Please help me with a little market research ...

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The organization I work for (a disability services agency) wants to start offering educational webinars on various topics, mainly to educate other professionals. My idea, however, is to offer online social skills training webinars to people with ASD and I have their support to pursue this concept and develop it. Most likely, the social skills webinar curriculum would be developed by myself and one of my coworkers, a NT with an educational psychology background. (Don't worry, I won't be doing this alone, so it will not be a 'blind leading the blind' type of a situation--lol).

I have a number of ideas for topics, but right now my top two are job interview skills and dating/relationship skills because I think these would generate the most interest. What do you guys think of my idea? Would anyone be interested in participating in a webinar to learn or brush up on dating skills? If so, can you give me some direction on what specific topics you'd like us to cover? (For example, reading body language to tell if someone's flirting, tips on creating an online dating profile, making long-term relationships work, etc? What other ideas do you have?)

Also, what is a reasonable charge that you'd be willing to pay for an hour-long webinar with a social skills expert? Does $25 US dollars sound reasonable? (Bear in mind that the revenue generated through this goes back to our nonprofit organization and allows us to continue providing support services that help adults with various challenges, including adults with autism. It's pretty much win-win.) Our marketing dept might like to charge more, but I personally would like to charge somewhere in the $25 a session range to enable a larger number of people to participate and learn useful skills.

Thanks for sharing your comments ...even if you are just going to tell me I'm crazy or this is a bad idea!

Last edited by blueroses on 01 Apr 2011, 12:41 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Great idea! $25-30 sounds very reasonable. One question? Would the webinar be interactive allowing answers and feedback?

Yes, I'd like to have a live chat feature, where users can ask questions or make comments while the webinar is taking place. Then, maybe we could do a Q&A session with the expert afterwards or something along those lines. I'd like to make it as user-friendly and interactive as possible.

I don't know if this is helpful, but something I've always perceived as having real value along these lines would be something more interactive and tailored for AS people.

Most stuff I've seen is just generic NT content aimed at, and written by, NT people.

For example, one of my big problems is my flat affect. My facial muscles simply don't respond to my inner emotional state in a way that NTs intuitively understand.

I think you could train yourself to do this by practicing in a mirror, but without guidance and examples you are still sort of guessing how an NT would perceive your facial expression.

It would be really cool to have an app with a webcam - a "digital mirror" - which gave you instant feedback and also displayed content useful for Aspies along these lines. Call it "Smiling for Dummies"

If that were in the Apple store, I would buy it...

Well, that's where I come in, I guess? And, that is also where everyone's feedback and suggestions for content would come in.

Its a fine product and I heartily endorse it!


The only additional bit I might add - your agency, nonprofit or otherwise, will be seeking optimal self-sufficiency training above all else. Definitely focus on things like maintaining billing histories and bank statements, perhaps filing 1040EZ's, how to catch a bus or train if you haven't in the past, job etiquette, etc.. Love and dating isn't a bad topic but I think friendship building and social networking will likely be a more immediately attainable goal for many of the clients. If you can focus on what the organization will want them to be able to do first and work forward from that it'll seen as very practical, very high-quality if that direction continues into the videos themselves, and by the time more advanced social skill issues come into play you may even have more expert opinions to draw on.

Best of luck!

Thanks and I do hear what you are saying. We provide hands-on, in-person skills instruction (aka 'community integration services') and in my experience, certain daily living skills like using public transportation are better taught face-to-face, as opposed to through web-based learning. Granted, we've never tried teaching those skills via webinars, but a modeling approach can be helpful and things like public transportation systems can vary a good bit based upon locale.

The idea is to expand our reach to help people beyond our local area, ie. people we can't reach with in-person skills instruction, so that's why I'd been thinking about topics related to pragmatics and interpersonal skills, ie. interview skills, dating, relationships. I kind of thought those things lent themselves to the medium more? For what it's worth, we definitely follow the consumer-directed model, so it's not so much about what skills the organization wants people to learn, as opposed to an individual's personal goals. That said, sometimes we all need to 'walk before we can run,' so even if many people on WP give me the impression that their primary concerns in life are finding a partner and a good job, I think I understand what you mean about taking a 'stepping stones' kind of approach to achieving those goals.