Disability and work from an inclusive perspective: Serious games as a tool for self-empowerment


The issue of employment for people with disabilities, and in particular for young adults taking their first steps in the world through PCTO, has emerged within special education as fundamental to a broader conceptualisation that includes aspects of adulthood, self-construction, self-determination and active citizenship (Lave and Wenger, 2006). The paper proposes a reflection on the importance of the use of Serious games in the vocational training of young adults with disabilities. Serious Games make use of strategies often used in special education, such as repetition, task analysis, immediate feedback, contextualised teaching and learning. Serious Games, by increasing task performance and related self-efficacy, use a more effective method in a safer environment than traditional training (Michael & Chen, 2006) and contribute to the identity maturation of the subjects by becoming a tool for self-empowerment.