With the FIRST season coming to a close, I recently made my way to Houston for World Championships. Even in the hectic nature of such a large competition, I had an overall positive experience and wanted to share a few of the things I found helpful.
Quiet Rooms
Quiet rooms are, to me, the most important part of a competition which is trying to create a safe space for neurodivergent students. However, I’ve had some experiences with quiet rooms that were less than ideal, from the lights being entirely off in most of the room, to the room being directly off of a main walkway, letting in a significant amount of noise. This championship had one of the best quiet rooms I have ever seen. It was large enough to avoid feeling crowded, away from major walkways, well marked for everyone to find, and genuinely quiet, at least at the point I was there.
Large Enough Venue for Open Spaces
Sometimes it’s best to get away from crowded, chaotic stands and pits without the restriction of a strictly quiet room. Even with over 30,000 attendees at the championship, there was enough space that I could regularly find somewhere to sit with my friends away from the noise. There were dedicated areas with chairs, tables, and couches to relax and take a break.
Clear Scoreboard
This may be a smaller issue for some, but it really made a difference for me. Often at events, scores are displayed on a large screen with the livestream, scores, and other details all together. At this championship scores were displayed on a long, thin display above the field and livestreams were separate, off to the side. This layout personally made the game much clearer for me to watch and understand, with fewer distractions in my main field of vision.
Visibility of Others
Ultimately one of the best things for feeling comfortable as a neurodivergent person at an event is to know I’m not alone. Obviously this isn’t in my, or an event coordinator’s control, but seeing other people wearing Neurodivergent of FIRST pins, ear defenders, or other accessibility aids is reassuring that I’m not the only one in my situation.
I’d like to leave this post with a note for other neurodivergents who might need to hear it: your needs matter above all else at competitions. Don’t be afraid to take a minute to chill out, to take advantage of quiet rooms or other spaces to get away from the chaos, or to use sensory aids like headphones or sunglasses. If others have an issue with who you are and what you need, that isn’t your problem, and while it may be exhausting to advocate for your needs at times, you ultimately deserve to have as good of a time as everyone else.
I hope to see more event coordinators taking neurodivergent folk into consideration, and seeing the largest competition all year doing a lot of things well may be a good first step toward that. I’m excited for the future of robotics competitions around the world, especially with advocacy for our accessibility needs.
Devin Pierce
Neurodivergent of FIRST Admin
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