Anton Håkanson, Founder and lead designer of Snailday, Stockholm – Snailday is a company which consists of a small but dedicated team of designers and developers who they state are:
‘trying to make the world a little better by creating a digital calendar for people with autism.’
Autism Daily Newscast heard about the project and was interested to learn more.
The digital calendar that is being designed is for those people who need it the most. What is being created by the team is a new kind of schedule that can help them with their daily life. In essence the digital calendar “Snailday” will make it easier for people with autism to remember daily routines.
The developers in the project have spoken to people who have autism and also to those individuals who live with and care for an autistic person.
From the gathering of this information Smailday will include the following components:
• It will allow the user to browse images so as they know what needs to be done during the day.
• It will display how much time is left for a particular task that is clear and easy to understand.
• If you forget about your task then a reminder will be shown
• Parents, teachers, and mentors can help the autistic person by adding to the calendar.
Anton told us:
“To display the current time we have a little snail that moves forward in your schedule. Every time your snail reaches a reminder at a certain time you will be reminded with a notification sound and images describing what you need to do at that time”
Anton says that for an autistic person it can sometimes be very stressful to start doing a task at the same time that they receive a reminded.
“So we have also included preparation and finishing time. So when the snail gets to the activity it’s time to start preparing for the next task”
When the snail has climbed a task then another reminder starts. The autistic person then knows that it’s time to start the task. This will help to minimise stress and will help the autistic person feel more prepared for their day.
The developers at Snailday are at present working on a system that will make it easier to share schedules and add reminders from another device, so for example you could add a reminder to your computer and it will be instantly added to your child’s iPhone.
Therefore Anton says that parents, teachers and mentors can add reminders for the autistic person during the day.
The team at Snailday want it to be a real product and state that for it to be accessible on the platforms necessary then funding is needed.
Therefore they are launching a crowd funding campaign on Autism Awareness Day, April 2.
Anton told us:
“If you too would like to make the world a little better, please help us make the development of Snailday possible.”
This can be done by following this link and helping Snailday by sharing it.
For more information and current developments about Snailday please visit their Website and twitter
You can also follow on Facebook