Copyright (c) 2019-2020 David Ruttenberg. All rights reserved.

Multimodality and Future Landscapes: Meaning Making, AI, Education, Assessment, and Ethics. Abstract: David Ruttenberg is a final year PhD candidate at the UCL Institute of Education. His research intersects multimodal systems design, cognitive neuroscience, and ethics relating to technologies that may specifically assist autistic adults in sensory-laden contexts of higher education, employment, and social venues. A majority of participants reported that sensory issues cause barriers to their daily functioning and arise from psychophysiological responses stemming from atypical reactivity to auditory, visual, and other cues. Research suggests that technologies might help, manage, and/or alleviate impacts of these disturbances; and this study focuses on whether and what types of technology-supported accommodations might be desired and tolerated as expressed by autistic adults. Despite the documented fragility of autistic populations’ physical and cognitive states, technologists are said often to misunderstand neurodiversity by designing for non-disabled people. Methods employing participatory research may help identify what sensor types and accommodations would support autistic individuals in their daily routines. Patient Public Involvement methodology were employed to understand opinions and existential viewpoints about the impacts of visual, auditory, and physical distractions. These resulted in Mediating Models predicted how mental health becomes a conduit between cues and distractibility—and provided design specification for real-time sensory tools to reduce susceptibility to distraction. In-field Sustained Attention to Response Task experiments using a Wizard of Oz methodology revealed how personalised accommodations alleviated distractions and improved sensitivity, distractibility, and mental health. This study highlights how massive data counts require design and collection considerations that protect against accidental or intentional data disclosure, increased autistic vulnerability, and other issues of security or harm. The study recommends how accommodations embedded within ethical systems and fairness architectures may reduce sensory, attention and mental health while safeguarding at-risk population.

Sensory, attention, and mental health interventions for autism: a technological patient and public involvement study.

University College London mini-viva for Post Graduate Research Student David Ruttenberg. Panel is comprised of Professor Manolis Mavrikis and Doctor Sveta Mayer with special guest Primary Supervisor Prof Kaśka Porayska-Pomsta. Recorded live on 15 July 2020 on Microsoft Teams.