Disability education: computer games for kids

While not as complex as the Skallagrigg plot its concept echoes, a set of free European computer games and exercises can teach children — or adults — a tiny bit about getting around with a disability. Handigo offers 3 character choices, each a cute marshmallow-like creature trying to get somewhere with a different disability.  Speedigo uses a manual wheelchair, Regoligo is blind, and Reflectigo has a vague learning disability that alters his perception of objects.

Speedigo and Regoligo move around with the arrow keys and use the spacebar to honk their horn or tap their cane, respectively. Regoligo’s area is completely black until she moves, and then parts of her grid will light up. Although unexplored areas are black, you will see sounds that help orient her — “vroom” or “tap” or music notes, for example. On the way to their destination, they pick up stars for points and try to avoid obstacles such as traffic, walls, and other people. “Other people,” except for the friends they’re trying to reach, consist of what seem to be obnoxious little marshmallow bullies who follow them around on purpose, stand in their way, or — I think — point and laugh at them. Speedigo can honk his horn to try to make them move, but I’m not sure what Regoligo does. I haven’t tried tapping her cane at them yet. When they bump into each other, they cry. If you move fast enough, you can avoid them — Speedigo can literally burn rubber.

I wasn’t really clear on how to play the game for Reflectigo — you have to use the mouse and click on the right object, such as a toothbrush. But there was no toothbrush.

All of the characters’ games are timed.  This game was meant for so-called “able-bodied” players, but it may also be useful for disabled kids to learn about disabilities different from theirs. Unfortunately, because of the game’s target audience, using an alternative input device can have mixed results. If you use a joystick, you may not be able to play the game for Speedigo or Regoligo. It is possible to play this game by voice using Dragon’s Mouse Grid and keypress commands, but the characters will move a little bit more slowly because of the time it takes for the command to go through and the fact that you can’t hold down the keys to make them move faster. If you are playing Reflectigo’s game using Mouse Keys, that will also be slower.

Handigo’s website also includes exercises for learning the Braille alphabet and testing how well you can lip read. The latter was particularly eye-opening for me — I’m able to lip read using the captions on certain DVDs for clarification, but since those are actors the articulation is a bit better. In the exercise, you only see a video of an ordinary person’s lips. You are given a set of scrambled words, which you must put in order according to what the man is mouthing in the video. I flunked.

While the games offer an opportunity to show how those with disabilities can compensate, e.g. through using a different sense, I felt that the way I identified with the characters the most was trying to avoid the bullies. While the bullies are bothering you, you cannot move and you lose time. The bullies are also surprisingly hard to get away from. This provided the clearest sense of frustration I have ever gotten from a video game. These bullies are valuable. There is nothing worse than a kid frustrated with his or her video game, or when someone won’t let them do something. For some kids, that may be the way to reach them — if they can experience frustration that way, they may think twice about bullying a disabled child in real life. Wishful thinking, probably, but I’m feeling wishy-washy today. You can find the games and the exercises at this site: http://www.handigosolidaires.com/en/goodies/index.html