touch-screen apps

In a crowded conference room on the Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) campus in Cupertino, a team of volunteer computer coders huddled around a big, white notepad, tossing out ideas for a touch-screen application that will teach an autistic child how to follow traffic signals and safely cross a street.

A few steps away, a young woman with an autism disorder happily chatted with strangers by typing out words on an iPad. Just a few years ago, her mother said, Kayla Takeuchi, 20, could not speak.

Nearly 100 tech professionals and advocates for people with autism took part in an unusual software