The Cuebe: Facilitating Playful Early Intervention for the Visually Impaired

Abstract

Cortical Visual Impairment in children is a severe issue caused by prenatal injury of the brain affecting timely development during childhood. Therapists work with affected children to foster general development, to improve their learning, and to train sensory skills. In order to support effective and playful practices in Early Intervention we designed The Cuebe and present a working prototype. It is a tangible device that can detect and project colors, allowing therapists to 'magnify' those colors and creating a vast variety of playful interactions for and with children suffering from low vision. The exploration of the design domain and the iterative development of The Cuebe were driven by a co-design approach involving four therapists and 12 affected children. We describe use-cases from the field, illustrate The Cuebe's potential in Early Intervention sessions and discuss further improvements and directions of future developments.