The Erasmus+ IVRAP project, led by the ARTEC group of the Institute on Robotics and Information and Communication Technologies (IRTIC) until its completion in 2022, has had a presence in Play Murcia, the video game event hosted by the city last weekend. The game that generated the action was present in the digital leisure area for people with disabilities and was a success, both for this particular group of users and for all the others, who queued up to try it and enjoy it.

The aim of IVRAP was to teach students on the autistic spectrum and with learning difficulties how to "learn to learn" through the development and evaluation of an immersive virtual reality (IVR) educational tool. This action co-funded by the European Erasmus+ programme was based on the combination of one of the most widespread models of intervention in autism on education with the power of IVR and hand tracking sensors to manipulate virtual environments.

IVRAP conducted a research to test the usability of the software and produce both a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Virtual Reality and Autism, and Policy Recommendations.

In order to develop the initiative, a multi-sectoral team of nine participants collaborated, including researchers from the Universitat de València through in Spain, the project coordinator through ARTEC, and the University of the West of England in the UK.

Likewise, teachers and people with autism and their families from four schools contributed to the action from Fundación Adapta and Koynos Cooperativa, from Spain; Cambian School, from the United Kingdom; and Sobe Foundation, from Turkey. Autismo Ávila from Spain also did so.

CEFIRE and Konya İl MEM, two continuous training institutions of the two regional governments of Spain and Turkey respectively, cooperated too, as well as the umbrella organisation Autism-Europe.

After the good impression left by the game at Play Murcia, the person responsible for showing IVRAP at the event, Elías Gervilla, will exhibit it in more parts of Spain thanks to the organization.

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