Initially PALS teamed up with JP Morgan and Autism Hampshire to run a ‘Code 4 Good’ hackathon for 15 young autistic people. Their challenge was to create a design for our website and to consider lived experience in the design and operations. The project has developed a long way through the course of the Tech to Connect challenge, understanding that anxietybased isolation is a much wider phenomenon than the autistic community originally envisaged as the primary target group.
Rather than use a traditional development team, PALS contracted Future Coders CIC to develop the web app that would provide access to the immersive material for users and for admin functions. For this, they recruited five young people who live with anxiety (including three on the autism spectrum) to carry out the coding and to incorporate their lived experience into the design. Two autistic film specialists were contracted to produce all the immersive materials based on users’ needs and their lived-in knowledge. In addition, an independent impact review was commissioned to assess the impact of social inclusion for the development team.
One thing we learned is the need to tailor experiences both to meet the needs of venues and also for the beneficiaries who will use the service. Based on the support received through the Tech to Connect Challenge, we have worked with Portsmouth Football Club and Enable Ability (a charity that offers work experience for disabled people), and we have also partnered with Autism Hampshire to set up a clinical advisory team to oversee the support function
for beneficiaries using the service.