People who have intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) face many more challenges in their lives each day than those without these disabilities. Students face many challenges, such as educational challenges and employment challenges, [1] because they struggle with learning social skills and situational awareness. Tasks and interactions that are not difficult for people without disabilities could potentially cause those with IDD to derail their entire days and need more assistance than usual. Specifically, when students with IDD are faced with an unfamiliar situation, they may not know how to react, creating stress for them and possibly eliciting a negative reaction. Our project involves creating a Virtual Reality (VR) game which places students in a stressful real-life scenario and allows them to practice their decision-making skills. The VR environment creates a safe space in which students can develop their social skills and increase their situational awareness, so they can train themselves to be more comfortable with problems they face in the real world. The VR environment will be created with a VR headset that the student will wear while being seated in a swivel chair. The student will always be stationary in order to prevent injury. The game itself will be created with Unity and 360° camera footage in order to make the game as immersive as possible. Each event in the scenario will have multiple choices that the student can make by using a joystick specifically created to be accessible for individuals with IDD. Within each scenario, the student uses a joystick designed for individuals with IDD to select from multiple options. Each choice made by the student will influence the next scenario shown. This path will continue until they experience an entire module. This method allows the student to either accomplish the task with decisions that would result in a positive outcome, or achieve a non-ideal result, but because they are in a safe environment, there will be no real consequence. The program will also inform the monitoring teacher of the progress the student makes, allowing for the teacher to either assist the student or be able to see a positive growth. Our long-term goal is to create a game so useful that the students with IDD will not even need it one day because they will understand, through experience, how to make appropriate choices in daily experiences. Our short-term goal is to get positive feedback from both Mason LIFE students and faculty about the usability and usefulness of our program.
[1] Afia, “Current Issues and Opportunities for Individuals Living with IDD,” 21 May 2018. [Online]. Available: https://afiahealth.com/current-issues-opportunities-individuals-living-idd/. [Accessed 30 September 2018].