Abstract:

The persons with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) present disorders in verbal and non verbal communication and in social interactions. This article presents a work to investigate the role of the Internet tool in the life of the adolescent and adults with autism. Through their presence and the use which they have of these environments on the Web, information on their living conditions can be brought to light, as well as perspectives of education and accompaniment.
This study bases itself on a confrontation of reports: (1) The persons with autism present difficulties particularly in communication and social interactions. (2) Now, "Internet" became a universal communications tool very widely used by people.
First, we present the context: the autism, and the Asperger syndrome.
Next, we analyze their use on Web tools and their communication needs and specificities. To perform this study, the IT variety of tools imposes a methodical approach to detect the presence of the persons with autism on the various platforms and what they do. This approach based on the observation was made in four main stages: the inventory of the interesting platforms, the analysis of the information found on each of these platforms, the structuralization of the information collected for the storage in a database and the interpretation. Posts got back on the forums will be subjected to a content analysis thanks to the software Tropes. The use of the Internet tools offers numerous positive aspects to the persons with autism. The specificities of the communication on Internet can compensate for the disorders of the verbal and not verbal communication of the persons in exchange. Finally, we present an integrated platform of social internet ability based on Web technologies. With this platform, persons with autism could learn and improve their communication abilities coached by specialists.

Keywords:

Autism, Web technologies, platform of social capacities.