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Media Release

August 21 2003

UniSA’s e-commerce whiz kids open the portal to understanding autism

Word association…. think e-commerce, think….banking, home shopping, internet marketing…and the list of commercial options goes on. But for three UniSA Masters students in electronic commerce, e-commerce has taken on a community focus set to be a real boon for families who have children with autism.

As part of their Masters program the UniSA trio, Alison Brus, Sarah Nyguyen and Marta Arisandi, has developed a comprehensive website designed to provide information, access to resources, and an online forum on all aspects of autism.

The website http://www.2understand.com will be launched by the SA Minister for Social Justice, Stephanie Key at 6 pm on August 21 at UniSA’s City West campus (The Atrium, Yungondi Building).

Course coordinator Kathy Darzanos says the test for students is in finding ways to bring all their knowledge and skills together to apply e-commerce principles in a real world context.

“Students have had to go out into the world and research client needs, community issues and undertake the kind of research that they would need if they were working on a project for industry,” Darzanos said. Projects have focussed on everything from a business analysis of the impact of e-commerce on the SA wine industry to the development of a whole website for a particular industry or community group.”

The autism support website was developed after long hours of consultation with the SA Autism Association and other support groups, parents, education providers and others.

Head of UniSA’s School of Computer and Information Science, Professor Andy Koronios believes that it is important for any knowledge and expertise gained by staff and students of the University to be used to benefit the community.

“This project will, in a small way, assist parents and carers of children with autism in gaining information, resources and mutual support from each other in their desire to help children with autism,” Professor Koronios said.

“As I understand it, unlike many other conditions, early intervention and support given to children with autism yields improvements in their development and in many cases these children grow up to lead normal lives.

“Therefore any support now is a great investment in their future and also makes fiscal sense in minimising later dependence on governmental support.

And as for the future of this portal – Professor Koronios says the project has really only just begun.
“We would like to ensure that our next cohort of students and successive cohorts are able to further develop the portal, adding more high quality material and making it more interactive and valuable to parents and their children,” he said.

Professor Koronios also acknowledged the support of his colleagues at UniSA’s School of Accounting and Information Systems in collaborating in this program and also the various community support groups and parents who provided information to the project students.

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