“This is a great example of how technology can bring true awareness to really ‘feel’ the experience of someone who has a different perspective. These are the kinds of ways technology can help our society move forward to create more inclusive and accessible experiences for more people.” —Aruna Mall
“This was a really good use of the medium. The immersive nature of VR enables users to really see from another perspective, making it a great sensitivity training tool and a more profound experience than the conventional training video.” —Jill Toloza
Overview: With the intention to be used as a sensitivity training tool in different workplaces and schools, virtual reality application Afinity immerses employees and students into the perspective of a disabled person. Through Afinity, users experience some of the challenges that disabled people may face in their day-to-day lives, especially at work, with the hope that this will help them become more compassionate and be able to better empathize with people with disabilities.
Afinity is a sensitivity training application that can be used in corporations, schools, hospitals and more.
Afinity can be customized for any workplace or workplace task.
The project was developed using the Unreal Engine and Cinema 4D.
Comments by Sukratti Jain:
Was the topic of the project a new one for you? “It was a new one for us indeed. We have never created anything that caters to disabled people. We hope we will be able to make a difference in the mindset of people when it comes to interacting with disabled people.”
Did you use any applications that you hadn’t used before? “We used the Unreal Engine to build the prototype for Afinity. This was our first time using the software for a project. It has a very high learning curve, and we were amazed by what we were able to create. Big thanks to Epic Games to have provided such a powerful application for free. Also, this was our very first virtual reality project.”
From concept to completion, how long did it take to produce? “The concept and the base of Afinity were developed at the Laval Virtual hackathon in 2019. It was further developed over a couple of months to become what it is today.”
