Social Cipher- a game developed by an autistic female patient to increase visibility

Vanessa Castañeda Gill was first diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and ADHD at 14 years old and didn’t meet another autistic woman until the age of 20 years old. This meant that she had no autistic female role models or sense of autistic identity until she got to college, which led her down a challenging road throughout her teenage years. Unfortunately, until this point, she only had heard stereotypical things of autistic people, such as being “bad at social connection” and believed that her only choice was to fit that mold, despite her desire for connection.

This is why she began to pursue a path that had at the center the different aspects, struggles, and challenges that autistic women face day by day. By hearing stories of people like herself she could then can help them face challenges head-on and determine strategies to help advocate for themselves., and this is why representation within the autism spectrum disorder community is so important, and that is how Vanessa chose to make a difference.

She developed Social Cipher. A game-based, social-emotional learning platform for autism spectrum disorder youth and the professionals who work with them, that allows users to follow the adventures of an autistic star mapper with Ava (the fictional character), who navigates through the galaxy to find community while battling her own self-doubt and deciding to recruit or not the correct space pirates to join her team!

This game became a space for developers to incorporate skills that will not only benefit but empower autism spectrum disorder youth, with representation at the center!

Find out more about this solution here https://www.socialciphergame.com/
This story was adapted from https://www.socialciphergame.com/post/social-emotional-learning-game-the... and https://learnplaythrive.com/podcasts/47-social-learning-game-theory-auti...

All the images have been taken from https://autismadhdconnection.com/game-review-social-cipher-provides-a-fu... and https://www.socialciphergame.com/, and https://www.laparent.com/social-cipher-game , as we do not own any of them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-uWt1TFnYY