Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodivergent condition with a wide range of characteristics and support levels. Individuals with ASD can exhibit various combinations of traits such as difficulties in social interaction, communication, and language, alongside restricted interests and repetitive activities. Many adults with ASD live independently due to increased awareness and late diagnoses, which help them manage long-standing challenges. Predictability, clarity, and minimized sensory stimuli are crucial for the daily comfort of autistic individuals. In mobile applications, autistic users face significant cognitive overload compared to neurotypicals, resulting in higher effort and time to complete tasks. Urban mobility apps, essential for daily routines, often overlook the needs of autistic users, leading to cognitive overload issues. This study investigates the accessibility of urban mobility apps for autistic individuals using the Interfaces Accessibility Guide for Autism (GAIA). By evaluating various apps, we have identified a common gap regarding accessibility for people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This limitation relates to the absence of a functionality that allows users on the autism spectrum to customize the characteristics of the textual and visual elements of the software, such as changing the text font, altering the font type, and adjusting text colors, as well as native audio guidance within the applications themselves. Currently, the only function in this context is for visually impaired people, which completely changes the user experience in terms of navigation.

翻译：自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）是一种神经多样性状态，具有广泛的特征表现和支持需求水平。自闭症个体可能表现出多种特质组合，例如社交互动、沟通和语言方面的困难，同时伴有兴趣受限和重复性活动。由于社会认知度的提升和延迟诊断的增多，许多成年自闭症患者得以独立生活，这有助于他们应对长期存在的挑战。可预测性、清晰度和最小化的感官刺激对于自闭症患者的日常舒适度至关重要。在移动应用程序中，与神经典型用户相比，自闭症用户面临显著的认知负荷，导致完成任务需要付出更多努力和时间。作为日常生活必需品的城市交通应用程序，往往忽视自闭症用户的需求，从而引发认知超载问题。本研究采用自闭症界面可访问性指南（GAIA）调查城市交通应用程序对自闭症患者的可访问性。通过评估多款应用程序，我们发现针对自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）人群的可访问性存在普遍缺陷。这一局限主要体现在缺乏允许自闭症谱系用户自定义软件文本和视觉元素特性的功能，例如更改文本字体、调整字体类型和修改文本颜色，以及应用程序内部缺乏原生音频导航功能。目前该领域唯一的相关功能仅面向视障人群，其通过彻底改变导航方式的用户体验来实现辅助功能。