In general our idea is modeled behind this quote. It is important to note that we are not trying to replace trainings but create an experience that puts the user in the shoes of someone who was discriminated against. We hope that this will evoke empathy which will motivate people to make pro-social changes. To bring this idea to life, our proposed solution works in three stages:
to allow people to explore specific types of biases (reality aspect). The idea is to have augmented posters around specific locations on campus. On scanning the posters, an augmented video player shows up and the user is able to view a video clip about a person describing their experiences with bias. The application provides a map that directs the users to the various locations.
When the user stops at a location. They unlock a video clip about a persons experience at that location (empathy aspect). In some cases the original location may not be universally accessible (like a bathroom) so we would direct the user to a location close to it. The goal is to use storytelling as a way to evoke empathy.
Finally, we we want channel the emotions that arise for listening to the stories into a more action focused approach. At the end of every clip that the user hears, they are prompted to
1) describe what they think the storyteller was feeling and
2) ask them to come up with an idea for what they could do to help
We think that the app could be organized as a set of "tours". Each tour includes 3-5 destinations where a person can go to unlock a story to listen to. Each tour could be organized as a set of stories about a particular topic or in a particular area.
Additionally, we could make people more aware of their privilege by giving those of a certain race, class, gender, identity "privilege points" in the beginning. This way we aren’t shaming them but merely making them aware of the social inequalities that exist.