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John LeSieur is in the software business, so he took particular interest when computers seemed mostly useless to his 6-year-old grandson, Zackary. The boy has autism, and the whirlwind of options presented by PCs so confounded him that he threw the mouse in frustration.
LeSieur tried to find online tools that could guide autistic children around the Web, but he couldn't find anything satisfactory. So he had one built, named it the Zac Browser For Autistic Children in honor of his grandson, and is making it available to anyone for free.
LeSieur's quest is a reminder that while the Web has created important communication and educational opportunities for some people with cognitive impairments, computers can also introduce new headaches for families trying to navigate the contours of disability.
The Zac Browser greatly simplifies the experience of using a computer. It seals off most Web sites from view, to block violent, sexual or otherwise adult-themed material. Instead it presents a hand-picked slate of choices from free, public Web sites, with an emphasis on educational games, music, videos and visually entertaining images, like a virtual aquarium.
Other programs for children already offer that "walled garden" approach to the Web. But LeSieur's browser aims to go further: It essentially takes over the computer and reduces the controls available for children like Zackary, who finds too many choices overwhelming.
For example, the Zac Browser disables extraneous keyboard buttons like "Print Screen" and turns off the right button on the mouse. That eliminates commands most children don't need anyway, and it reduces the chance an autistic child will lose confidence after making a counterproductive click.
Children using the Zac Browser select activities by clicking on bigger-than-normal icons, like a soccer ball for games and a stack of books for "stories." The Zac Browser also configures the view so no advertisements or other flashing distractions appear.
"We're trying to avoid aggressive or very dark or complicated Web sites, because it's all about self-esteem," LeSieur said from Las Vegas, where he lives. "If they're not under control, they will get easily frustrated."
Autism generally affects a person's ability to communicate, and Zackary doesn't speak much. But his mother, Emmanuelle Villeneuve, reports that the boy can start the Zac Browser himself. He enjoys listening to music through the program and trying puzzles — things he always liked before but hadn't been able to explore online, she said from her family's home in suburban Montreal.
Perhaps most tellingly, while he still acts out aggressively against the TV, she said, he doesn't try to harm the computer.
LeSieur didn't create the browser by consulting with people who are considered experts in disorders on the autism spectrum. The small software company he runs, People CD Inc., essentially designed the Zac Browser to meet Zackary's needs, and figured that the approach would likely help other autistic children. Early reviews have been positive, though LeSieur plans to tweak the program so parents can suggest new content to add.
Several autism experts were pleased to hear of LeSieur's work, and not surprised that he had not previously found anything suitable for Zackary.
After all, the autism spectrum is so wide that a particular pattern of abilities or impairments experienced by one autistic person might be reversed in another. In other words, creating software that would work for huge swaths of autistic children is a tall order.
Indeed, the Zac Browser might do nothing for another autistic child.
That said, however, LeSieur's approach of limiting distractions and using the software as a confidence-boosting tool "is a very good idea," said Dianne Zager, director of the Center for Teaching and Research in Autism at Pace University. She said many autistic students tend to do best with educational materials that make unnecessary stimuli fade from view.
"Some parts of the Web have so much extraneous material that it can be distracting, and for the nonverbal child, there might not be an ability to negotiate that information," added Stephen Sheinkopf, an autism researcher at Brown University.
This is not to say the Web is necessarily barren for autistic children. James Ball, an autism-education consultant in New Jersey, said many children he works with enjoy Webkinz, where kids care for virtual pets. Others find chat rooms and instant-messaging a lower-anxiety way of socializing than talking to someone in person, he said.
But the Zac Browser might turn out to be the rare tool that can be configured to strike a chord with a wide range of autistic students, said Chris Vacek, chief innovation officer at Heartspring, a special-education center in Wichita, Kan. Vacek is considering using the Zac Browser at Heartspring.
One huge advantage is that the browser is free, while many assistive technologies cost upward of $5,000 and work only on specialized devices. But Vacek, himself a parent of an autistic child, said the Zac Browser's best credential is that it appears to pass what he calls Heartspring's "acid test": It has a high chance of increasing a child's ability to do things independently.
"Let's hear it for grassroots innovation," Vacek said.
___
On the Net:
The Zac Browser can be downloaded or run directly from
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Published to:
- Brian Bergstein's Column, All of Newsvine
- Groups: Caregivers, Children of Autism
- Regions: United States , Canada
 | Grandfather builds Web browser for autistic boy | The Boston Globe | Tue Jun 3 | 1 |
| ZAC Browser - Zone for Autistic Children | zacbrowser.com | Wed Jun 4 | 0 |
- Public Discussion (17)
- Caregivers
- Children of Autism
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{"commentId":1885384,"authorDomain":"adamkemp"}
Should a 6 year old really be browsing the web at all? I wouldn't expect a child that young to be able to do much online whether he's autistic or not.
{"commentId":1885384,"threadId":"277779","contentId":"1535501","authorDomain":"adamkemp"}
#1 - Tue Jun 3, 2008 6:34 PM EDT{"commentId":1886067,"authorDomain":"v6mceweald"}
A 6yo should definitely be surfing the web, especially since it's quite possible that he will not able to learn through cooperative in-person play that most unaffected children will be able to. An autistic child will never be "normal"; that'd be far too boring. Autistic children can have amazing capabilities (watch, by the time he's 10, he may know more if the information on the internet than you do), and any tools that can help them flourish without significantly inhibiting others should be encouraged. A computer will have unlimited patience with them, and the amount of information available on the internet make this an excellent tool for children with autism.
{"commentId":1886067,"threadId":"277779","contentId":"1535501","authorDomain":"v6mceweald"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1887581,"authorDomain":"adamkemp"}
I didn't say he shouldn't be using a computer. Hell, going to a single website designed for children is fine. But just general surfing the net is not a good idea for a child that young.
{"commentId":1887581,"threadId":"277779","contentId":"1535501","authorDomain":"adamkemp"}
{"commentId":1888391,"authorDomain":"azsky13"}
@Adam... It is not general surfing.
The Zac Browser greatly simplifies the experience of using a computer. It seals off most Web sites from view, to block violent, sexual or otherwise adult-themed material. Instead it presents a hand-picked slate of choices from free, public Web sites, with an emphasis on educational games, music, videos and visually entertaining images, like a virtual aquarium.
And even better...
The Zac Browser also configures the view so no advertisements or other flashing distractions appear.
{"commentId":1888391,"threadId":"277779","contentId":"1535501","authorDomain":"azsky13"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1891062,"authorDomain":"adamkemp"}
So why not just make a website or a set of websites that don't have ads? You don't need a browser for this. The only point of a browser is to allow general browsing. If you're automatically restricting access to a set list of sites then it's not really a browser. It's just a portal to those sites, and you may as well just make your own sites which fit your needs.
This isn't just an academic distinction, either. Filters are inherently flawed. You can't filter everything. You can't block everything you don't like. It just can't be done realistically. It would be far more practical to focus on making content which is designed for autistic people than to try to make the web autistic-friendly. Especially if you're letting your 6-year-old kid just explore.
{"commentId":1891062,"threadId":"277779","contentId":"1535501","authorDomain":"adamkemp"}
{"commentId":1892216,"authorDomain":"v6mceweald"}
Again, just exploring isn't necessarily a bad thing. They're not saying he's going to be constantly unmonitored. The real world still exists, and I think this is a good method for the boy to explore, even if he comes across an occasional off-color site. The focus on eliminating flashy ads and especially the one mouse button only feature allow the boy the freedom to learn outside of the rigid constraints of such single-minded programs.
{"commentId":1892216,"threadId":"277779","contentId":"1535501","authorDomain":"v6mceweald"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1893214,"authorDomain":"adamkemp"}
In that case, give him a Mac with Firefox with adblock installed. Done.
I'm just saying, this sounds like a lot of unnecessary work.
{"commentId":1893214,"threadId":"277779","contentId":"1535501","authorDomain":"adamkemp"}
{"commentId":1893367,"authorDomain":"plankhead"}
The thing about this browser, though, is that it completely takes over the computer and doesn't allow him to accidentally minimize the window or something.
{"commentId":1893367,"threadId":"277779","contentId":"1535501","authorDomain":"plankhead"}
{"commentId":1894284,"authorDomain":"adamkemp"}
There's a fullscreen feature of firefox.
{"commentId":1894284,"threadId":"277779","contentId":"1535501","authorDomain":"adamkemp"}
{"commentId":1898453,"authorDomain":"ultimategfx"}
So why not just make a website or a set of websites that don't have ads? You don't need a browser for this. The only point of a browser is to allow general browsing. If you're automatically restricting access to a set list of sites then it's not really a browser. It's just a portal to those sites, and you may as well just make your own sites which fit your needs.
This isn't just an academic distinction, either. Filters are inherently flawed. You can't filter everything. You can't block everything you don't like. It just can't be done realistically. It would be far more practical to focus on making content which is designed for autistic people than to try to make the web autistic-friendly. Especially if you're letting your 6-year-old kid just explore.
A Computer is a very complicated machine, and for a user with disabilities trying to operate a full operating system and browser with a seemingly infinite amount of websites is daunting at best. What I can gather from looking at this browser is that it acts like a standalone application with a hand-selected approach to websites. It is a browser in the sense that it parses the information on a website to tailor the layout generated by ZAC Browser. I am unsure if it uses its own rendering engine (I doubt it), but it's as much a browser as Flock.
I have worked towards testing online applications for use for users with disabilities (UK Law required it for academic purposes) and as much as I hate to say it the web is an awful place for accessibility. Users with severe disabilities will definitely not be using any browser that we do and will rely on text-to-speech browsers or screen readers for their interaction with the Web, and even that to the strictest W3C standards is very limited.
What ZAC Browser attempts to do is to create a UI for the browser that moulds with safe web pages, and from what I can see it works really well! With a bit more work I can see it being used by thousands around the world.
{"commentId":1898453,"threadId":"277779","contentId":"1535501","authorDomain":"ultimategfx"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":1901586,"authorDomain":"plankhead"}
@Adam: The point of the Zac Browser is that, from what I understand...
-It has no filter, but rather a whitelist of allowed sites.
-It has a welcoming interface that caters to the needs of Zackary, for whom it was created, and might prove useful for other autistic children. There are specific buttons that bring you directly to a specially designed interface for game and movie bookmarks, for example, which would be much easier than navigating a list of folders.
Also, it may seem like unnecessary work if you can configure Firefox correctly. Many parents might not know how to do this.
{"commentId":1901586,"threadId":"277779","contentId":"1535501","authorDomain":"plankhead"}
- 1 vote
#2 - Thu Jun 5, 2008 12:53 PM EDT{"commentId":1906080,"authorDomain":"adamkemp"}
If you have a whitelist to begin with then you may as well just make those same sites be accessible, or just make them an app. A browser is not a browser if it is restricted to only N sites. It's just an application at that point.
The only reason to make a custom browser is that you can go to any site and get a better experience. There are definitely good browsers for that (for the visually impaired, for instance), but they just wouldn't be useful if they only worked for a set list of sites.
It just doesn't make sense to me to make a custom browser that works only for a set list of sites. So my assumption was that it wasn't a set list of sites, and that is why I thought this was a bad idea to begin with (again, I don't think six year olds should be just surfing the net).
I stick by what I've been saying all along. This app just doesn't make sense to me. Either make a custom browser that works better on all sites for autistic people (but don't let 6 year olds use it, at least not without heavy monitoring) or just design that set list of sites to work well for autistic people. It's a contradiction to make a custom general purpose browser that only works with a set list of sites. That just doesn't make sense.
{"commentId":1906080,"threadId":"277779","contentId":"1535501","authorDomain":"adamkemp"}
{"commentId":1921013,"authorDomain":"ultimategfx"}
A browser is an application that recognises and displays HTML using a rendering engine. Restriction does not take away from the fact that it is a browser.
{"commentId":1921013,"threadId":"277779","contentId":"1535501","authorDomain":"ultimategfx"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":1921065,"authorDomain":"adamkemp"}
No, that's a renderer. A browser is not hardcoded to only allow you to view certain content. Microsoft's help viewer, for instance, is a renderer, not a browser.
{"commentId":1921065,"threadId":"277779","contentId":"1535501","authorDomain":"adamkemp"}
{"commentId":1921951,"authorDomain":"ultimategfx"}
By that logic, surely everything is a renderer? I was always under the impression that Trident was the renderer behind anything to do with IE?
If you want a final answer to the question it may be best to ask on the ZAC Browser forums for answers, but personally, I am happy to believe that it is what it claims to be.
{"commentId":1921951,"threadId":"277779","contentId":"1535501","authorDomain":"ultimategfx"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":1923658,"authorDomain":"adamkemp"}
IE has a renderer (not sure what it's called), but IE itself is a browser. Firefox/Mozilla's renderer is Gecko. Safari's renderer is WebKit (a branch of KHTML, which is used by Konqueror). The difference, though, is that a browser lets you browse. It does not artificially limit you to viewing a hardcoded list of files or sites. Just because some piece of software has a rendering engine capable of displaying HTML does not make it a "browser".
{"commentId":1923658,"threadId":"277779","contentId":"1535501","authorDomain":"adamkemp"}
{"commentId":10433244,"authorDomain":"brianalampton"}
{"commentId":11131225,"authorDomain":"osXCanada"}
In Leopard, would parental controls for Safari and blocking pop ups not be almost the same thing?
{"commentId":11131225,"threadId":"277779","contentId":"1535501","authorDomain":"osXCanada"}
#4 - Thu Dec 10, 2009 10:22 AM EST{"canLink":false,"threadId":"277779","isPrivate":false}
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