A project using fun, dialogue-free animations created by and made inclusive for people with neurodiversity and disabilities has won an $18,000 National Science Week grant to help people with autism engage with science, technology and art.
MicroToons is a collaboration between Edith Cowan University academic Dr Rina Fu (or ‘Dr Rina’, as she’s known by many), animation studio Red Bird Creative and disability services provider 4lifeskills, and uses dialogue-free animated short stories to explain various aspects of biology, featuring characters such as blood cells and microbes.
Autistic and neurodiverse artists are involved throughout the creative process, from storyboarding, to the evolution of characters from pencil sketches to computer graphics and moving animations.
Dr Fu, from ECU’s School of Medical and Health Sciences, has a brother with autism, who has inspired her work.
“People with autism can struggle to engage with science, technology and art, but when they manage to, it can empower them,” Dr Fu said.
“For a lot of neurodiverse people, the stimulus which makes something enjoyable for the wider population can actually be stressful, overstimulating and a trigger point for anxiety and behavioural changes.
“So, for MicroToons, we were careful with our colour scheme, so it’s not fluoro, bright yellow on the screen, which research has shown can prove challenging for people with autism. There’s also no dialogue so it there is no language barrier and therefore easily translatable to other languages.
Credit: Callum Pilkington
“Using cinematic sound effects and simple labels makes the complexity easily understandable for a wide audience. So, whatever your background, you’ll take something away from the MicroToons story.
“As a sister and carer of a brother with nonverbal autism, growing up he’s never done science in his schools because it’s understandably never a priority – the focus is usually on social skills and self-care skills.”
Dr Fu regularly visits schools which has emphasised to her the impact inclusive messaging can have.
“As an invited speaker for TechTrails, I shared about my journey from a girl to a scientist and showcased MicroToons in a mainstream school,” she said. “I mentioned how the drawings were done by a girl with autism and a girl in Year 9, she came up and said, ‘I have autism and I’ve never thought that I could do STEM’.
“So, the dream is to create a MicroToons TV series because the experiences I’ve had when showing it to people proves it can be really meaningful and empower young students to be artists and scientists.”