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Manager   •   about 8 years ago

Questions for Paul Kotler

Do you have questions for Paul? Post them here and Paul will answer them for you!

Feel free to ask about how he currently uses digital tools, daily life questions, or any topics he's explored in his blog https://diverseautism.wordpress.com/

  • 7 comments

  •   •   about 8 years ago

    Hey Paul, I'd love to hear what you think of our journaling tool we have created. It allows your to track your emotions overtime and pickup on trends. Your feedback would be helpful and it can define the future of the app. So far we've had thousands of users try it out and many say it is helpful to measure their personal issues such as stress and anxiety. You can check it out here www.getstigma.com

  • Manager   •   about 8 years ago

    Hi Dan,

    Excited to hear that you're looking for feedback. Keep an eye on the challenge updates this week for instructions on how to get just that very soon!

    Serena

  •   •   about 8 years ago

    Hey Paul,
    I looked at your video and have read through some of your recent blog posts, and it seems to me that you could use an app that could potentially improve communication for you (and other autistic individuals). This is a hard problem, and as you've mentioned, even typing is not an ideal solution.
    This spring, I worked with a few Bioengineering students at my college to make an app that helps an autistic child communicate with his parents. The child wears a smartwatch which contains a list of words that his mother decides, and can change based on location. For example, at the pool, the wordlist contains words like "swimsuit", and "ball". If the child selects a word, the smartwatch sends the word over to a smartphone that speaks out the word for him. This is done through text to speech, but one could also add voice recordings to use which would be played instead of the robotic voice.
    I understand how you yearn to communicate more than you currently can, and I know that this isn't a solution to that. So I would love it if you gave feedback on how this app could be modified for your use and other individuals. A smartwatch based approach could help you communicate quickly and easily compared to before, and with your feedback, we could make it a complete application that could be used by lots of people.

    Utsav

  • Manager   •   about 8 years ago

    Hi Utsav,

    Thanks for your question! Have you signed up for a feedback/collaboration session yet? We're holding individual feedback sessions with the exemplars and this would be the best way to get feedback on your solution.

    You can sign up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1oF1zOmYLEYYY2zYfp3X15W9KdrO3ymn4R9ELvSODepo/viewform

    Thanks!
    Serena

  •   •   about 8 years ago

    I have, thanks.

  •   •   almost 8 years ago

    Hi Dan,

    I think Stigma could be a great way to track trends and changes in my moods and help figure out what factors in my life are contributing to how I feel. I have just started trying the app so I can't yet comment on what works or doesn't work for me but I will get back to you soon.

    Paul

  •   •   almost 8 years ago

    Hi Utsav,

    As you've said it sounds like a great idea for younger people, but it may be limited for adults. A barrier for me personally might be the size of the buttons on a smart watch, but others might not have any issue with that.

    If pushing a button creates noise, I would recommend considering a delay in being able to repeatedly use the same button to prevent it from become something the person uses as an auditory stim (repeatedly hitting the button to hear the noise.) Communication tools only work as long as others trust that what is being said is true.

    Good Luck,

    Paul

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