As part of World Autism Awareness Day on 2 April 2022, iGA Istanbul Airport (IST) announced the ‘Dreams Are Moving to Digital – From Canvas to Pixels’ initiative, implemented in collaboration with the Turkish Autistic Support and Education Foundation (TODEV) and Upfilts technology partner. While children with autism had the opportunity to experience the accessible services on offer at the airport within the scope of the project, the revenue obtained from the sales of NFTs were donated to TODEV.
Based on its ‘Airport For Everyone’ principle, caring about the rights of individuals with special needs from the moment they are born, and focusing on the goal of becoming a more ‘accessible’ airport for all its guests, iGA Istanbul Airport has added other significant social responsibility projects to its works in this area.
The ‘Dreams Are Moving to Digital – From Canvas to Pixels’ initiative was established last November (2021) with the co-operation of the TODEV to guarantee that individuals with autism are better understood by society as a whole. Within the project’s scope, children with autism were asked to paint their dream journey. These images were uploaded to digital platforms such as SparkAR, and then, inspired by the stories created by the children while drawing, the pictures were enhanced using visual effects and animations through various 2D and 3D design applications. The AR technology allows users to experience the enhanced artworks through their own social media accounts. And the digitalisation of these children’s imagination allows them to be better understood.