Bungie | Game UX Summit '22 | CHLOE PATRICIA HODGSON - Playing the Social Game @Bungie | Uploaded March 2023 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
Playing the Social Game: Designing Educational Games for Autistic Children

CHLOE PATRICIA HODGSON (she/they) Junior UX Designer, Ubisoft Reflections

Autistic people are increasingly becoming the focus of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) games and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research. It is recognised that many autistic children have a natural affinity for modern technology use; this provides a solid basis for learning through the use of digital systems - specifically as interventions for “social deficits”.

Despite this rise in popularity, there are concerns within research regarding the true impacts of these systems on the children, and the degree of user involvement in the formulation and evaluation stages of development.

Has the evolution of disability culture outpaced the design of these ‘educational’ games? How can we build tools that acknowledge the agency of autistic children?