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Visualizing Digital Autism Disparities in Metro Atlanta, Georgia

mmoattari3 — Mon, 11 May 2020 18:22:50 +0000

Visualizing Digital Autism Disparities in Metro Atlanta, Georgia

The purpose of this DILAC grant is to develop a digital-visual map of autism services in metropolitan Atlanta, GA that can be used to document and expose autism service disparities for research and educational purposes and a practical tool that care coordinators can use as they navigate services for underserved families.

The project consisted of three phases.

Phase 1: Stakeholder participation. We conducted and analyzed focus group data collected from care coordinators, social workers and providers of autism services in Georgia. The focus group helped us identify the most useful information needed for care coordinators and priorities of services that should be mapped out in a digital-visual format. This phase also identified data sources to include in the platform. A second focus group was conducted with autistic adults and providers who work with autistic adults in order learn more about the autism services cliff that occurs when people transition to adulthood, as well as data that supports this phenomenon.

Phase 2: Build prototype. In Spring 2021, we built a prototype of the Autism Service Map in Georgia utilizing services from the Parent to Parent of Georgia Special Needs Database. The Map also has the ability to highlight social and economic factors by county based on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention Social Vulnerability Index data. We demonstrated the Map to stakeholder groups to get their feedback since one major outcomes of this project is to develop a digital-visual platform that can easily add new data, be adapted by others to suit their own needs, and create outputs that can be printed for immediate use. Our initial prototype has achieved these goals. We also built a

data visualization of the adult autism services cliff using the data generated for the autism services map, as well as other national data sources that relate to adult autism services and prevalence.

Phase 3: Education and Sustainability. The autism services map will be integrated into Professor Singh’s course: Sociology of Medicine and Health, which will include a new teaching module that introduces the students to the Autism Services Map and an assignment using the map that builds their knowledge of fundamental causes of health. The students will also be involved in keeping the data used to generate the digital-visual maps up to date and will have the opportunity to build different datasets to be included in the digital platform based not only on location of autism services and providers but also social and structural factors that affect access to and location of these services, such as income level, racial composition, transportation lines, and other population characteristics that can be mapped onto the digital platform. Thus, this project has sustainability and growth potential as a tool for student learning and practical application for care coordination in autism services.

Three graduate students were involved in this project. Two of which were employed by the DILAC grant and one who work on the project through an HTS special projects class.

Elise Zheng, PhD student in History and Sociology of Science and Technology in the School of History and Sociology worked on the project during the entire funded project. In Fall 2020, Elise helped to conduct a focus group and identify data sources to be used for the autism services map. She also created some initial maps using Tableau with data that we collected from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services that listed the different providers in the state of Georgia who offer autism specific services. To better understand the Medicaid data, Elise also did a literature review of how Medicaid data has been used to investigate autism services research and disparities. I utilized my own research money to fund Elise for a few hours a week in Spring 2021 to help collect the data we used to build the autism services map and other data sources that will be added to the visualization.

Freyja Brandel-Tanis is a double master’s student in City and Regional Planning and Civil Engineering. In Spring 2021, Freyja was funded through the DILAC project to build the autism services map and a website host for the map using R and other computer languages. She created the mapping tool using data that we accessed through Parent to Parent of Georgia Special Needs Database. She also overlayed onto the map with different dimensions of the social vulnerability index published by the CDC.

Shrishti is a master’s student in Computer Science. She wanted to be involved with the project and took a special problems course to create a data visualization of the adult autism services cliff.

"Well, I can say the area I live…[and] the locations of some of the places that offer the services are…not in my local area, so I have to drive a great distance to get the services. So that’s the biggest challenge. It’s nothing in my area within a twenty-mile radius, so I have to drive to get there."

"There are not many doctors, medical professionals that take the Medicaid."

- Cynthia – Single African American mother of three children diagnosed with autism who lives in South Fulton County and relies on Medicaid Health Insurance

mmoattari3 Mon, 05/11/2020 - 14:22

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Publications, Exhibitions, Other Products

I will be demonstrating the Autism Services Map and Adult Autism Services Cliff at a virtual lunch breakout session during the Autism Conference and Expo being sponsored by the Center for Leadership in Disability at Georgia State in May 2021.

I plan to apply to a grant to support further development and testing of the Autism Services Map. I am meeting with various people on campus to identify possible funding opportunities and will be applying to the Pediatric Technology Center Research Endowment (and other opportunities as they arise): https://ptc.gatech.edu/pediatric-technology-center-research-endowment

This summer, I also plan to create a teaching module that will utilize the autism services map, including learning objectives, course readings, a specific assignment, and assessment. I will integrate this module into my Fall 2021 course: HTS 3086- Sociology of Medicine and Health.

Project Year

2020-21

Project Leads

Jennifer S. Singh

Students

Elise Zheng

Freya Brandel-Tanis

Shrishti

Project Format

Visualization

Site

Project Site

Contact Email

jennifer.singh@hsoc.gatech.edu

Global Science Fiction: A Digital Publication

mmoattari3 — Mon, 11 May 2020 17:43:22 +0000

Global Science Fiction: A Digital Publication

Hivemind: Global Speculative Fiction is a Georgia Tech student and faculty-run digital magazine of global speculative fiction. We publish science fiction and fantasy—broadly defined— on the themes of language, culture, and communication. We are also interested in multimedia and interactive stories that push the boundaries of traditional storytelling. Hivemind is based out of the School of Modern Languages and is led by an editorial board staffed by graduate students in the new M.S. in Global Media and Cultures. Each issue centers on one unifying concept or theme connected to our overarching focus on global SF. Our content includes original short fiction, reprints, translations, interviews, and articles. By spotlighting and celebrating diverse speculative traditions, Hivemind: Global Speculative Fiction seeks to expand our understanding of worlds both real and imagined.

Over 2020-2021, we developed the prototype of Hivemind, an online multimedia magazine that explores global speculative fiction through language and culture. We also published our first issue, “The Future of Translation.” As we developed the site, Sofi became our visual assistant editor, focusing primarily on developing the look of the site and its gorgeous visualizations. Will became our literary assistant editor, focusing on editing website content and conducting interviews for our Non-Fiction section. We published Hivemind Vol 1 Issue 1 (“The Future of Translation”) in April 2021 and are currently developing Vol 1 Issue 2 (Japan x Future) for August 2021.

“The Future of Translation” features five fiction stories and six non-fiction articles, including reprints of Ursula K. Le Guin, original translations of Japanese proto-SF, and interviews with Game of Thrones conlanger David J. Peterson and Chinese/English science fiction translator and writer Andy Dudak. We also published two multimedia stories, one interactive article, and a collection of six multimedia folktales that “translate” culture. Two pieces in our inaugural issue by undergraduate Natalie Mueller (“Race to the Lunar World” and “Human vs. Machine Translation”) won 2nd Place in the 2021 VIP Innovation Competition (Human and Environment Track). We received funding from the School of Modern Languages for Issue 1.2 (“Japan x Future,” coming out in August 2021) and are planning to apply for small internal grants to fund Volume 2 (“Anthropocene”).

mmoattari3 Mon, 05/11/2020 - 13:43

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Project Year

2020-21

Project Leads

Amanda Weiss

Students

Will Sanders

Sofi Sanders

Project Format

Site

Genre Tags

Digital Storytelling

Project Site

Contact Email

amanda.weiss@modlangs.gatech.edu

Patchwork Poetics: Visualizing Poetic Sound Devices through Interactive Quilt Design for Learning

mmoattari3 — Mon, 11 May 2020 17:12:41 +0000

Patchwork Poetics: Visualizing Poetic Sound Devices through Interactive Quilt Design for Learning

Because scansion (the sonic patterning of poetry) is no longer taught as a matter of course in primary and secondary schools, students may find it difficult to discern and enjoy the beautiful patterns that poets build into their works. Part of the difficulty in teaching sonic patterns is that students are unused to thinking of words as material (in this case, sounds) rather than as conveyers of information. Patchwork Poetics is an interactive online application built to help individuals better understand scansion by converting these patterns into colorful quilt designs.

Working from research in craft-based HCI and textual analysis, and applying a lens of feminist data visualization, Patchwork Poetics is an online interactive tool that facilitates the learning process by teaching students to abstract meter, rhyme, assonance, and other sonic elements of a poem into color, shape, orientation, and other design elements of a quilt. With the visualization tool of Patchwork Poetics, students are able to transition from seeing word-as-information to word-as-sound, thereby gaining a new level of enjoyment and understanding of poetry.

mmoattari3 Mon, 05/11/2020 - 13:12

Project Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w-acOq44Boe5QjF2_iYExi3VYQRtncx4/view?usp=sharing

Publications, Exhibitions, Other Products

2020. Sullivan, Anne, Katie Farris, Maria Elena Margarella, and Zehua Chen, "Patchwork Poetics." (un)continuity at Electronic Literature Organization Conference and Media Festival (ELO 2020). Online.

Project Year

2020-21

Project Leads

Anne Sullivan

Kathryn Farris

Students

Elena Margarella

Yijun Jia

Project Format

Visualization

Site

Genre Tags

Info viz

Project Site

Contact Email

unicorn@gatech.edu

21st Century Global Atlanta

psingh308 — Sun, 20 Oct 2019 14:06:49 +0000

21st Century Global Atlanta

This project brings together students of diverse backgrounds and disciplines to tell the story of Atlanta as a global city, and to increase access to global citizenship at Georgia Tech and nationally. It documents and connects with the individuals and communities that are transforming Atlanta into a global metropolis, such as heritage and immigrant communities, foreign-born residents in a variety of professional fields, and thought leaders engaged in the global community. The project documents their everyday contributions and journeys through podcast, documentary film, digital archives, writing, and research presentations, all of which will be available on the project website that is under development.

psingh308 Sun, 10/20/2019 - 10:06

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Project Year

2019-20

2020-21

Project Leads

Sebnem Ozkan

Anna Westerstahl Stenport

Jenny Strakovsky

Students

Yayun Huang

John Peter Jajeh

Annie Lynn

Carolina Lynn Mauersberg

Leighton Michele Rowell

Oriana Indira Valencia

Project Format

Site

Project Site

21st Century Global Atlanta

Contact Email

sebnem.ozkan@gatech.edu