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Exploring immersive innovation

Arrow enables Eric Knows to expand its impact

Bishop Auckland

Eric Knows

CharityImmersive technology

Their Challenge

What started as a simple idea in 2018 – to make the world more inclusive and understanding – quickly blossomed into Eric Knows.

Set up and run by people with firsthand experience of neurodiversity and disability, Eric Knows works with disabled and neurodivergent children, young people and adults, helping them to fulfil their potential. With a strong belief that inclusion should be built into all aspects of society, the team works to make information, opportunities and learning more accessible.

Through its programmes and projects, Eric Knows helps autistic, disabled, and neurodivergent people to build skills and confidence, gain nationally recognised qualifications, develop independence, and explore opportunities for work, volunteering, and personal growth.

Eric Knows also delivers an advisory service to the tourism, culture and hospitality sector, as well as other organisations, to help them understand how better to accommodate people with neurodiversity and disabilities. Its online resource, Eric’s Atlas, offers a guide to finding accessible locations across the North East, helping people to make informed choices about a whole host of museums, attractions and venues.

As a charity, the team at Eric Knows were concerned about the organisation’s overreliance on grant funding and were keen to explore new sources of income generation. They were particularly keen to explore how immersive technology could be used to expand and enhance both their training and advisory services.

The work from Arrow has given me a roadmap and the report was amazing. It was also really timely as I’ve been able to secure some funding to take on three new members of staff to help implement some of the report’s recommendations. The Arrow team have been brilliant, really supportive throughout the project and always on hand to answer any questions I had.
Ella Bains

Founder and CEO, Eric Knows

Arrow Analyses the Business Challenge

Eric Knows teamed up with Sunderland University’s Arrow innovation team to undertake research into options for enhancing and expanding the organisation’s services.

The primary aim of the study undertaken by the Arrow team was to investigate and identify areas where digital and immersive technology could be used to support people with a neurodivergence or other disability, which could be used by Eric Knows to expand and commercialise aspects of service delivery. This included finding opportunities to use immersive technology to drive improvements across core areas of delivery, as well as extending the scope of the commercial services offered by the organisation.

The study was undertaken by academic Dr. Juila Janfeshar Nobari, who focused on the revenue generation opportunities for Eric Knows, and Arrow Senior Innovation Associate, Roger Thomas, who assessed the options for implementing immersive technologies.

Their extensive, detailed report outlines a range of opportunities for Eric Knows to use immersive technology to develop new revenue streams across a range of services. For example, using VR and AR to enhance training and work placements; using immersive technologies to enhance awareness training, such as virtual tour advisory services to raise awareness of the needs of autistic, disabled, and neurodivergent people; and enhancements to the Eric Knows website and content development.

The study gave Eric Knows a wealth of advice on potential services and the target markets for these services, as well as suggested fee structures and potential revenue and funding streams. The report also provides a detailed exploration of the potential technologies that could be used to deliver these services, and which ones would be the most appropriate and useable for Eric Knows.

Founder and Trustee of Eric Knows, Ella Bains, believes the work of Arrow has been really valuable in helping the organisation to plan for the future and start taking practical steps towards its growth and development.

Following on from the Arrow report and start of three fully paid interns through a funded employment initiative, the team at Eric Knows have created a third element of their charity. Able 360, creates immersive 360° tours to help everyone explore venues remotely, build confidence, and to plan visits with ease. This reduces anxiety in visitors and helps welcome everyone into unfamiliar spaces before they arrive in person.

Hear from our university partners

Eric Knows provide a unique and necessary service and it was humbling to be able to support them. The aim was to identify and guide them as to which, and how immersive technologies they can use to both further their services and strengthen a commercial offering. The academic support Dr. Julia Nobari provided gave critical business insights. Collectively hopefully the report will prove invaluable.
Roger Thomas

Arrow Senior Innovation Associate, Sunderland University

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