Developing Empathy towards Experiences of Invisible Disabilities Through Games

Abstract

Hidden or invisible disabilities are invisible to the onlooker and can be physical, mental, or neurological conditions that limit a person's movements, senses or activities. As a result, they can lead to misunderstandings, false perceptions, and judgments. Developing an understanding of the conditions and the limitations they impose on people who have these conditions might help to develop empathy and reduce stigma and misunderstanding. We investigate the use of games for this purpose. This paper reports a first qualitative survey study with 56 participants about their experiences of interacting with a paper prototype of a game about living with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and then answering questions regarding their perceptions of the game with respect to their own experiences. The study aimed to understand if we can unify the design of games for barriers faced by people with invisible disabilities. The prototype was redesigned based on the findings of the first study. Study 2 involved a playtesting session with 8 participants who did not have invisible disabilities engaging with the digital prototype. Their empathy quotient was measured before and after playing. While the study's results did not yield any statistically significant findings, they do offer some evidence that playing computer games can be a useful way to increase empathy towards people with invisible disabilities and provide design considerations for such games.