If you want to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, and attempt going through a decision process of someone else, then this is the game for you! This “someone else” is a mother of a child who has Down’s syndrome, and enters (or does not, depending on your choice) the Special Olympics. Click this link https://forms.gle/ir6vqcE9p9HJ3eFP8 to play the game!
What exactly is the Special Olympics about? “Through the power of sports, people with intellectual disabilities discover new strengths and abilities, skills and success. Our athletes inspire people in their communities and elsewhere to open their hearts to a wider world of human talents and potential”(Special Olympics, https://www.specialolympics.org/).
From start to finish, you will play as the mother who must make verdicts regarding your child’s life and their participation in the Special Olympics. There will be some hindrances and hurdles that she must overcome, so you will have to make some careful choices.
The scenarios were based on both my experience with my relative, who has Down’s syndrome, and from Malak’s volunteer work in the Special Olympics.
Malak Ayman and I have added new scenarios to portray more aspects of both the child’s and mother’s life, such as social aspects like friends, family, and education. We wanted to capture these additional aspects, since the feedback we got entailed this. Also, we made the decisions and scenarios less trivial because the feedback we got indicated that the players felt this way. Another thing we changed in the existing scenarios was that the answers/decisions were a bit leading, so we tried to ensure that there was no leading bias in the answers.
Additionally, we added pictures to make it easier for the player to visualize, and to make it more interesting.
We would try to include even more aspects of the mother’s life, and the child’s life, in order to get the full picture since it felt kind of limiting. Also, we would have added facts about Special Olympics in the middle of the scenarios.
Through the research done to start up the game, I learnt a lot more about Down’s syndrome and Special Olympics. Whilst creating this game, it made me thankful for my life and truly appreciate the blessings that we have that we take for granted. The reason for this is that we had to think very thoroughly about tough things that could come about, and even then it would never be what truly occurs. So, just knowing that made me realize further that some people have it very difficult so I hope that people who play this game understand that.
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