Teaching human-computer interaction through developing applications in collaboration between academy and autism organizations

Human-Computer Interaction is a discipline that is getting more interest nowadays, not only because the proliferation of computerscience but also due the proliferation of new technological devices that require user-friendly interfaces. Furthermore, newtechnology is enabling us to attend needs of special groups with specific impairments, such as autistic users. Most efforts have beenmade in order to integrate curricula for this discipline; also most efforts have been made in the teaching context of these themes.However, it is necessary to continue improving teaching practices, integrating research and good practices from real environments.In this paper we present some experiences in teaching Human-Computer Interaction and Usability Engineering in conjunction withSoftware Development. Our teaching experiences involve real projects in collaboration with a specialized organization in autism.This teaching environment allows students to interact with end users, making sense of how useful is applying user interface designprinciples in order to facilitate the life of users with special capabilities.