The word “connections” can mean many things to mobile service providers and their customers. For AT&T, some of the most mission-critical connections are those between customers with unique challenges and the developers who can help them.
“I’ve often asserted that technology can solve many of the world’s challenges, but to do so, it’s important to have an intimate understanding of how the affected community experiences the issue in their daily lives,” said AT&T’s John Donovan, senior executive VP for technology and network operations.
Members of the group Autism Speaks proved recently how eager a community can be to share its challenges and its ideas for solving them. AT&T does business with the Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD), which is supplied with iPads from AT&T with the goal of helping families of children with autism find non-verbal ways to communicate. When AT&T offered to sponsor a hackathon to help create new apps for people with autism, Autism Speaks put the word out on Facebook. 230 people responded with ideas for mobile apps that could help people with autism. (Photo credit: People.com)
The Hackathon took place last month in San Francisco. Featured speakers included reigning Miss Montana Alexis Wineman, diagnosed with autism at age 11, and Ryan Stafford, a director at AT&T’s foundry in Plano who spends many evenings sharing mobile apps with his wife and their 8-year-old son, who is on the autism spectrum.
The high level of intelligence that is typical of many autistic people can be shared more readily through technology, particularly mobile apps. “We have 3 people in our family and 3 iPads,” said Stafford. “We have the Draw Something contest and we can teach [our son] concepts of what words mean. … Another app he loves is Labyrinth … He has developed 200-300 different labyrinths so it has been fun to watch his mind explore and create … At home I see the very beginning of a kid who is starting to code.”
Coding was of course the main activity at the Autism Speaks Hackathon. Before it began, 12 finalists were selected from the 230 entries, and a team of 12 developers chosen by AT&T got to work. At the end of two intense days, four apps emerged as the winners, and cash prizes were awarded to their developers.
1st Place ($10,000): Puzzled – A review website to identify autism-friendly businesses that includes an API to increase the rating system’s implementation on external websites.
2nd Place ($5,000): Good List – An app to help people on the spectrum, especially those who are non-verbal, keep track of the good and bad parts of their day and analyze the data so that their caregivers can isolate patterns and abnormalities.
3rd Place ($2,500): Making Friends – A game-like interface that allows individuals on the spectrum to make social decisions and gives them feedback on how others might respond to their decisions, gamifying the process of making social connections and learning social skills.
Best Overall Autism App ($2,500): Playsplosion – App to help an individual on the spectrum concentrate on a calming, fun scene during a sensory overload by caring for a virtual animal.
