What does ‘disabled’ mean, and how does it affect one’s perceived value in society? How, if at all, can technology create more access to economic and social opportunities? 

Corey Clark , Matt Gottilla & Curtis Taylor set out to explore these questions with their 6th graders, using video gaming as both a point of common interest and a real-world engineering and technological challenge. 

Teacher Reflection 

When you step back and you let kids do them and allow kids to be creative and allow kids to be really critical thinkers and allow them to work together and figure out problems together– this is what my understanding of school should be.

— Curtis Taylor 

There is not a simple solution for the industry. There is no way to just say, here’s a controller for people with disabilities or here’s a controller even for these different groups of disabilities. It is that personalized. But in terms of somebody who’s creating a project and bringing kids through engineering, it’s kind of like a dream, right? Because it is literally everything you preach to kids about recognizing a problem and brainstorming a solution. These are real human beings that the kids are connecting with.

I’m a big supporter of backwards design. I think a good project always starts with what the product or the client or the end goal is, and works backwards and finds its curriculum that way. However, I felt this one was almost cyclical in nature. Meaning that not only did it start with our clients– Guillermo, Shane, Lucas, Ryan, Ronald McDonald House– these individuals are really at the heart of everything this project was. And through the exhibition, and the final product came back to them again.

— Corey Clark

Student Reflection 

Just knowing that this is going somewhere for someone and it means something, you’re inviting them to a world of video games, and you’re letting them play. Because they’re going to play video games just like you, but they’re just doing it differently.

— Emma