Introduction to Autism for Assistive Technologists

This chapter introduces autism beginning with its history as a diagnosis to its revolution as the central focus of the neurodiversity movement. The variety of aspects of human development that are explored in autism are unpacked and the tension between this clinical view of autism and the lived experience is also discussed. The core for the Sensory Accommodation Framework for Technology is introduced as an abstraction of a learning skills pyramid that is used to understand development in clinical fields. The view from an autistic perspective is added to this model and layers are discussed in each subsequent chapter, building to a full framework that describes a user-centered, sensory-centered approach to design. Direct connections remain to the clinical perspective with the aim of building a bridge.