The AWARE event took place in September 2012 and was a big success. You can:
download a report on the event’s main themes and outcomes and our report to the funder
download the original programme here
find complete delegate details here
- download information about a Special Interest Group at IMFAR 2013 being held by AWARE participants
All too often, academic ideas languish in Universities, having little contact with the world at large. Wonderful prototypes gather dust because it is so difficult to take the final step of making these products – in this case educational software – available to the people for whom they were created. This event explored the ways in which academic software developers can make their work available, whether by commercial partnership, via iTunes, creating a free download or starting up their own company.
The event focussed on software for people with autism spectrum conditions, who have so much to gain from technology-enhanced learning approaches. The clip above illustrates just one of many possible issues in autism specific design which was one of the discussion themes of the day.
The event committee all have expertise in developing, disseminating and evaluating products for people with ASCs. They are:
Alyssa Alcorn, Georgina Evans, Sue Fletcher-Watson, Anne Mourad, Paul Nisbet, Helen Pain & Thusha Rajendran
Our event
By bringing together experts in the field of software design for autism, from both commercial and academic sectors, together with input from a panel of end users and their representatives (teachers, parents, etc.) the event had three main aims:
- to share academic and commercial expertise on creating technology-enhanced learning supports for people with autism
- to explore ways of making academic research output available to the public for whom it was created
- to model best practice in software development by involving end users in design and working from a strong theoretical and evidence base
Invited speakers included Ofer Golan, Judith Good, Wendy Keay-Bright and Sarah Parsons.
Event follow-up
The committee are exploring various ways of capitalising on the fantastic connections made and discussions had at the event in September 2012. Options include: publishing a report on the event in an academic and/or public journal; formalising the delegates into a research and applied network; and holding a second state-of-the-art event in a couple of years.