User-Centered Social Robot Design: Involving Children with Special Needs in an Online World

Robots create a window of opportunity to challenge the barriers that children with special needs face. Robots are physical agents that can be imbued with seemingly "intelligent" behaviours. They can facilitate accessible play by acting as proxies to both children with physical special needs and typically developing children, creating an even playing field. Including target users such as children with special needs in the design process is essential in creating a child-friendly robot that ensures repeated use, engagement and long-term interaction. This paper presents an online approach to involve stakeholders with user-centered design, exemplifying that children can be included in the creation and feedback process even when it is not possible to hold in-person co-design sessions due to COVID-19. We present qualitative findings from a user-centered design study and offer recommendations for designing social robots for accessible play and facilitating child-child interaction.