Zyrobotics LLC SBIR Phase I Award,

This SBIR project develops and evaluates an interactive fictional text-adventure game—Transition Adventure—for students with visual disabilities to practice and improve pre-employment skills including independent living, social, and problem-solving skills. IDEA and the Rehabilitation Act require all students with visual disabilities receive pre-employment transition skill training. This specialty instruction may be limited by academic resources (i.e., teacher shortage, funding) resulting in poor outcomes. Transition Adventure offers students an opportunity to improve their skills between sessions with their teachers thus promoting self-efficacy and improving transitional outcomes. Project activities include establishing pre-employment transition skill requirements and developing and evaluating the efficacy of the interactive fiction text-adventure game—Transition Adventure—with the target population (i.e., students with visual disabilities). This project partners with the Carroll Center for the Blind; and receives support from the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, Florida Division of Blind Services, and the American Foundation for the Blind.