To Aid Emotion Expression for Non-Verbal Autistic Individuals, In an App, Less (Features) is More (Better)

A significant proportion of autistic children are considered ‘non-verbal or minimally verbal’ and have difficulty expressing their emotions. Commercial alternative and assistive communication (AAC) apps are often inaccessible and ineffective in aiding autistic children in expressing emotions. Lack of access to adequate AACs is more prevalent in lower and middle-income communities (LMICs), which neither have sufficient infrastructure to aid the development of autistic children nor the resources to make expensive technology affordable. We propose the design of a prototype app that is accessible and multi-modal and caters to the specific needs of non-verbal and minimally verbal autistic children. Our design is grounded in research in autism and strength-based technology design. We incorporate accessibility guidelines and universal design features to make our design appropriate and effective for target users.