Home > News > NEWS RELEASE: GSA to partner Friendly Access and Crag3D in innovation to support people living with hidden disabilities and mental health conditions
NEWS RELEASE: GSA to partner Friendly Access and Crag3D in innovation to support people living with hidden disabilities and mental health conditions
Design project will harness
the potential of VR to support people living with disabilities such as autism,
dementia, learning disabilities and mental health conditions.
A busy airport is a typical a typically challenging environment for people with disabilities such as autism, dementia, learning disabilities and mental health conditions
Specialists in support for hidden
disabilities at Friendly Access have got together experts in Virtual
Reality in the School of Simulation and Visualisation (SimVis) at The
Glasgow School of Art and tech start up, Crag3D to create an
innovative product to help support individuals living with disabilities it was
announced today, 22 June 2017. The team will harness the potential of Virtual
Reality (VR) to create an interactive and immersive experience to support
people living with hidden disabilities such as autism, dementia, learning
disabilities and mental health conditions.
Individuals living from these
disabilities are far more likely to experience high levels of discrimination,
fear and anxiety, often leading to isolation and poverty. Environmental
stressors such as certain sounds, lighting and crowd behaviour can become
significant barriers towards independent living.
Many individuals have a threshold when
experiencing heightened noisy and crowded situations within environments, and
sensory cues can act as barriers, stopping them doing what others might think
are everyday activities.
The team will co-create a free app to
help familiarize people with a typically challenging environment such as an
airport. Within the app environmental stressors will be adjustable so as to
empower individuals with hidden disabilities and mental health conditions to
gradually overcome the barriers which these stressful situations often create.
“When we venture into new or
unfamiliar environments, it can be a stressful experience for most of us,”
says Chief Executive, Friendly Access Glyn Morris, “The impact for
individuals living with acute and hyper sensory, mental health conditions and
heightened anxiety issues, is they are placed at an unfair disadvantage
compared to their peers in society. This can often lead to isolation and
poverty.”
“Our joint research and development
project is incredibly exciting and we are delighted to be working with VR
experts in the School of Simulation and Visualisation at The Glasgow School of
Art and tech start up, Crag3D. We have been waiting four years for technology
to catch up with our ideas. We now have the chance to create what we are
thinking.”
The Glasgow School of Art is a
celebrated a centre of creativity and innovation with the School of Simulation
and Visualisation in the forefront of of 3D digital research and application.
Collaborating with partners across the public and commercial sectors SimVis is
delivering a range of projects and products that are making tangible
differences to people’s lives.
“The application of digital and virtual
technology to help address real life issues is a central part of the work at
SimVis,”
says Dr Matthieu Poyade, Research Fellow at GSA, SimVis. “We are delighted
to be working in partnership with Friendly Access and Crag3D on this project
which we hope will be a life changer for people who are living with the
greatest degree of discrimination and isolation. Our aspiration is that it will
enable them to become more confident individuals and contributors in society.”
“When I spoke with Friendly Access
late last year about the latest digital 3D technologies and possibilities of
interactive virtual tours, it was a light-bulb moment, our goals merged,” adds Ian Taylor of Crag3D. “Creating
an immersive experience to help individuals become accustomed to an environment
which they have previously feared, before they get there. Taking the novelty
out of Virtual Reality, we are finding ways to use visualisation technologies
to help individuals, our aim is to allow everyone to enjoy the rights to access
public spaces. Collaboration with SimVis at The Glasgow School of Art was the
icing on the cake.”
The application will be available free
of charge, the only requirement will be smartphone. Versions will also be
available for a VR immersive experience using any affordable VR headset.
Aberdeen International Airport, working
in partnership with Friendly Access, will be launching a lanyard as part of a
Hidden Disability Awareness Day at Aberdeen International Airport on 27 June
2017.
The project is being supported by European Social Fund and the Scottish Government’s Social Innovation Fund.
Friendly Access
We believe that one day, society will
understand the reality of living with hidden disabilities and mental health
conditions. Our drive is to improve access across Scotland and help enable
everyone to lead the life they choose. Friendly Access brings individuals and
services they wish to access together, without fear and isolation through lack
of understanding and support. No one should be forced into living in isolation.
Awareness is great. Understanding is
everything.
Friendly Access put ‘autism friendly’
performances into theatres across the UK. We are now firmly focused on setting
the bar even higher for inclusion everyday and everywhere.
The School of Simulation and
Visualisation at The Glasgow School of Art
The School of Simulation and
Visualisation at the GSA is a leading centre of teaching and research in the
areas of 3D
visualisation, 3D sound, speech recognition, haptics (touch), gesture-based
interaction and camera-based tracking. SimVishas a large portfolio of
projects with business and industry in Scotland, the UK and Europe, centred on
expertise in real-time 3D visualisation, 3D sound, modelling, motion capture
and animation. In particular, SimVis has built a reputation for world leading
work in 3D visualisation for heritage, as well as for our work in flagship
projects such as the visitor experience for the Battle of Bannockburn visitor centre. Beyond heritage, SimVis works on a
wide range of motion and 3D data capture and visualisation projects for
commercial and industrial partners. The School of Simulation and
Visualisation sound dubbing studios are regularly used for network
television and film productions, as well as in the school’s own visualisation
projects.
A tech start up, following on from
academic and commercial research in virtual worlds and character animation
studies, Crag3D creates interactive digital experiences such as landscape and
architectural visualisations and provide its clients with 360° visualisation
through to fully immersive interactive 3D environments with the benefit of VR
headsets.
Crag3D has been providing digital
visual access and experience of what the modern world offers. We are now
focussed on using these technologies to help all individuals including minority
groups who live with hidden disabilities and mental health conditions
