The Structured Methodological Framework “Deejay”: Foundation and Its Application to the Design of an ASD-Oriented AAC Tool

The growing diffusion of ICT-based innovative learning tools raises the need for methodological approaches able to effectively guide the activities of interdisciplinary R&D teams. This problem is often underlined in the literature related to the exploitation of ICT for training people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD): Despite consolidated agreement on general design principles, studies in this field may suffer from the gap between ASD researchers on the one side and computer scientists on the other side, and the need for more structured approached is often advocated. In this paper, we give a contribution in this direction by introducing deejay, an action-research-based methodological approach oriented to interdisciplinary R&D projects, stemming from our experiences in projects aimed at designing learning tools oriented to children with cognitive disabilities. The paper discusses the general features of deejay and its application in a project aimed at designing an ICT-based augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) tool specifically designed for ASD treatment.