Abstract
In recent years, the mission of museums has expanded, adding to the preservation of cultural heritage the need to reach ever new users, including those with special needs. Accessibility has become a central issue in enabling people with physical, sensory, or cognitive disabilities to access culture. In our work, we focus on visit to the Pisa Botanical Garden and Museum by children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and cognitive impairments. Contact with nature has important therapeutic functions for children with ASD. However, new environments and unfamiliar sensory stimuli can unsettle them. The goal of our work was to use the appeal of technology to create an interactive website that allows them to learn about the garden before visiting it. The website is accessible to children with ASD and includes multimedia materials and educational games. The main purpose is to help teachers find a way of inclusion for educational visits, since in Italy children with ASD are included in traditional school lessons. The site was developed in a participatory way together with garden operators, teachers, caregivers and by observing children with ASD. The site was initially tested in 2019 during three school visits with four male youth with ASD, whose observations triggered an iterative improvement process. Usability testing followed from 2021, involving four classes from an elementary school. The results of the SUS questionnaire showed great potential; children with ASD were enthusiastic about the activities carried out and expressed interest in repeating the virtual experience long after the museum visit.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Maenner, M., et al.: Prevalence and Characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Children Aged 8 Years – Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Networks, 11 Sites, United States, 2018. Morbidity and mortality weekly report. Surveillance summaries 70(11), pp. 1–16 (2021). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34855725/
Rogers, S., Wallace, K.: Intervention for infants and toddlers with autism spectrum disorders. In: Amaral, D., Geschwind, D., Dawson, G. (eds.) Autism Spectrum Disorders 2011, pp. 1081–1094. Oxford Academic, New York (2012). https://oxfordmedicine.com/view/https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780195371826.001.0001/med-9780195371826-chapter-061
Stokes, S.: Tecnologia assistiva per bambini con autismo. Technical report, Genitori Contro Autismo Blog (2009). http://www.genitoricontroautismo.org/files/Doc1TecnologiaAssistiva.pdf
Hoskin, E., et al.: Assessing the experience of people with autism at the Canada science and technology museum. In: ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, pp. 1–7. Remote (2020). https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3334480.3382834
Solima, L, Tani, M., Sasso, P.: Social innovation and accessibility in museum: some evidence from the SoStare al MANN Project. Il capitale culturale (23), pp. 23–56 (2021). https://riviste.unimc.it/index.php/cap-cult/article/view/2518
Garzotto, F., et al.: Improving museum accessibility through storytelling in wearable immersive virtual reality. In: 3rd Digital Heritage International Congress (Digital Heritage), pp. 1–8. San Francisco (2018). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335429280_Improving_Museum_Accessibility_through_Storytelling_in_Wearable_Immersive_Virtual_Reality
Infiniteach Our Work. https://www.infiniteach.com/our-work/. Accessed 2023/01/16
ICOM Museum Definition. https://icom.museum/en/resources/standards-guidelines/museum-definition/. Accessed 2023/01/16
Vrsalović, S.: Programmes by the Ethnographic Museum for Persons Suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder. Etnološka Istraživanja (22), pp. 121–133 (2017). https://hrcak.srce.hr/198106
McMillen, R.: Museum disability access: social inclusion opportunities through innovative new media practices. Pacific J. (10), pp. 95–107 (2015). http://hdl.handle.net/11418/554
Rudy, L.: Autism in the Museum. Technical report, Autism in the Museum Blog (2013). http://www.autisminthemuseum.org/p/blog-page_20.html
Andrich, R.: Concetti di base su ausili e accessibilità. Technical report, Corso di Alta Formazione sulle Tecnologie Assistive per le persone con disabilità (2019). http://portale.siva.it/files/doc/library/corso_nf_andrich_01_printout.pdf
Parlamento italiano: Disposizioni per favorire l’accesso dei soggetti disabili agli strumenti informatici. Legge 4 (2004). https://web.camera.it/parlam/leggi/04004l.html
Debora, M., Kagohara, D., et al.: Using iPods® and iPads® in teaching programs for individuals with developmental disabilities: a systematic review. Res. Dev. Disabilities 34(1), 147–156 (2013). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0891422212001941?via%3Dihub
Valencia, K., et al.: The impact of technology on people with autism spectrum disorder: a systematic literature review. Sensors 19(20), 1–22 (2019). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31623200/
Murray, D.: Autism and information technology: therapy with computers. In: Powell, S., Jordan, R. (eds.) Autism and learning: a guide to good practice, pp. 100–117. David Fulton, London (1997)
Coates, C.: Making the Museum Autism Friendly – Best Practice from Around the World. Museum Next (2019). https://www.museumnext.com/article/making-the-museum-autism-friendly/
Fisher, M., Moses, J.: Rousing the mobile herd: apps that encourage real space engagement. In: Proctor, N., Cherry, R. (eds.) MW2013: Museum and the Web 2013. (2013). https://mw2013.museumsandtheweb.com/paper/rousing-the-mobile-herd-apps-that-encourage-real-space-engagement/
Magkafa, D., Newbutt, N.: The process of involving children with autism in the design of a museum-based application. MW2013: Museum and the Web 2013, pp. 1–15. Vancouver (2018). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327535003_The_process_of_involving_children_with_autism_in_the_design_of_a_museum-based_application
Manesha, A., et al.: Expanding designing for one to invite others through reverse inclusion. In: 23rd International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, pp. 1–4. Association for Computing Machinery, New York (2021)
Bellini, S., Akullian, J.: A meta-analysis of video modeling and video self-modeling interventions for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. Exceptional Children 73(3), 264–287 (2007). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001440290707300301
W3C. Cognitive Accessibility at W3C. https://www.w3.org/WAI/cognitive/. Accessed 2023/01/16
Young V&A Info. https://www.vam.ac.uk/info/young. Accessed 2023/01/16
Bellotti, F., et al.: Assessment in and of Serious Games: An Overview. Advances in Human-Computer Interaction, vol. 2013, pp. 1–11 (2013). https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ahci/2013/136864/
Buschi, A.: Il gioco nel bambino con autismo. Technical report, Occhi di Bimbo Blog (2018). https://occhidibimbo.com/gioco-nel-bambino-autismo/
Boscarol, M.: I questionari del Protocollo eGLU per valutare i servizi web. Technical report, Progetto Performance PA (2015). http://egov.formez.it/sites/all/files/i_questionari_del_protocollo_eglu_per_valutare_i_servizi_web.pdf
Vita, S., et al.: ARtis: How AR supports the guided experience in museums for people with Autism. Paper. In: Proccedings of the First Workshop on Technology Enhanced Learning Environments for Blended Education (teleXbe2021), pp. 1–6. University of Foggia, Foggia (2021). http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2817/paper38.pdf
Acknowledgements
We thank the staff of the Pisa Botanical Garden and Museum and the staff of the University of Pisa involved in museum accessibility projects for their helpfulness.
We thank the experts in psychology and psychotherapy from Synopsis Pisa and the ASD specialists from the Autism Association Pisa Onlus for their support in understanding this neurodevelopmental disorder.
Thank you to the experts of IT of CNR Pisa for their support in the concrete implementation of the technological material.
Finally, special thanks to the children with ASD, their families and caregivers who participated in the pre-tests and to the schools that participated in the final tests.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Pelagatti, S., Poggianti, C. (2023). OBA: An Inclusive Botanical Garden for Children with ASD. In: Antona, M., Stephanidis, C. (eds) Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. HCII 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14020. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35681-0_41
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35681-0_41
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-35680-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-35681-0
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)