Our professor, Dr. Anthony Ellertson came to us with an assignment to create an app for social change. Something to help individuals with autism or other disabilities navigate the world around us in a more comfortable way. Our only other requirement was for our app to be coded in Apple’s SWIFT with an AR Kit function. We went through a few different ideas for this app, including an app for dementia patients. We spent a lot of time watching autistic individuals and the struggles they have dealing with the world around them. Things which are simple for an individual of average social skill, such as ordering food can be difficult and nerve racking for those with autism. One of the interactions that really stood out to us was a group of three middle aged nonverbal autistic men ordering food at a restaurant. The process was stressful for them as their only way to communicate their order was through a small text to speech computer that made each sentence into a task. So we concepted an app where the user can go to a store, use the phone’s sensors to determine which store they were at, interact with the menu to build the order on their own, and then present the final order to an employee. No verbal communication required.
I was chosen to present this app to over 150 community leaders at Apple's 2019 Lead and Learn conference in Pheonix, AZ.
Collaborators featured in this video include Mario Townes.