Ethics in service design for children with autism and cognitive disabilities

Abstract

Service design for persons with autism and cognitive disabilities poses ethical challenges with regard to how to best involve these individuals in user participatory design in ways that are sensitive to their abilities and produce useful data. This study will identify a set of best practices for inclusion of persons with cognitive disabilities and autism into the design cycle as part of user participatory design. A case study of the design of creativity workshops for children with cognitive disabilities and autism will be discussed with regard to data collection methods and the ability of that data to inform aspects of the service design process.