Abstract:

The 2019 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic forced individuals with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) around the world to face unique challenges. Young adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) are such a case. Many of them, and especially those with SEND and ID are at high risk of severe illness from COVID-19 and must therefore learn how to protect themselves and others. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), especially with the use of serious games, can offer an alternative way of teaching young adults with ID how to stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though the design and use of serious games for people with ID is still a relatively unexplored field, serious games have become recognized as providing rich learning contexts for players, and especially for players with ID. This study aims to present the design and development of a serious educational game aiming to help young adults with ID learn how to stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. The game should be easy to play and fun, even though it is a serious game. Also, it should be effective for its purpose and keep the players with ID engaged. Throughout the game, players must be able to grasp and eventually fully understand the importance of real-life actions and how to perform them to be protected during the pandemic. Finally, through an intelligent mechanism, the game should positively reinforce the players and target the displayed difficulty areas in order to understand and collect data for post processing and further improvement.

Keywords:

Intellectual disabilities (ID), COVID-19 pandemic, young adults, serious game, prevention, protection.