lives and we also need a safe and non-stressful environment when we are meeting a stranger." And that, for now, on Tinder. "I found many dating sites overwhelming in terms of user interface, amount of information, and advertisements."
In 2016, Boschma launched its own dating platform for people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Aspie Singles, as a personal project designed to adapt and facilitate the establishment of romantic relationships and friendships with like-minded people. “It's easy for us to talk to someone who has common interests, but it's impossible for us to chat about trivia. Furthermore, we avoid social situations because we tend not to be very adept at them, so it is rare that we meet someone new, ”he explains. "Also, it is difficult to explain autism to someone who is not on the spectrum, so sometimes we end up needing to hide our true selves."
Even Google is unfriendly to autism
Douwe boschmaThe developer took note of his own experience to create a calm space, with a simple interface and calming colors, where explanations were not necessary and where there was no pressure to move quickly to appointments in person. “It was important to me that members were able to show themselves and have the opportunity to share their special interests. Also, I added a question that shows more or less where you are on the autism spectrum and there is room for gender diversity ”.
By creating Aspie Singles, Boschma won a battle, but not the war. In general, the large digital platforms do not shine for their inclusive efforts aimed at people with ASD. “I find many pages overwhelming and unclear. Even Google is not very friendly to autism, by presenting ads before giving content and the fact that you have to know how to search to find the information you want, because it is indexed by popularity, rather than by relevance, "he says. Amazon's glut of information overwhelms him to the extreme and he uses ad blockers to try to quell a bit of the screaming on his walks around the web. "But then there are pages that block browsers that use adblockers, " he laments.
Is this group being left out of the advances associated with digitization? According to Alex Escolá, a clinical psychologist specializing in early care and autism spectrum disorders, nothing is further from the truth. Technology provides people with ASD with tools that allow them to communicate, learn, gain autonomy, regulate their emotions and make their social interactions more fluid, treat phobias ... "Technology can open many doors for people with autism spectrum disorders", says the expert, who has created his own application to contribute to this advance. "AutisMind is thought to favor the development of the theory of mind, the ability to infer mental states, put ourselves in the place of the other and understand what they think, what they feel and what they want, to adapt our behavior to the context of the interaction", Explain.
Helena Flores is a co-founder of Euphoria Studios, a computer engineer and mother of a child with autism. She agrees with Escolá that "there is a growing awareness that technology can be a good thing", but she sees a long way to go. “There is a very strong group of associations created by families to give therapy to their children. Families that we rely on professionals, psychologists and psychotherapists who are not from the technology sector. I think it is necessary to unite the two worlds ”.
The engineer is also the creator of the video game BlueUnicorn, designed to teach children with autism the dynamics of traditional recess games. In addition to the lack of bridges, it detects instability in the sources of financing, often public and limited to a one-off contribution that prevents the continuity of technological projects in this area. "For a tool to grow, you need maintenance and a team behind it, as for any product that is on the market," he insists. On the other hand, she does not believe that the investments in this group are lost: "We are a market because they are people who need solutions, just as blind people need canes and deaf people need hearing aids."
Boschma, Escolá and Flores have something in common: their three technological contributions to mitigating the barriers encountered by people with autism spectrum disorders are born of deficiencies that they have detected due to their special proximity to the collective. But what about platforms that are supposed to be created to accommodate everyone? "There are more and more accessibility supports to adapt content and devices to a diverse population, but what is really interesting would be if the program or application was accessible per se , without the need to use an external resource", reasons Escolá. The funny thing is that there are many people with ASD contributing to technological progress. "Thanks to their different way of seeing the world they develop new software or create revolutionary devices," says the psychologist. But they are not so present in decision making. "The majority of people with ASD do not rise to positions of responsibility where they can promote changes in this regard."
Double profit
Including the needs of this group in design decisions would not be an act of altruism either. “There are studies that show that adaptations and considerations that benefit people with ASD by creating an autism friendly environment also benefit neurotypical people. It is easy to extrapolate these results and think that a design that takes into account the needs of people with ASD (logical and well-structured organization, little stimulation load, visual aids, control of sensory stimuli ...) will also favor the rest of the population ”, Assures Escolá. Boschma proposes a rule of thumb: "Don't overwhelm with flashing information and ads, and using calming colors can go a long way."
Digital spaces for social interaction are another matter. Helena Flores positively values the emergence of initiatives such as Aspie Singles, but is concerned that they may “create ghettos” that separate the group of people with ASD from neurotypical Internet users. "I see their positive side because it is true that they tend to be more comfortable with like-minded people, as happens to all of us, but at the same time I see them limited in the possibilities of inclusion", argues the engineer. For her, the ideal scenario would be a convergence of these environments, accommodating a truly diverse user community.
Pablo Delgado, Marketing Director of the Badoo social network for Spain and Latin America, believes that generalist platforms like his already offer certain advantages to the group: “On Badoo you can go as fast or slow as you consider appropriate and avoid situations that overwhelm or make you feel uncomfortable. . You mark the red lines ”, he explains. The manager assures that the company tries to regularly interview its users and "emphasize speaking with those who belong to minorities not represented in the analysis."
Regarding the specific platforms, Escolá understands them as a reflection of the modes of socialization that we already see in the real world. “It is common to see how two children with ASD of different ages and classrooms end up becoming friends in a school with hundreds of students, as well as adolescents with ASD who meet and interact through online games of the same interest, or adults who find In this context, a website like Aspie Singles would serve to catalyze those encounters. "Obviously, this does not mean that we should only promote spaces for socialization and exchange between people with ASD, since the richness of neurodiversity lies in sharing these different realities, including all the ways of seeing the world and learning from each other."
