Designing an educational game for and with teenagers with high functioning autism

This paper describes a Participatory Design approach which involved teenagers with High functioning Autism in the design of an educational game to learn about Geography via the use of Natural User Interfaces. We designed sessions with specific activities which were guided by the interaction between the teachers and students on the day. The corresponding activities implicitly shaped the roles that each stakeholder undertook such as user, informant, tester, co-designer, motivator or facilitator. As a result, adults and young people together designed and tested a digital educational game based on their expertise as programmers, teachers, and video gamers, respectively. The project took place in a highly specialized school for young people with Special Educational Needs. This paper contributes by highlighting the importance of supporting students to participate on their own terms. Moreover, equity in participation is not about sharing all decisions but about managing and respecting the different types of expertise that each partner brings to the design team.