IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2018 - 33

robots in healthcare, and to engage with the public's
concerns and hopes about these issues. A mini public is
an event that brings together different stakeholders to
deliberate on a topic of personal or political importance. The mini public is a form of "deliberative democracy" [23] where "experts" deliver information to the
public for their consideration. The political sciences
developed mini public methodologies to encourage
public engagement and to help develop policy. The
DREAM mini public explored stakeholders' perceptions
on healthcare and robots. We invited experts in the field
of medical robots to give presentations of current and
predicted ways in which robots will be used in healthcare. The mini public attendees deliberated on these
issues and were invited to give opinions on some of
their concerns and hopes about the future of healthcare
and robots for children with autism.
As LaFont [23] explains, "deliberation" follows information. Ordinary members of the public are not
"experts" in fields (in our cases, none of the participants
were experts in robotics), and to compensate for an
information deficit, the invited experts must impart useful knowledge to the attendees to help them in their
deliberation process. Participants raised concerns
about the future of healthcare that the National Health
Service (a free to all British and European citizen medical service) would be less supported financially. The
attendees also expressed concerns as medical professionals are replaced by technologies to save costs at the
expense of patient care.
Qualitative research methods allow for personalized
experiences to be called forth and provide autobiographical and contextual information. Moreover, as
robot therapy becomes mainstream in autism circles,
addressing the normative models and frameworks that
underlie the use, development, and potential of the
robots to assist children with autism is crucial.
We carried out in-depth interviews lasting from
30 min to two hours. Our paper is informed by the following sources:
■■ Interviewed 4 parents receiving robot therapy in
Romania.
■■ Interviewed 8 parents of children with ASD in
England.
■■ Interviewed 1 deputy head of an autism specialist
school.
■■ Interviewed 1 professional practitioner of the Horseboy method in Texas. (The horse-boy method
(Equine therapy approach) is a therapeutic method
using horses to help support neuro-psychiatric conditions. Developed by Rupert Isaacson was developed
with his son Rowan, who has autism.)
■■ Interviewed 4 associated professionals (technologist, building designer interested in autism).
march 2018

∕

Children with autism may be more
responsive to social feedback when
administered by a therapeutic robot.
Interviewed 2 children with autism (full transcripts
in the appendices).
■■ Met with six autism academics and established a
working network.
■■ Attended regular meetings of a social group for
adults with Asperger's.
■■ Attended over 20 workshops and meetings related
to robot ethics.
■■ Developed a partnership with the Critical Autism
Network (an international research collaboration on
autism that includes partners from Sweden, U.K.,
Brazil and Italy).
The research we present here will open the debate to
the ways in which children with autism are sometimes
presented in the robotics literature as beings detached
from intimate relationships and preferring instead
mechanical systems. This is an important debate to
hold in the community. The consequences of avoiding
this conversation in the community could have serious
implications. If children with autism are presented as
preferring objects (particularly robots and other technological items) over their interactions with other humans,
we must ask 1) Is this true, and 2) What are the consequences of this approach?
In regard to the former issue, parents of children
with autism, and autism educational providers stress
the role of intimate relationships for children with
autism and the importance of an empathetic relationship with educational or healthcare providers that come
into regular contact with the child.
In regard to the second issue, could the framing of
autism as an asocial condition to promote robotics studies in this area impact negatively on children with
autism? The children are already singled out as having
specific kinds of qualities, rather than, as many parents
and teachers explained, children with autism build affective relationships with people and animals they care
about. Could children with autism be othered by the
framing of autism in the robotic literature - led by
researchers who have a stake in emphasizing (or overemphasizing) the benefits of robots? Othering creates a
hierarchical order for sorting human beings, with white
heterosexual wealthy and able-bodied males at one
extreme, and people of color, women, children, or people with disabilities spread through the hierarchy.
■■

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine

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