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Pete Armstrong

The Rusk Center provides disabled children with physical rehabilitation. But the Center sees that this population also needs social rehabilitation. They are ostracized in the mainstream classrooms.

Able-bodied children who see wheelchair-bound classmates as victims learn to see them as as capable – facing and surmounting tough challenges every day.

Players assume the role of Pete Armstrong, a pre-adolescent boy who navigates the terrain with his off-road sports style wheel chair to gather apples. Moving around the world is not impossible, but a challenge to overcome.

Pre- and post-testing, with experts from the University of Virginia using a standard instrument, demonstrates a marked reduction in the player’s negative feelings toward the disabled. Analysis shows that this is far stronger among girls and varies negatively with self-reported videogame exposure.