Olly Mazi: A Inclusive Approach to Designing TUIs for Social Play
Antonella Nonnis
This article presents an exploratory study carried out as part of the author’s doctoral thesis with a group of seven 5-year-old children conducted in three sessions between February-March 2020 at the Garden School, a school specialized in autism and based in London. This study, therefore, informs the broader body of research on the impact that tangible user interfaces (TUIs) have on play and sensory regulation for groups of minimally verbal autistic children who like music. Since children’s sensory processing abilities are correlated to their participation in leisure activities it was important to focus on providing opportunities for self-regulation. The author proposes a methodological approach that embraces diversity and promotes designs that are open and support the repetitive movements expressed by some children, thus offering opportunities for self-regulation, to provide them with a favourable environment and the necessary tools to socialize with their peers. The results show positive outcomes concerning spontaneous social interactions among peers, particularly observed when children interacted with or around Olly and Mazi. This research illustrates how TUIs could be a positive stimulus for social behaviours among children and discusses the design implications for building tangibles that aim to promote playful experiences shared by autistic children.
Keywords
Autism, Play, Agency, Sensory regulation, Tangible user interfaces, E-textile, Music, Quality of life, Inclusion .
