LEVERAGING AI AS ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY TO SUPPORT NEURODIVERGENT USERS

Neurodivergent individuals, such as those with autism, face significant challenges in communication, social interaction, and executive functioning skills, often leading to social isolation and challenges navigating educational and employment settings. Assistive Technology is a powerful tool for supporting neurodivergent individuals across various aspects of life, from early childhood through adulthood. This research examines how AI-enabled assistive technology can support neurodivergent individuals throughout various life stages, focusing on two key domains: communication development and employment. We first address communication development with a study that explored Speech-Generation Devices (SGDs) as game controllers for an interactive digital coloring game. We found that all five participating autistic children (ages 3-5) engaged with our interactive coloring game, with two showing emerging joint attention with facilitators. Next, we address assistive technology in the employment domain. To study this, we conducted three studies: 1) an interview study with fifteen stakeholders which revealed the challenges experienced by autistic job seekers along the hiring pathway as well as the organizational tools, connectivity tools, and visual media tools used by autistic job seekers throughout the hiring process; 2) a formative study with autistic job seekers and job coaches exploring the use of ChatGPT as an interview coach, and 3) an explorative study of data annotation tasks with ten neurodivergent adults as a potential avenue for employment. Based on the results of these studies, we present ideas for the future design of engaging digital social learning contexts for SGD learning and practice, as well as AI-enabled assistive tools to support neurodivergent users while job seeking. We conclude that as digitalization advances, designing inclusive AI-enabled assistive tools is critical for supporting neurodivergent individuals from early development through adulthood.