VR Experience: It’s Just Hyperactivity, Right?

Photo by Tara Winstead

Written by Zoe Gould

Main outline:

An educational day in the life VR experience where you play as an adult character with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In the morning, the character has problems with time management, clumsiness, object permanence and navigational issues as they get ready for work. These manifest in ways such as waking up late for work, leaving their phone in the fridge as they pick up their lunch and turning the wrong way on the drive to work. The character will often do things the player doesn't tell them to simulate the frustration a person with ADHD experiences.

At the office the character experiences short term memory problems, inability to focus, racing thoughts, restlessness, Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (a wave of negative emotions due to a telling off), difficulty with conversations, off-topic and excessive talking. These all hinder the player as they attempt to complete tasks at work. They materialise as thoughts covering the screen so the player can't see their work, crying in the bathroom after being told off for not being on task and talking at a coworker about something off-topic for an excessive amount of time even as the player presses the stop talking button.

Reason for using VR:

People with ADHD are often misunderstood, especially adults which can cause problems to occur in the workplace. VR can help fix this lack of understanding. Even though ADHD is not something you can grow out of, more children are reported to have it than adults. 9.8% of children in 2018 (CDC 2020) and 7% of adults in 2023 (Poll). This is a low statistic because many girls go undiagnosed (Walters 2018) so ADHD actually affects a larger population of people. This means that there is little information out there about how ADHD affects working adults which creates confusion for managers and HR teams. 

‘Through feeling frustration within the virtual world, participants developed more insight into how difficult life can sometimes be for people living with disability’ (Wilding et al 2023). Experiencing the symptoms of ADHD through VR would help managers understand why their workers are behaving and performing differently which would ease tension and allow them to put things in place to help ADHD workers. ‘ADHD employees feel underutilised and have low self-confidence within the firm because they are misunderstood, and are therefore, mismanaged’ (Robbins 2017: 2). VR helps to educate coworkers and managers on what general life and work is like for people with ADHD in a way which immerses them and evokes more empathy than just reading about it. ‘Training employees in differing communication styles can be extremely helpful to promote an ADHD-inclusive culture’ (Maskell 2023) which can improve the lives of ADHD workers and improve the company overall as the player can experience a conversation from a different point of view which can reduce conflicts.

Bibliography:

CDC (NSCH, NHIS). 2020. ‘Percentage of children in the U.S. with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) from 1997 to 2018’. Statista [online]. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/947767/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-share-children-us/ [accessed 18 April 2024].

MASKELL, Leanne. 2023. “Creating an ADHD-Friendly Workplace.” Training Journal (Online).

POLL, Harris. 2023. ‘Percentage of adults in the United States who had ever been diagnosed with select disorders as of 2023’. Statista [online]. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1384439/us-adults-diagnosed-with-select-disorders/ [accessed 18 April 2024].

ROBBINS, Randall. 2017. “The Untapped Potential of the ADHD Employee in the Workplace.” Cogent business & management, 4(1), 1-11.

WALTERS, Anne. 2018. ‘“Girls with ADHD: Underdiagnosed and Untreated.” The Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter 34(11), 8–8.
WILDING, Clare et al. 2023. “Virtual Reality to Foster Empathy in Disability Workers: A Feasibility Study during COVID‐19.” Journal of applied research in intellectual disabilities, 36(1), 132–42.