• This initiative is part of the Museo Fácil program, created by the Education Department of the Thyssen Museum with the support of Fundación Iberdrola España.
  • It is an accessible video game of an inclusive nature, which aims to make visible and normalize a different reality and make it accessible to all audiences.
  • Grupo AMÁS, AMEB, CEIP Marcelo Usera, CRPS Latina, Municipal Centers for the Elderly of the Puente de Vallecas district and Gammera Nest have participated in the project.

The Education Department of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza presents its project The Dedal Games (Los juegos del dedal), an accessible and inclusive video game, developed collectively with different communities, in which the Iberdrola España Foundation has collaborated with the participation of CEIP Marcelo Usera, the Asociación Madrileña de Espina Bífida (AMEB), Grupo AMÁS, the Municipal Senior Citizens’ Centers of Vallecas and CRPS Latina. It has had the advice and support of Gammera Nest, which has worked in coordination with the Education Area and has been responsible for all the technical development.

The Dedal Games is part of Museo fácil, the collaborative cognitive accessibility program created by the Education Department with the support of the Iberdrola España Foundation and the AMAS Group, and with the participation of various entities depending on the project.

Rufino Ferreras, head of the Education Area, and Fernando García Sánchez, president of Fundación Iberdrola España, opened this presentation by highlighting the role of education as a fundamental element within the social mechanism. For his part, Rufino Ferreras thanked all the foundations and associations involved in the project for their participation, especially Fundación Iberdrola España, which regularly collaborates with the education and social action lines of the Education Area by supporting programs such as Hecho a medida, Dinamo/Alternador and other projects within Museo Fácil, such as the publication of Tejiendo vidas, contando cuadros, a graphic novel in easy reading by Aitor Saraiba, and the easy reading guide to the museum. Fernando Sánchez wanted to point out the “delicacy, care and heart” that the museum’s Education Department puts into each of its social action initiatives, with which the foundation identifies in its commitment to integration and inclusion, and admired the enormous effort made in recent months to bring The Dedal Games to fruition.

In the words of Daniel Sánchez Mateos, director of Gammera Nest, The Dedal Games “is a video game made from accessibility”, in which the working groups of these associations have decided “what happens in the game and how it happens”. The result is a total of five stories, each one related to a work in the museum, which form the backbone of a story that reflects the interests and problems of these communities, such as unwanted loneliness, suffering, internal conflicts, how to ask for help, discrimination and equality. The player must overcome challenges and go through the different works, facing diverse situations and obstacles and interacting with characters that make differences a parameter of normality and respect. The idea behind the game is to make visible and normalize a different reality and make it accessible to all audiences.

In its search for greater accessibility, the video game allows to play in easy reading validated by AMÁS Fácil or augmentative communication, with the support of ARASAAC’s SAAC’s developed by Carmen Piedrola from CEIP Marcelo Usera.

This video game is the result of a long period of work between these entities and the museum, which allows the exercise of the right to participation and culture in an active way of the different communities involved in its development, making their voices and interests visible. In addition, it facilitates and enriches the knowledge of the collection through new experiences and stories, creates a network, allows access to new technologies and is a material of cognitive accessibility attractive to any reader or visitor.

A year of challenges in and out of theaters.

“The WHO recognizes art and culture as a basic element in the health and well-being of the population. Therefore, we not only work in the exercise of the right to participation and culture, but also in the welfare of the whole community by generating a model of normality based on respect for diversity, which implies a social transformation”. With these words, Alberto Gamoneda, educator of the department, highlights the museum’s mission as an educational and inclusion agent that, far from slowing down during the pandemic, has materialized in numerous activities of a social nature during the 2020-2021 academic year, exhibited at this event. In order to meet the needs of the community, the work possibilities have been extended to the virtual environment, so that a total of 220 activities, both face-to-face and online, have been carried out.

In the online environment, the following activities have been developed Around a table. Miradas diversas (video-meetings with professionals working with different communities), Proyecto Sur, a space for art and inclusive and community meetings opened by participants and mental health care resources in the southern area of Madrid, as well as video-activities and podcasts.

The face-to-face activity has remained active mainly with the traditional visits to the museum, but also with programs such as MU_DA (Museum and Dance), ACOGE (Reinforcement of the learning of Spanish as a second language of coexistence for organizations providing care to refugees and migrants), D-SEA (Affective-sexual education through art), included in Made to Measure, and Dinamo/Alternador, training and dialogue meetings with professionals from community and social-health areas.

Through these programs, people who do not have easy access to the museum can have greater visibility and actively contribute to this network to create a model of social transformation in which culture is a common good of which we can all be a part.

Iberdrola, committed to society

Iberdrola, since its creation, has been committed to the energy, cultural and social development of the communities in which it is present. In this sense, it represents a further step in this commitment by promoting initiatives that contribute to improving people’s quality of life. One of the Foundation’s main areas of action focuses on the care, maintenance and promotion of art and culture. In this way, Fundación Iberdrola España collaborates with the museum’s Education Area in its mission to improve accessibility to the collection and its contents.