Design for Empathy

Develop an educational game that stimulates empathy, inclusive culture, and awareness in elementary school children, with the goal of reducing attitudinal barriers.

The solution is to reduce the attitudinal barriers that are present in the lives of people with disabilities. To do this, empathy would be stimulated in children in elementary schools from 9 to 10 years old. The technology process used is a physical board game with components built to accomplish this empathy stimulation.

This project aims to address the lack of design projects, such as educational materials and games, aimed at the school environment and that address and inform about issues such as exclusion, stigmas, bullying, discrimination and prejudice about disability. Mainly, alternatives that focus on stimulating and developing empathy for the barriers faced by people with disabilities.  According to IBGE (2010), even though 24% of the Brazilian population has some kind of limitation, the attitudinal barriers are still a reality in the daily life of people with disabilities. According to a survey published by Portal EBC, carried out with Brazilians, 69% of people with disabilities have already experienced or witnessed some kind of discrimination, bullying, rejection, moral and sexual harassment, isolation or violence in their work environments (CRUZ, 2020). Moreover, the lack of knowledge and information about these actions, collaborate to the boosting of attitudes and harassment in schools. According to Martins (2009), through an interview conducted with 18 thousand students, teachers and school employees in Brazil, it was found that 95% of the interviewees admitted having prejudice against people with disabilities. In addition, it becomes increasing the demand for children with disabilities in regular schools, considering that, in 2014 the enrollment of these students reached 78% (BASÍLIO, 2017). Thus, this work is relevant for proposing an alternative that acts to reduce prejudice and stigma through a game that contributes to the stimulation of empathy in children.

This project's main goal is to change the reality of people with disabilities by reducing attitudinal barriers. This work assists children who are not disabled, since it reduces prejudice and promotes the construction of new knowledge to these children about the universe of disability by promoting empathy. In addition, the project contributes to the awareness of Design professionals to use their knowledge for a more inclusive society, as well as for teachers to use education as a tool to build new perspectives of teaching and cultural and social aspects for students.

We did not conduct tests with potential users due to the pandemic context. But we did hold online meetings with experts in the field. The first meeting was with a teacher who has experience with 9-10 year old elementary school children and his information was extremely important for the construction of the game process. We also had a meeting with a specialist in the area of play who works with children with disabilities, her information was important to perform actions and validate what should be used or discarded in the game. In addition, we used bibliographic research as a base to understand the users' needs, such as identifying the empathy process in children and understanding the universe of disability. 

The project is still in the initial phase where we developed the idea of the project, the goal we want and idealized the game, but it has not been possible to test it yet because of the pandemic. 

The project does not need digital technology or software to work, as it is a board game. As such, it is a traditional technology in which physical materials are used throughout the process.

Currently the project does not serve any people, as it has not been tested. But I plan to test the game in at least 3 schools in the city next year, so at least 90 children will be served. 

We aim for social impact, since it uses empathy as a tool to reduce barriers, prejudice, discrimination, and promote respect and welcoming of what is different and the recognition of individual diversity. It is also worth mentioning that we intend the project to contribute to the social awareness of children, being able to establish, in the long term, the cultural deconstruction that is performed by the person with disabilities. It is worth mentioning that the idea of the game promotes simulation activities, with the purpose of raising awareness, and offers activities to explore and learn important issues about disability, developing ethical and moral principles that decrease attitudinal barriers in the school environment. In addition, the game allows children with disabilities to participate equally in the game. 

Educational impact, since the game brings dynamics, characteristics, and ludic activities that stimulate learning, self-knowledge, logical thinking, socialization, imagination, and concentration.

Scientific impact, since there were no similar games on the market involving learning and simulation aimed at eliminating attitudinal barriers for people with disabilities. Thus, the game is innovative in proposing a material that meets these needs and can be included in the pedagogical practices of inclusive education. 

Impact in the area of Design, specifically for the approaches of Universal Design, Inclusive Design, Game Design and Graphic Design, for the fact that this work brings relevant research that presents elucidations and delimitations that can be applied in similar works

Record all progress in document format and make comparisons with the results found.

As for the limitations of this work, the Covid-19 pandemic makes it impossible to test the game in a school context and with real users.

I am a recent graduate in Design, I finished my degree in 2021 a few months ago. I have experience in graphic design and also took a course in game design. In addition, I visited schools with elementary school children, where they have disabilities. This experience helped me to understand the reality lived by them. In addition, I developed a case study game focused on the cognitive stimulation of a child with altism, it was also important to recognize how necessary it is to include children with disabilities in regular schools.

The prize will be used to invest in the idea. It will be a way to help as many people as possible at first in the city, in the country and around the world. The prize will be a way to continue with the research and improve the solution to the idea, being able to use other technologies such as virtual reality to simulate the board and the characters in a larger scale and look animated for better interaction between players and the game . This way, with the award we will be able to reach more communities and children to become more empathetic adults and consequently help people with disabilities and make the world a better place.

The goal is to make the world a better place, so the prize will be used to invest in the idea. It will be a way to help as many people as possible at first in the city, in the country, and around the world. The prize will be a way to continue with research and improve the solution to the idea, being able to use other technologies such as virtual reality to simulate the board and the characters on a larger scale and look animated for better interaction between players and the game. This way, with the award we will be able to reach more communities and children to become more empathetic adults and consequently help people with disabilities.