ABSTRACT
Those with disabilities have long adopted, adapted, and appropriated collaborative systems to serve as assistive devices. In this paper, we present the results of a digital ethnography in a Minecraft virtual world for children with autism, specifically examining how this community has used do-it-yourself (DIY) making activities to transform the game into a variety of assistive technologies. Our results demonstrate how players and administrators "mod" the Minecraft system to support self-regulation and community engagement. This work highlights the ways in which we, as researchers concerned with accessible and equitable computing spaces, might reevaluate the scope of our inquiry, and how designers might encourage and support appropriation, enhancing users' experience and long-term adoption.
- American Psychiatric Association. 2013. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.Google Scholar
- A. Jean Ayres and Linda S. Tickle. 1980. Hyper-responsivity to touch and vestibular stimuli as a predictor of positive response to sensory integration procedures by autistic children. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy 34, 6: 375--38Google ScholarCross Ref
- Jeffrey P. Bigham, Craig M. Prince, and Richard E. Ladner. 2008. WebAnywhere: a screen reader on-the-go. Proceedings of the 2008 international cross-disciplinary conference on Web accessibility (W4A), ACM, 73--82. Retrieved May 5, 2016 from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1368060 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Tom Boellstorff. 2010. Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
- Tom Boellstorff. 2011. Placing the virtual body: Avatar, chora, cypherg. In A Companion to the Anthropology of the Body and Embodiment. 504--20. Retrieved April 5, 2016 from http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~tboellst/bio/Body.pdfGoogle Scholar
- Tom Boellstorff, Bonnie Nardi, Celia Pearce, and T.L. Taylor. 2012. Ethnography and Virtual Worlds: A Handbook of Method. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
- Moira Burke, Robert Kraut, and Diane Williams. 2010. Social use of computer-mediated communication by adults on the autism spectrum. Proceedings of the 2010 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work, ACM, 425--434. Retrieved February 29, 2016 from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1718991 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Jennie Carroll, Steve Howard, Frank Vetere, Jane Peck, and John Murphy. 2001. Identity, power and fragmentation in cyberspace: technology appropriation by young people. ACIS 2001 Proceedings: 6.Google Scholar
- Jennie Carroll, Steve Howard, Frank Vetere, Jane Peck, and John Murphy. 2002. Just what do the youth of today want? Technology appropriation by young people. System Sciences, 2002. HICSS. Proceedings of the 35th Annual Hawaii International Conference on, IEEE, 1777--1785. Retrieved April 28, 2014 from http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpls/abs_all.jsp?arnumber=994089 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Jane Case-Smith and Heather Miller. 1999. Occupational therapy with children with pervasive developmental disorders. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy 53, 5: 506--513.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Kathy Charmaz. 2006. Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide to Qualitative Analysis. Sage Publications Ltd.Google Scholar
- Peter Christiansen. 2014. Players, Modders and Hackers. In Understanding Minecraft: Essays on Play, Community, and Possibilities, Nate Garrelts (ed.). McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson, NC, 23--37.Google Scholar
- Melissa Dawe. 2006. Desperately seeking simplicity: how young adults with cognitive disabilities and their families adopt assistive technologies. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in computing systems, 1143--1152. Retrieved November 9, 2013 from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1124943 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Alan Dix. 2007. Designing for appropriation. Proceedings of the 21st British HCI Group Annual Conference on People and Computers: HCI... but not as we know it-Volume 2, British Computer Society, 27--30. Retrieved May 12, 2014 from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1531415 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Paul Dourish. 2003. The appropriation of interactive technologies: Some lessons from placeless documents. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) 12, 4: 465--490. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Sebastian Draxler and Gunnar Stevens. 2011. Supporting the Collaborative Appropriation of an Open Software Ecosystem. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) 20, 4--5: 403--448. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-011-9148-9 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Sean C. Duncan. 2011. Minecraft, beyond construction and survival. Well Played: a journal on video games, value and meaning 1, 1: 1--22. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Nirmala Erevelles and Andrea Minear. 2013. Unspeakable Offenses: Untangling Race and Disability in Discourses of Intersectionality. In The Disability Studies Reader (4th ed.), Lennard J. Davis (ed.). Taylor & Francis, 354--368.Google Scholar
- Alexander Fiannaca, Ilias Apostolopoulous, and Eelke Folmer. 2014. Headlock: a wearable navigation aid that helps blind cane users traverse large open spaces. ACM Press, 19--26. http://doi.org/10.1145/2661334.2661453 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Eelke Folmer and Tony Morelli. 2012. Spatial gestures using a tactile-proprioceptive display. Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction, ACM, 139--142. Retrieved May 5, 2016 from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2148161 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Nate Garrelts (ed.). 2014. Understanding Minecraft: Essays on Play, Community, and Possibilities. McFarland & Company, Inc., Jefferson, NC. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Goodley, Dan. 2011. Intersections: Diverse Disability Studies. In Disability Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Sage Publications Ltd, Thousand Oaks, CA, 33--47.Google Scholar
- Sarah Guthals, Stephen Foster, and Lindsey Handley. 2015. Minecraft Modding for Kids for Dummies. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Amy Hurst and Jasmine Tobias. 2011. Empowering individuals with do-it-yourself assistive technology. The proceedings of the 13th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility, 11--18. Retrieved November 9, 2013 from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2049541 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Lilly C. Irani, Gillian R. Hayes, and Paul Dourish. 2008. Situated practices of looking: visual practice in an online world. Proceedings of the 2008 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work, ACM, 187--196. Retrieved January 31, 2014 from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1460592 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Shaun K. Kane, Amy Hurst, Erin Buehler, Patrick A. Carrington, and Michele A. Williams. 2014. Collaboratively designing assistive technology. interactions 21, 2: 78--81. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Joseph A. Kim, Peter Szatmari, Susan E. Bryson, David L. Streiner, and Freda J. Wilson. 2000. The prevalence of anxiety and mood problems among children with autism and Asperger syndrome. Autism 4, 2: 117--132.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Yong Ming Kow and Bonnie Nardi. 2010. Culture and Creativity: World of Warcraft Modding in China and the US. In Online Worlds: Convergence of the Real and the Virtual, William Sims Bainbridge (ed.). Springer London, London, 21--41. Retrieved April 13, 2015 from http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978--1--84882--825--4_3Google Scholar
- Janet E. Lainhart and Susan E. Folstein. 1994. Affective disorders in people with autism: A review of published cases. Journal of autism and developmental disorders 24, 5: 587--601.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Katherine A. Loveland. 2005. Social-emotional impairment and self-regulation in autism spectrum disorders. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
- Sampada Marathe and S. Shyam Sundar. 2011. What drives customization?: Control or Identity? Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, ACM, 781--790. Retrieved May 5, 2016 from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1979056 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Carla A. Mazefsky, John Herrington, Matthew Siegel, et al. 2013. The Role of Emotion Regulation in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Pschiatry 52, 7: 679--688.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Gabriele Meiselwitz. 2010. Universal Usability: Past, Present, and Future. Foundations and Trends® in Human-Computer Interaction 3, 4: 213--333. http://doi.org/10.1561/1100000029Google ScholarCross Ref
- Maia Naftali and Leah Findlater. 2014. Accessibility in context: understanding the truly mobile experience of smartphone users with motor impairments. ACM Press, 209--216. http://doi.org/10.1145/2661334.2661372 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Bonnie Nardi. 2010. My Life as a Night Elf Priest An Anthropological Account of World of Warcraft. University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
- Nigel Newbutt. 2013. Exploring Communication and Representation of the Self in a Virtual World by Young People with Autism.Google Scholar
- Elinor Ochs and Olga Solomon. 2010. Autistic Sociality. Ethos 38, 1: 69--92. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548--1352.2009.01082.xGoogle ScholarCross Ref
- Celia Pearce and Artemesia. 2009. Communities of Play: Emergent Cultures in Multiplayer Games and Virtual Worlds. MIT Press. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Markus "Notch" Persson. 2011. Minecraft. Mojang, Stockholm, Sweden.Google Scholar
- Betsy Phillips and Hongxin Zhao. 1993. Predictors of Assistive Technology Abandonment. Assistive Technology 5, 1: 36--45. http://doi.org/10.1080/10400435.1993.10132205Google ScholarCross Ref
- Ravihansa Rajapakse, Margot Brereton, Paul Roe, and Laurianne Sitbon. 2014. Designing with people with disabilities: adapting best practices of DIY and organizational approaches. Proceedings of the 26th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference on Designing Futures: the Future of Design, ACM, 519--522. Retrieved May 4, 2016 from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2686694 Google ScholarDigital Library
- John T. Richards, Kyle Montague, and Vicki L. Hanson. 2012. Web accessibility as a side effect. Proceedings of the 14th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility, ACM, 79--86. Retrieved May 3, 2016 from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2384931 Google ScholarDigital Library
- C. Rieffe, P. Oosterveld, M. M. Terwogt, S. Mootz, E. van Leeuwen, and L. Stockmann. 2011. Emotion regulation and internalizing symptoms in children with autism spectrum disorders. Autism 15, 6: 655--670. http://doi.org/10.1177/1362361310366571Google ScholarCross Ref
- Kathryn E. Ringland, Christine T. Wolf, Lynn Dombrowski, and Gillian R. Hayes. 2015. Making "Safe": Community-Centered Practices in a Virtual World Dedicated to Children with Autism. CSCW 2015, ACM. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kathryn E. Ringland, Christine T. Wolf, Heather Faucett, Lynn Dombrowski, and Gillian R. Hayes. 2016. "Will I always be not social?": Re-Conceptualizing Sociality in the Context of a Minecraft Community for Autism. CHI 2016. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Kathryn E. Ringland, Rodrigo Zalapa, Megan Neal, Lizbeth Escobedo, Monica Tentori, and Gillian R. Hayes. 2014. SensoryPaint: A Multimodal Sensory Intervention for Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Proceedings of the 2014 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing, ACM, 873--884. http://doi.org/10.1145/2632048.2632065 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Roseann C. Schaaf and Lucy Jane Miller. 2005. Occupational therapy using a sensory integrative approach for children with developmental disabilities. Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Reviews 11, 2: 143--148. http://doi.org/10.1002/mrdd.20067Google ScholarCross Ref
- Kristen Shinohara and Jacob O. Wobbrock. 2011. In the shadow of misperception: assistive technology use and social interactions. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM, 705--714. Retrieved April 28, 2014 from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1979044 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Karen Stendal. 2012. How do People with Disability Use and Experience Virtual Worlds and ICT: A Literature Review. Journal of Virtual World Research 5, 1.Google ScholarCross Ref
- Karen Stendal, Susan Balandin, and Judith Molka-Danielsen. 2011. Virtual worlds: A new opportunity for people with lifelong disability? Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability 36, 1: 80--83. http://doi.org/10.3109/13668250.2011.526597Google ScholarCross Ref
- Yu-Chi Tsai. 2012. Kinempt: a Kinect-based prompting system to transition autonomously through vocational tasks for individuals with cognitive impairments. Proceedings of the 14th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on Computers and accessibility, ACM, 299--300. Retrieved May 5, 2016 from http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2385003 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Jacob O. Wobbrock, Shaun K. Kane, Krzysztof Z. Gajos, Susumu Harada, and Jon Froehlich. 2011. Ability-Based Design: Concept, Principles and Examples. ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing 3, 3: 1--27. http://doi.org/10.1145/1952383.1952384 Google ScholarDigital Library
- Pamela J. Wolfberg. 2009. Play & Imagination in Children with Autism. Teachers College Press, New York City, New York, USA.Google Scholar
- Minecraft End User License Agreement. Mojang. Retrieved April 30, 2016 from https://account.mojang.com/documents/minecraft_eulaGoogle Scholar
Index Terms
- Would You Be Mine: Appropriating Minecraft as an Assistive Technology for Youth with Autism
Recommendations
Making in Minecraft: A Means of Self-Expression for Youth with Autism
IDC '17: Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Interaction Design and ChildrenMaker culture values fabrication and production in both the digital and physical realms as well as the sharing of resources. As such, maker culture provides an opportunity to be democratic and inclusive. Likewise, spaces that stem from maker culture, ...
Autistic Children's Use of Technology and Media: A Fieldwork Study
IDC '17: Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Interaction Design and ChildrenThis qualitative field study conducted at a school for autistic children aimed to explain how low and medium functioning autistic children use technology at school. Additionally, it explored education professionals and parents' attitudes and concerns ...
Autism and Technology: Beyond Assistance & Intervention
CHI EA '16: Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing SystemsTechnologies designed for people with autism are often focused on their particular functional limitations. We argue that this ignores a rich design space in which technologies could play more meaningful and multi-faceted roles in the complex life-worlds ...
Comments