Process Charts - Koyal R, Kamini R, Sasha G, Daniella AV, Ruchika VN

We made two process charts: one for the process of turning a neurotypical "can't" into a "can" and another for turning an autistic "can't" into a "can".

Neurotypical Process Chart

The "can't" we chose: People can't not eat in the biological way (i.e. chewing and swallowing bit by bit)

The concept: The idea emerged when I mentioned that I can't stand the fact that we have to eat three times every single day for the rest of our lives and we can't avoid the task either because our bodies require it. We decided to invent a hypothetical food pill called Bolt: Food of the Future because eating would now be lightning fast. Our process of turning this "can't" into a "can" basically involves the steps we propose, over a long period of time, to help people get accustomed to popping pills instead of eating solid food. Of course, it's completely optional and people can eat solid food whenever they're in the mood or all the time if that's preferable. Our process is displayed in the form of a time line that runs from 2011 to 2030. We've also included steps to combat psychological hunger such as using a stress ball to displace the chewing motion and compensate for its absence. Also, blue packaging and eating in blue rooms for a few years because it is said that the color blue kills appetite. The pills are flavorless as taste can lead to a craving to continuously pop pills. Please read further details on the chart.

Feedback: It was suggested to us that we should include medical data and consequences as well seeing that we've concentrated mainly on tackling the psychological effects of doing away with solid food. Also, we were told to include stats of some nature, such as percentage of people who find eating tiresome and time consuming. Also, our chart was more like an advertisement than an infographic.

Bolt: Food of the Future

Autistic Process Chart

The "can't" we chose: Autistic people find it difficult to recognize facial expressions.

The concept: We decided any improvement to an autistic child's social interaction would have to be achieved through a collaborative effort between the autistic child and the caregiver/counselor where the neurotypical would clearly have to make a greater effort, not only to perform his own steps in our process but also to facilitate the autistic child's steps in the process. On one side, the autistic child would use the help of flashcards (emoticons to understand basic emotions of happy and sad), sketches (to understand a slightly larger variety of expressions) and finally photographs (to understand expressions on real human faces) in that order to improve his understanding of expressions. On the other hand, the caregiver would use verbal association for actions (such as hug = love) and the next step would be to try and establish eye contact as much as possible with the child to improve social interaction skills. The green band that runs in the middle is to signify that communication between the two is the key to this two-way process being a success and the steps will be of no use until this path of communication and understanding is achieved. Please read further details on the chart.

Feedback: Again, we were told to include more researched data like statistics. Also, we were told that we could be not be sure of the fact that establishing eye contact could be an actual step in our process because it could be a consequence of an intrinsic change in the child that has been caused by some other trigger.

Recognizing Faces

Ruchika Nambiar