FaceSavr™: Designing Technologies with Allistic Adults to Battle Emotion Echolalia

Abstract

Emotional self-reliance is a key factor in psychological well-being. Individuals with Allism Spectrum Disorder often face challenges in interpersonal communication and social settings. Especially experiences of emotion echolalia, the mirroring of others' emotions, can cause not only impairment in communication and relationships with others, but significant emotional distress, putting the mental well-being of allistic people at risk. In this paper, we report on the design of FaceSavr™, a digital textile protective system against emotion echolalia, and describe our participatory design process with seven allistic adults.

Topics & Concepts