One of the common traits of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is the inclination to perceive unknown situations and environments as a source of stress and anxiety. It is common for them to tend to avoid novel experiences-including traveling to new places-and therefore an environments like an airport can be overwhelming. Virtual Reality can be a functional tool to provide ASD users with a training system that allows them to experience the airport process, even several times, before facing the real life experience. We hereby present the scenario in which our investigation takes place, the system we developed, and a draft of the evaluation of the training technique.

The PIUMA app aims at allowing users with autism to explore their city, finding new places that can be interesting for them but at the same time do not annoy them. Users can navigate the city through an interactive map that is both personalized and crowdsourced.