Little is known about people’s attitudes and expectations about using robots for children with autism on a global stage. To address this issue, we conducted an exploratory survey investigating the ethical acceptability of robot-assisted autism therapy in a developing country with respondents from Vietnam using the Ethical Acceptability Scale (EAS). We found that people in our sample have a higher positive view compared to European ones in a previous survey. However, they expressed certain concerns about robots replacing human therapists. In terms of robot appearances, they slightly preferred animal-like robots over human-like robots. Possible reasons can be low awareness and utilization of assistive technology for children with autism, influences from East Asian culture and audiovisual entertainment, and perceiving robots used in autism therapy as pets or toys. Additionally, we found no significant association between socio-demographic factors and the three EAS subscales. Our study contributes to a better understanding of how people from different social, cultural, and economic backgrounds perceive robot-assisted autism therapy, which is essential for designing ethical social robots and using them ethically.
Tạp chí khoa học Trường Đại học Cần Thơ
Lầu 4, Nhà Điều Hành, Khu II, đường 3/2, P. Xuân Khánh, Q. Ninh Kiều, TP. Cần Thơ
Điện thoại: (0292) 3 872 157; Email: tapchidhct@ctu.edu.vn
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