June 6, 2008 - Orange County Register - A grandfather whose 6 year old grandson has autism, tried to find tools that could guide his grandson, Zach, 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.

The Zac Browser greatly simplifies the experience of using a computer. It seals off most Web sites from view, to block violen, sexual or otherwise adult-themed material. Instead, it presents a hand-picked slate of choices from free, public Web sites, with ah emphasis on educational games, music, videos and visually entertaining images, like a virtual aquarium. It essentially takes over the computer and reduces the controls for children with autism, who may find too many chioces overwhelming.

For example, the Zac Browser disables extraneous keyboards buttons like "Print Screen" and trusn off the right button on the mouse. That eliminates commands most children don't need and it reduces the chance an autistic child will lose confidence after making a counterproductive click.

Children using the Zac Browsre 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.

Several autism experts were pleased to hear of LeSieur's work, and not surprised that he had not previos=usly 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 could work for huge swaths of autistic children is a tall order.

"Some parts of the Web have so much extraneous material that it can be distracting, and for the non-verbal child, there might not be an ability to negotiate that information," stated Stephen Sheinkopf, an autism researcher at Brown University.

This is not to say the Web is necessarily barren for autistic children. James Balt, 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 anxeity way of socializing than talking to someone in person, he said.

Bu 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 ay Heartspring, a special-education center in Wichita, Kansas. Vacek is considering using the Zac Browser at Heartspring.

One HUGE advantage is the Zac Browser is free, while many assistive technologies cost upward of $5,000 and work only on specialized devices. The best part of the Zac Browser is that it has a hich chance of increasing a child's ability to do things independently!