Azahar (orange
blossom in Spanish) is a platform for free, customizable applications and
Serious Games designed to improve the quality of life and autonomy of people
with autism and/or intellectual disability.
The applications contain pictograms, glyphs, images
and sounds that can be adapted to each player: new pictograms, photos and
voices of family members and friends can be added for personalizing the
experience, adjusting it to the players’ needs according to the level of
complexity they can handle.
The applications, as well as the user guide that
provides instructions for their use, are downloadable free of charge on the
project website: www.proyectoazahar.org
and available in Spanish, English, French and Polish.
The project was launched some years ago for Windows
SO and more recently, adapted versions for Android and iOS have also been
developed.
User Configuration Screen User Section
Under the Downloads tab on
the Azahar website, the installer for the base platform for each
operating system can be downloaded. The different applications can also be
found on the website and work on any of the supported operating systems.
Azahar is
the result of the collaboration between the Autism
and Learning Difficulties Group of the Robotics Institute at the University
of Valencia and the Orange Foundation
Spain. During the development phase, testing and user tryouts were completed in
partnership with the associations Autism Ávila and Autism Burgos. The project
has also received financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Industry,
Tourism and Commerce, through the Avanza (Advance) Plan, joining forces with
the Adapta Foundation for free
distribution on the internet.
Azahar utilizes
the TEACCH Program philosophy to provide a clear and simple visual structure to
people with autism.
The TEACCH® Autism
Program is a clinical, training, and research program based at the
University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. TEACCH developed the intervention
approach called “Structured TEACCHing”, an array of teaching or treatment
principles and strategies based on the learning characteristics of individuals
with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), including strengths in visual information
processing and difficulties with social communication, attention, and executive
function. “Structured TEACCHing” is not a curriculum, but instead is a
framework to support achievement of educational and therapeutic goals, promoting
meaningful engagement in activities, flexibility, independence, and
self-efficacy.
One of the Azahar applications, the Sentences
Construction, takes its inspiration from another communication
intervention: the PECS system.
PECS was developed in 1985 as a unique
augmentative/alternative communication intervention package for individuals
with ASD and related developmental disabilities.
PECS begins by teaching an individual to give a
picture of a desired item to a “communicative partner", who immediately
honors the exchange as a request. The system goes on to teach discrimination of
pictures and how to put them together in sentences. In the more advanced
phases, individuals are taught to answer questions and to comment.
About
the Autism and Learning Difficulties Group of the University of Valencia
The Autism and
Learning Difficulties Group of the University of Valencia works on the
research and development of new technologies in order to improve the quality of
life of people with autism and learning difficulties.
The Azahar project has been developed by a
team of experts in IT engineering, education, fine art, telecommunications
engineering and industrial design, who have contributed with their efforts and
experience in the creation of tools which respond to the needs of those with
ASD.
Direct contact with people with autism is one of
the keys to the success of the group, and the effectiveness of the applications
it develops. People with autism have been attending the University facilities
where they have participated, and continue to participate in the different
research activities. Furthermore, the group members pay regular visits to
centers and services where they complete a range of investigations and where
they find their main source of learning and knowledge about autism.