Experiences of Neurodivergent People When Playing an Educational Video Game About Their Own Diagnosis

This paper discusses how participants with diagnoses of autism, psychosis, or OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) experienced playing an educational video game about that same diagnosis. Rather than having participants make a specific assessment of the video game they played, the gameplay was used as a creative task to trigger reflection on their experiences with neurodivergent perceptions and knowledge. Central was the phenomenological question of what it means for someone to play a video game intended to communicate to outsiders a vision of neurodiversity that also represents (parts of) their lived experience. The study is based on in-depth semi-structured interviews with 10 adult participants. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, three main themes were formulated: (1) working with and around the diagnostic label, (2) the paradox of understanding, and (3) the serious nature of play. Then, several theoretical implications concerning the performative effects of a psychiatric diagnosis, cross-neurotype communication, and inclusive definitions of play are formulated. The paper concludes that playing video games during the interviews formed a good conversation starter for sharing neurodiversity-related experiences, which also demonstrates their meaningful complementarity to traditional interview-based qualitative research.