Augmenting Accessibility: An Exploration of AR Usability and Adaptations for Nonspeaking Autistic Individuals
Date
2023-09-12
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Abstract
About one-third of autistic people are nonspeaking, and most are never provided access to an effective alternative to speech. Thoughtfully designed Augmented Reality (AR) applications could provide members of this population with structured learning opportunities, including training on skills that underlie alternative forms of communication. Yet, a considerable gap exists in research exploring AR's use for nonspeaking autistic individuals– a gap this work seeks to address. A fundamental step toward bridging this gap is to investigate nonspeaking autistic people's ability to tolerate a head-mounted AR device and to interact with virtual objects. This thesis presents the first study to examine the usability of an interactive AR-based application by this population. 17 nonspeaking autistic subjects were recruited to play a HoloLens 2 game that involved holographic animations and buttons. Almost all subjects tolerated the device long enough to begin the game, and most completed increasingly challenging tasks that involved pressing holographic buttons. These findings contradict prevailing assumptions about nonspeaking autistic people and open up exciting possibilities for AR-based applications for this population targeting areas such as communication and education. Building upon these findings and recognizing that nonspeaking autistic individuals often have motor skill challenges, this thesis introduces a novel system to enhance the accessibility of AR by optimizing the placement of virtual content using Behavioural Cloning. Specifically, this work targets nonspeaking autistic individuals who are learning to communicate by pointing to letters on a physical letterboard with the help of a caregiver. Observing the real-world interactions between a subject and their caregiver, the proposed system automatically derives a personalized virtual object placement policy. We show that the proposed approach requires only modest training effort and places a virtual object accurately, closely mirroring how the caregiver caters to the user's unique motor skills and movement patterns. This work represents a significant additional step toward enabling AR applications for this population. In summary, this thesis presents empirical evidence that supports the use of AR for assisting nonspeaking autistic people. It also introduces a system for a personalized AR experience to improve the accessibility of this technology. The contributions of this thesis pave the way for broader future applications of AR for this understudied and underserved population.
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Keywords
nonspeaking autistic people, augmented reality, usability study, assistive technology, imitation learning, personalized user interface
Citation
Nazari, A. (2023). Augmenting accessibility: an exploration of AR usability and adaptations for nonspeaking autistic individuals (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.