Advanced VCD Capstone Project: Service Dog Teaching Aid
For this project I chose to focus on book cover design and packaging design to help teach children about the typically invisible disabilities such as diabetes, epilepsy, and hearing impairment.
The vest features an awareness ribbon that is the color used to represent each disability. In this case, it is epilepsy. The ribbon contains a squeaker and acts as a toy for the service dog. There is velcro on the vest and the dog's mouth so it can be placed in two locations.
The underside of the vest is made of a purple fleece material. When the service dog is "off-duty" children can flip the vest inside-out and use it as a jacket for the dog or lay it on the ground as a sleeping mat. This will bring about a conversation with children about why service dogs cannot be pet while working.
The vest also features a pocket that holds a small children's book narrating a day in the life of Harold the Helper Dog. Children can interact with the toy while reading the book. This targets several types of learning: spacial, linguistic and kinesthetic. Therefore, impacting a wide range of children.
Along with Harold, there are two other Helper Dogs in the series. Hudson is the hearing impairment Helper Dog. You can tell he is always listening with one ear up!
Hattie is the insulin detection dog. She has the best nose around and can sniff out blood sugar faster than light!
