Problem Space

The Aspie-Friendly University Project, a French-government sponsored initiative to make all French public universities more inclusive of neurodiverse students, sponsored a two and half-day hackathon with the associations Culture Remix and La Bulle ! to design prototypes that would support the project’s goal of enhancing educational inclusion. The hackathon wanted to model accessibility by facilitating the inclusion of autistic individuals onto hackathon teams. This entailed changing the format of the traditional hackathon and working with autistic students over the course of several months to make the event accessible. After the event, the organization needed to know if they had succeeded in creating an inclusive, autism-friendly event. 

Research Process

Utilizing participant observation, the key method of cultural anthropology, I participated and observed meetings and workshops over the course of several months aimed at making the hackathon accessible. During the hackathon itself I also conducted observation. I then proposed a focus group with autistic students who had participated in the event. Along with two other researchers, I facilitated this focus group. 

Outcomes and Deliverables

Working with a cross-disciplinary research team (design, sociology, anthropology), we analyzed our focus group findings and wrote a comprehensive report to share with the Aspie-Friendly Project about accessibility at the hackathon including recommendations on how to improve access in future events. Our research led to important findings about how certain well-intentioned design elements aimed at enhancing inclusion inadvertently stymied communication between “neurotypical” and “neuro-atypical” participants.