"You Feel Like You Kind of Walk Between the Two Worlds": A Participatory Study Exploring How Technology Can Support Emotion Regulation for Autistic People.

Researchers spoke with autistic people and their supporters about technology that could help with managing emotions. They found three main areas of interest: communication difficulties, opinions about emotion regulation technology, and how such technology should be put into practice. The study helps us understand what autistic people actually want and need from these types of technological supports, rather than what developers think they need.

This participatory study used focus groups with autistic people and their allies to explore perspectives on technology designed to support emotion regulation. The research addressed a gap in understanding user needs and design factors that contribute to poor usability of existing emotion regulation technologies. Through reflexive thematic analysis, researchers identified three key themes: communication challenges, views on emotion regulation technology, and implementation considerations. The study provides insights into socio-emotional communication difficulties experienced by autistic people and their expectations regarding technological supports for emotion regulation.

This user-centered approach offers valuable guidance for developing more effective and usable emotion regulation technologies for the autistic community.

Results suggest technology developers should prioritize user-centered design approaches and address communication challenges when creating emotion regulation supports. Implementation strategies require careful consideration of autistic perspectives and needs to improve usability and effectiveness of technological interventions.

Sample size not reported. Study design unclear from abstract. Limited detail on methodology and participant characteristics. Findings may not be generalizable beyond focus group participants. No quantitative outcome measures reported.

An increasing amount of technological solutions aiming to support emotion regulation are being developed for Autistic people. However, there remains a lack of understanding of user needs, and design factors which has led to poor usability and varied success. Furthermore, studies assessing the feasibility of emotion regulation technology via physiological signals for autistic people are increasingly showing promise, yet to date there has been no exploration of views from the autistic community on the benefits/challenges such technology may present in practice. Focus groups with autistic people and their allies were conducted to gain insight into experiences and expectations of technological supports aimed at supporting emotion regulation.

Reflexive thematic analysis generated three themes: (1) communication challenges (2) views on emotion regulation technology (3) 'how' technology is implemented. Results provide meaningful insight into the socio-emotional communication challenges faced by autistic people, and explore the expectations of technology aimed at supporting emotion regulation.