1. The Importance of
Design in
Special Needs Tools

2. • Industrial Designer
• President, owner & designer of
Snug Vest
Lisa Fraser

3. • Inflates to provide Deep
Pressure Therapy
• User controllability
encourages
independence
• Looks fashionable to
reduce stigma

4. • Certified clinical Speech
Language Pathologist
• Over 30 years of experience with
kids with ASD
• Professor at the University of
Texas in Dallas
• Autism Expert for Robots4Autism
Pamela Rollins

5. • Engages kids to teach
social skills
• Demonstrates human
characteristics to mimic
real situations
• Robot “cool” factor
reduces stigma

6. User Controlled Therapy
Ease-of-use
Aesthetics

7. • Builds trust with therapists
• Teaches individual to be self-reliant
• Over-protection can decrease
independence later in life
User Controlled Therapy

8. Ease-of-use
• User trials and ergonomic studies is essential
throughout the product development process,
resulting in easy-to-use products.
• Simple products minimize user errors and
potential safety hazards.

9. Aesthetics
It is important it blend in to the
environment. While it’s necessary to
provide the intended therapy, negatively
standing out can have a different and
negative longterm impact

10. Thank you!