The team began by exploring what is. Even though we know that our physical environment has an impact on us, existing research to date had not focused on the relationship between people with autism and their environment. Their relationship with items in the environment might be very different, even with respect to everyday items, such as toasters and washing machines. For example, a washing machine might provide pleasure to a person observing its spinning motion. And a toaster might trigger anxiety because of the toast popping up unexpectedly. With this realization in mind, Katie conducted several studies over a period of several years; one for the design of the outdoor space, the other for the everyday activities project. For both projects, she created a range of creative activities and used various ethnographic tools. To develop a better understanding of residents' sensory preferences, Katie took well-established sensory profile questionnaires and adapted them into a set of visual sensory preference cards. For people who had difficulty communicating likes and dislikes verbally, the cards provided a way to indicate their likes and dislikes. The card succeeded because they gave the participants with autism a chance to express themselves in ways that they had not before giving them more control and independence to describe likes and dislikes. But they also helped support staff and families to come up with insights they were previously unable to recognize and to learn more about the people they supported facilitating changes in their daily practices. As they looked for insights from this research, it became clear to the design team that these everyday activities involved a series of steps, each with a potential draw or obstacle. If the obstacle could be understood and removed or an interest added, the task might become more attractive. Pinpointing which part of an activity the person with autism finds difficult and detecting where an activity a person may need extra prompts and support helps identify what needs to be adapted or designed differently to compliment a person's capabilities, Katie explained to us. For example, if a person dislikes a toaster because the toast pops up without warning, someone might be able to time the popping to give a warning indicator of when it will happen. A small thing, like setting a timer, could solve the challenge and facilitate the task. Katie described to us one of the insights that came to her as she first observed Pete, a resident. The first time Katie visited Pete at home, she saw him involved in a series of seemingly destructive acts: picking at a leather sofa, ripping a magazine, and creating indents in a wall by rubbing his head against it. She focused on documenting Pete's behavior and wondered how she would help to design solutions that would prevent it in the future. But on Katie's second visit to Pete's house, unable to ask Pete directly what he liked about these things, Katie mirrored several of Pete's behaviors so she could experience them for herself. To her surprise, Katie discovered the sense of sensory enjoyment that came from ripping the pages of a magazine, picking up the leather couch, or holding her ear against the wall. Picking at the couch or ripping magazine pages offered the same sensory pleasures that some might experience when bursting bubbles in bubble wrap. Vibrations from the music offered a pleasant sensation when you pressed your head against the wall. On her first visit to his home, Katie had used her own frame of reference and labeled Pete's acts as negative and destructive. On her second visit, she began to truly empathize with Pete. The sofa, wall, and music revealed vital clues that helped her understand the things Pete liked to do. She explained, "I thought empathy was innate, but now realized that it can grow and evolve. For this to happen, it requires a perceptual shift in thinking that is open to different ways of being in the world." I hope these few examples have deepened your understanding of the importance and the power of the What is? question. Now, let's take a look at how the Kingwood Trust worked through what if, what wows, and what works.
