麻豆影院

EMAT Students Showcase Neurodiversity in Augmented Reality Experience

Growing up, students Rebecca Haywood and Riley Schaefer saw little to no representation of neurodivergent characters in children鈥檚 media.

When the two took the augmented reality in children鈥檚 literature course offered through their program and Design Innovation last year, they wanted to change that for others. So, they created an interactive story where readers immerse themselves in the playground fun of two neurodivergent characters.

Titled 鈥淭imber and Ricky Go to School,鈥 the story starts when a character invites the 鈥渞eader鈥 into a classroom. There, they have the opportunity to interact with an array of characters.

Timber and Ricky go to school

After class comes the playground games. That鈥檚 when Ricky and Timber meet, ultimately becoming friends.

鈥淭imber helped Ricky socialize,鈥 the story reads, 鈥渉e started to like it to his surprise.鈥

A raccoon and a tiger, the characters are a subtle exploration of how neurodivergent children interact with and experience the world. Although it鈥檚 never directly stated, Ricky has autism and Timber has ADHD.

A raccoon and a tiger interact in an augmented reality setting.

鈥淲e tried to make it very intuitive,鈥 said Schaefer, a sophomore emerging media and technology major. 鈥淓veryone knows what school is. Everyone knows what the playground is. Everyone knows the social problems of getting your first group of friends.鈥

The inspiration for the two characters couldn鈥檛 have come any easier.

鈥淚 am timber,鈥 Schaefer said. 鈥淭his is Ricky,鈥 he added, pointing to Haywood.

Two students and a dog standing in front of a digital screen.

All projects in the course started with background research on similar children鈥檚 literature. Together, the groups brought their story ideas to the library and pulled books based on their theme.

鈥溾嬧媁hen it came to our group, where we just wanted books based on neurodiversity, the piles were significantly smaller,鈥 said Haywood, the project manager and a graduate student in user experience design.

Still, the lack of resources only motivated the group to continue.

Schaefer handled the 3D modeling, while Haywood and Briahna McCullough wrote the story. Tiffany Marks and Eddie Lampert illustrated.

The group鈥檚 work culminated last March when they presented their story to the Julie Billiart School in Akron on March 8th for Read Across America day.

There, the story came to life as dozens of students ran around the classroom, embracing their new friends Ricky and Timber. Some teachers and students even asked when they could read the next story, Haywood said.

鈥淚n a very beautiful way, they were sort of teaching an inclusive way to sort of embrace neurodiversity,鈥 said Ava Avnisan, an assistant professor at San Diego State University, who previously instructed the children鈥檚 literature course at 麻豆影院 State. 鈥淎nd I think that's a really, really important story to share with the world.鈥

POSTED: Wednesday, May 22, 2024 02:26 PM
Updated: Tuesday, September 24, 2024 04:48 PM
WRITTEN BY:
Alton Northup
PHOTO CREDIT:
Rebecca Haywood and Riley Schaefer