We know how to fail.
Posted on April 7, 2011 | posted by:Francis Carter, Eulani Labay and Kelly Tierney
Light It Up Blue! April is Autism Awareness Month
“Sometimes the only way you can get ahead is to fail early, fail often, and fail forward.”
John C. Maxwell
Researching a special population is a daunting task. The Core77 Autism Connects challenge presented the three of us with a framework for developing our investigation into autism, and we each had our reasons for coming together as a team to investigate this subject. Our interests were to understand how to design for special populations; to better understand human behavior (empathy); and to investigate a connection that had personally touched one of us.
We began by defining the space we would begin to investigate. We speculated that a youth in the pre-teen (11-13) range might be in particular need of assistance as the transition to adulthood. In order to help adolescents diagnosed with autism to better connect with peers, teachers, parents and care providers, we hoped to discover an understanding into the challenges that this specific population faces on a daily basis. By targeting the universal act of play, we could generate a common language that transcends the obstacles of their disorder and the stigmas associated with it.
We felt that an educational environment might be best suited to gain this critical insight. As designers, we recognized that an empathetic approach has great potential into exploring such a sensitive social dynamic; our chosen research method of observation was aimed at being non-intrusive to this community. Realizing an autism advocacy group could help facilitate connections, we started by contacting Autism Speaks for advice on how to best set up observational research at local schools. In response to our points of interest, we were advised to investigate the needs of college-age students because at that stage, there is a lack of support for individuals with autism. We were directed to three options: an organizer of high school autism advocacy groups; a college student who created a mentoring program for autistic youth; and a college student with autism who speaks publicly on autism awareness, named KM.
We ultimately connected with KM and shared with him our initial speculations and questions. KM was articulate and thoughtful about his experiences as a teen, and he described key moments that helped him gain the confidence he needed to be able to self-advocate. He reinforced the idea that college-age students lack support networks; but to navigate this stage, KM relied on the self-advocacy skills that he had gained in high school. This was a turning point for us; a way for us to reframe our area of focus, from communication to self-advocacy.
From our conversation with KM, we realized that gaining access to a school for observation would be difficult. Instead, we developed an online survey that reflected the new perspective based on our interview. Armed with this refined tool, we distributed it through the networks we were able to access, which were advocacy groups and individuals. But this effort was unsuccessful: no one responded to our survey. We came to realize that the interview produces such rich, unexpected insights that this might be the most appropriate method for our research. In addition, we still need to reach individuals with autism to obtain these insights.
Our process has been one of iterative prototyping – and learning through failure. However, we recognize that these adjustments have incrementally pointed us in the most appropriate direction for inquiry. With this awareness, we are prepared to move forward with the next phase of our research, open to the shifts that may inform our methods and approach.