During face-to-face conversations, adults with autism frequently use atypical rhythms and sounds in their speech (prosody), which can result in misunderstandings and miscommunication. SayWAT is a Wearable Assistive Technology that provides feedback to wearers about their prosody during face-to-face conversations. In this paper, we describe the design process that led to five design guidelines that governed the development of SayWAT and present results from two studies involving our prototype solution. Our results indicate that wearable assistive technologies can automatically detect atypical prosody and deliver feedback in real time without disrupting the wearer or the conversation partner. Additionally, we provide suggestions for wearable assistive technologies for social support.

MOSOCO is a mobile assistive application that uses augmented reality and the visual supports of a validated curriculum, the Social Compass, to help children with autism practice social skills in real-life situations. In this paper, we present the results of a seven-week deployment study of MOSOCO in a public school in Southern California with both students with autism and neurotypical students. The results of our study demonstrate that MOSOCO facilitates practicing and learning social skills, increases both quantity and quality of social interactions, reduces social and behavioral missteps, and enables the integration of children with autism in social groups of neurotypical children. The findings from this study reveal emergent practices of the uses of mobile assistive technologies in real-life situations.