With March 31, 2026, the AutARK research project comes to an end, and we look back on three intensive years of participatory research and development.
What remains are not only scientific findings and publications, but also tangible artefacts: the software prototypes developed throughout the project are now freely available on GitHub under open-source licenses. With this, we aim to ensure that the ideas and technologies developed in the project can be continued, further developed, and tested beyond the project’s lifetime.
Prototypes
The prototypes reflect the core areas of the project: sensory reduction, communication support, and task management. All repositories can be found on our GitHub organisation profile (github.com/AutARK-Research-Project):
Beratungstool-WorkplaceCompass
… is a structured advisory tool for employers and advisory services designed to help identify the individual needs of autistic employees and determine appropriate measures.
Personas-AutARK
… includes the five personas developed during the course of the project based on the requirements analysis. They represent different needs profiles of people with autism in a work context and served as the basis for the user-centered design of the prototypes.
SmartHeadphones
… combines active noise cancellation and masking sounds with wake-word detection. The system allows users to shield themselves acoustically and work with focus, while automatically becoming attentive as soon as a predefined activation phrase is detected, such as the user’s own name. This way, social interaction in everyday office life remains possible without having to take off the headphones.
AgendaHub
… is a digital calendar for structuring the working day. The tool consolidates appointments and tasks from various sources and presents them in a clear and organized manner, with a particular focus on the needs of autistic users in their professional lives.
MailSupport
… supports users in understanding and responding to complex emails. The tool is particularly helpful when dealing with indirect language and ambiguous phrasing, making it easier to grasp the actual meaning of a message more quickly.
VideoconferenceDemotool
… is a demonstration tool for support in video conferences, a communication channel that presents a particular challenge for many people on the autism spectrum.
StressCam
… is a camera-based system for detecting stress using computer vision. It enables users to assess their own stress levels without the need for invasive sensors.
Line-Woppler
… is a two-player game developed as part of an internship within the project. Players control their characters on two LED strips, collecting coins and dodging obstacles. The player who reacts fastest wins the round. Each player uses their own controller.
Open to Further Development
All repositories are publicly available and can be downloaded, run locally, and further developed. We explicitly welcome feedback, contributions, and further development from the community, whether from developers, researchers, or organizations looking to try out the tools in practice.
Thanks to Everyone Involved
We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who made this project possible: our cooperation partners, the members of our project advisory board, and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS), which funded the project through the Compensation Fund. We would also like to extend our gratitude to the participants of our studies, who provided us with invaluable insights through their experiences and feedback, as well as to the students and student assistants whose dedication contributed significantly to the development of the prototypes. A great deal of work from theses and practical project courses is embedded in these prototypes, and without that commitment, they would not have come to exist in this form.