March 10, 2026
CREATE faculty member Annuska Zolyomi co-led a collaborative exploration of how technology could help autistic individuals and their families. Celebrating Neurodiversity: Ichi-go Ichi-e Symposium, held in Tokyo in 2023, brought together thought leaders in HCI research and autism communities from Japan, North America, and Europe to explore neurodiversity in the Japanese context.
Zolyomi, an assistant professor in Computing & Software Systems at UW Bothell, is the lead writer on a paper about the symposium and outcomes from the cross-cultural conversations.
The symposium centered these important concepts: Community-based research that directly involves neurodivegent individuals and their families in the conversation; perspective of human neurological differences as a natural human condition with strengths and challenges due to living in a world primarily designed for neurotypical people; and inclusive and welcoming cross-cultural conversations that celebrate neurodiversity while addressing human-computer interaction (HCI).
Design concepts explored
Researchers generated 10 design concepts that aligned with the five A’s of celebratory technology: awareness, accommodation, acceptance, advocacy, and appreciation.
For example, one design encouraged self-reflection and empathy through an installation of mirrors to see oneself from another person’s perspective. Other designs explored sensory and social needs, as seen in an app mockup that would encourage crowdsourced annotations of physical environments, such as parks. Beyond individual and family supports, one design promoted the recognition of strengths and abilities of neurodivergent employees to empower individuals to showcase their unique talents.
Continuing the conversation
The symposium organizers built on the event with an online workshop held during the Connected Learning Summit, an annual online event hosted by the Connected Learning Alliance to raise awareness of research related to neurodiversity. The organizers hosted a CHI special interest group focused on the design of celebratory technology.
Other participants are collaborating with students and faculty at the Chiba Institute of Technology and the recently opened Neurodiversity School in Tokyo and have organized virtual discussion groups together with support from the Connected Learning Alliance.
Learn more
This article is excerpted from the scholarly paper, Exploring HCI Neurodiversity Research in Japan: Lessons Learned in Cross-Cultural Relationship Building and Community-Based Research, Annuska Zolyomi, LouAnne Boyd, Mizuko (Mimi) Ito, Ayumi Oishi. ACM Interactions magazine, January – February 2026.
Designing Celebratory Technology for Neurodiversity with Neurodivergent Scholars, Louanne Boyd, Annuska Zolyomi. Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2024.