Each year, the TASH Conference strengthens the disability field by connecting attendees to innovative information and resources, facilitating connections between stakeholders within the disability movement, and helping attendees reignite their passion for an inclusive world. This year’s conference theme, “Gateway to Equity,” explores inclusive communities, schools, and workplaces that support people with disabilities, including those with complex support needs, in living a fair, just, and balanced life. Return to TASH website.
This multidisciplinary project combines knowledge of Special Education and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) to (a) continue developing an economical, consumer-available robotic platform (Lego NXT), and (b) measure feasibility of use in supporting appropriate social behavior for employability of a nonverbal adult female with ASD. The symbolic Artificial Intelligence approach is used to control the robots, which are programmed with social scripts to help teach appropriate behavior. As a senior in high school, at age 21, the participant interacted with socially assistive robotics (SAR) only three times for a total of approximately 5 minutes during preliminary trials of this project. Six years later, baseline data shows 100% memory recall of the three interactions and her continued motivation and interest of the SAR. This project addresses the need to find innovative, economical, and unique resources that (a) support successful transition, employability, and equitable, meaningful inclusion among individuals with ASD where human interaction during the teaching phase may contribute to increased atypical social behavior and poorer quality of life, and (b) broaden possible alternative treatments that support successful inclusion among adults with ASD post-graduation from K-12.
