Fighting Disability Bias Through Purposeful Board Game Design
Fighting Disability Bias Through Purposeful Board Game Design
Fighting Disability Bias Through Purposeful Board Game Design
April, 30, 2025
Summary
At Pacific University, students in Professor Erica Kleinknecht’s psychology of games class are using game design to promote inclusion and challenge social perceptions. One student-created game, Crusaders for Change, features diverse characters with and without disabilities, emphasizing unique strengths rather than limitations. Designed by Daria Tsybina, Kaya Cowles, and Jordhan Spencer, the game encourages teamwork and critical thinking through trivia and collaborative challenges. Rooted in psychological principles like procedural rhetoric and self-determination theory, the course aims to show how games influence behavior. Students also attended an industry event and tested their games with local middle schoolers during a campus Game Jam.
Reference
Pacific University. (2025, April 30). Fighting disability bias through purposeful board game design. https://www.pacificu.edu/magazine/fighting-disability-bias-through-purposeful-board-game-design