Assistive technology to support people with autism spectrum disorder in their autonomy and safety: A scoping review

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a lifelong developmental disorder with increasing prevalence rates. People affected by ASD do often need support in various activities of daily living mainly provided by formal or informal caregivers. Assistive technology can help to increase autonomy and safety of people on the autism spectrum and thus decrease the burden of care. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to assess the state of the art of assistive technology (AT) that supports autonomy, self-reliance, comfort and wellbeing of people with ASD or aiming to prevent dangerous situations or shutdowns, caused by stressful (environmental) situations. Another aim is to analyze the fields of application and type of the proposed technologies and to explore the evaluations conducted. METHODS: A scoping review was carried out where the databases MEDLINE, IEEE and ACM Digital Library were searched. The identified articles were grouped according to the objective of the technology – the supported area of life that is assisted by the proposed systems. Furthermore, the conducted evaluations of the ATs in the papers were analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 40 articles were included in this review with a balanced distribution in the different fields of application (Communication & Social Life; Daily Living Assistants; Safety & Security). Eighteen studies conducted an evaluation of the proposed technology with people with ASD, mainly testing the functionality of the systems. CONCLUSION: The proposed technologies support people in the autism spectrum according to the main outcomes and symptoms of ASD. Further research is needed to determine the usefulness and acceptance of the ATs.