Design of virtual reality for students with autism, developed in a special school setting

Virtual Reality (VR) has been used to augment physical systems or to provide virtual environments that are accessible via head displays. The Department of Education have initialised a special curriculum for students with special needs. In this project it will include people with autism spectrum disorder (Autism) between the ages of 8 and 17 described as
“Students with special needs”. The curriculum has 4 sections: Employment, Independent Living, Community Inclusion and Health. For these purposes the specific virtual reality (VR) prototype was developed to cover the requirements of the “Employment” and “Community Inclusion” sections. It achieves that by simulating common working and recreation areas which are commonly met and used in real life. VR environment has two locations representing mentioned areas: supermarket and caffe. Due to the diverse nature of autism, it requires certain precautions which are very problematic to implement since it is generally assumed that each case of Autism is unique for each individual and can cause different stimuli reactions which could cause discomfort, panic etc. Therefore, the feedback was required to develop further and narrow down the focus of the VR environment’s features. The investigation was conducted in the form of interviews with teachers who combined are responsible for over 100 students with different types of Autism in a school for people with special needs. The obtained results have increased the understanding of features required for development of the VR application for people with special needs and potential issues in its current state as well as its viability in teaching the students with special needs.