Our paper “Empowered by design: Findings from a supportive technology research project with autistic young adults” is now published in RESNA Assistive Technology Journal. In the context of autism, supportive technology research has tended to focus on perceived ‘deficits’ – investigating how technology can help to curb so-called ‘abnormal...

(Picture credits: https://www.ernadoggerautismecoach.nl/) Lead by Thijs Waardenburg, our scoping review has been published in the journal Assistive Technology! We examined the role of caregivers in the co-design of everyday technology for autistic young adults. One of the important (and somewhat unexpected) conclusions is that caregivers are mainly involved as...

Op 14 maart 2025. Gaf Jelle van Dijk een invited workshop Don’t control the waves. Design a surfboard! op het Nationaal Autisme Congres. https://www.nationaalautismecongres.nl/speaker/jelle-van-dijk/ “In deze workshop gaan we aan de slag met de vraag hoe interactieve technologie (sociale robots, apps, VR, interactief speelgoed, educatiemateriaal) kan ondersteunen bij de...

There are complex, even philosophical issues at stake, when it comes to the question of empathy. Can one ever really step into the shoes of the other? This dilemma becomes quite clear in the case of #neurodivergence, for example #autism. Autistic people have in the past been ‘accused’ (in...

We are very proud that Niels van Huizen got awarded Cum Laude for defending his Phd Thesis: “Design Your Life – Bringing the Autistic Lifeworld to Supportive Technology Design” on 11/12/24. What an achievement! And well deserved. More on Niels’ research can be found here: https://www.utoday.nl/news/72698/we-believe-that-autism-is-just-another-way-of-looking-at-the-world...

Maurice Magnee (HAN) en Jelle van Dijk (UT) wilden met hun onderzoek in 2018 de zelfredzaamheid van jongvolwassenen met autisme vergroten. Hieruit ontstond de methode Design Your Life. Hierin gingen Thijs Waardenburg voor de HAN en Niels van Huizen voor UT aan de slag als Phd studenten, samen met...

This year our Design your Life project was presented at the Dutch Design Week. A nice outcome in the final year of Niels van Huizen‘s Phd project. Niels and Charlotte presented the project and the beautiful prototypes that were fabricated by the Dream Team students of our Designlab Twente....

Op 4 april vond het eindsymposium plaats van Design your Life. Naast sprekers, waaronder prof. Sue Fletcher-Watson van de universiteit Edinburgh en workshops vond ook de uitreiking plaats van de eerste Autvinder wedstrijd, een competitie waarin autistische creatieve makers hun uitvindingen presenteerden. Bastiaan Jong en Ruben Plooster werden met...

Wow! Our article on the development of the Design Your Life toolkit has won the Emerald Literati Outstanding Paper Award 2023! We are very honoured to receive this recognition for our work. Many thanks to EmeraldPublishing and the editors of Journal of Enabling Technologies, Nigel Newbutt and Marc Fabri! The article can be downloaded...

Bij Design Your Life zijn we momenteel onze toolkit aan het evalueren. We hebben 20 toolkits gemaakt die we aan autistische jongvolwassenen en begeleiders geven om erachter te komen of en hoe het in de praktijk werkt. Onlangs is één van die evaluaties heel succesvol afgerond! Bij AssortiMens in...