Rise scenario characters with visible disabilities

Feb 18, 2020

Hello

I create Rise learning for support/care workers in the disability sector. I was wondering if you can include one or two Rise scenario characters with visible disabilities.

You could at least give options to add a wheelchair, walking stick or cane to an existing scenario character. This will help greatly in the meantime.

Thank you!
Sumant

30 Replies
Sumant Murugesh

I totally agree with you Paul Sewell. You have no idea how many times we have had to stay away from using scenarios entirely for similar reasons. What a waste of a great feature when we can't cater for/represent people of all abilities in this world. I hope these comments are heard and addressed soon! 

Scott Nelson

There seems to be a lot of focus on visible challenges, but statistically speaking, most people who are/were legally disabled do not have physical challenges. It is good to be mindful to ensure we represent those with disabilities as a part of our development efforts.  However, the lack of a wide variety of image-representation of visible physical challenges does not prevent us from being more inclusive of those with disabilities.

Perhaps we could consider how to convey the invisible disabilities instead effectively?  I realize this is more challenging as it requires getting into the headspace of those with these challenges and figuring out how to represent that in a way the learner will understand. 

Not an easy task for neurotypical people, but that is why we, as educational content developers, need to lead this effort.  Instead of demanding service animals, folks with canes, and people in various wheelchairs/walkers/braces/etc., perhaps we rise to the occasion and figure out how to be more inclusive of those we have repeatedly overlooked for centuries?

Instead of threatening to pull our subscriptions from the service, could we make a concerted effort to include representation of those whose disabilities are not easily detected by the eye?

I am just putting it out there for thought.