Roland Ossmann

A Computer Game Designed for All

Computer games are one of the most challenging applications concerning accessibility and usability for people with disabilities. There are only a few games available, which are accessible and most of the time only for a special group of people with specific needs, e.g. games for blind people. Due to this designing games for all and implementing accessibility in mainstream games is a rather new challenge. This paper presents a game designed for all and will discuss the benefits of different accessibility features to several groups of people with disabilities.

Accessibility Issues in Game-Like Interfaces

This is a short position paper which invites to put game accessibility on the agenda of accessibility and assistive technology research. Games are important for social inclusion and concepts of game interfaces enter into standard HCI and web interfaces. This makes game accessibility subject to standard software and web accessibility and asks for according R&D activities. New tools and interfaces have to be developed to bring games accessibility into the mainstream games.

Addressing accessibility challenges of people with motor disabilities by means of AsTeRICS: a step by step definition of technical requirements

The need for Assistive Technologies in Europe is leading to the development of projects which aim is to research and develop technical solutions for people with long term motor disabilities. The Assistive Technology Rapid Integration & Construction Set (AsTeRICS) project funded by the 7th Framework Programme of the EU (Grant Agreement 247730) aims to develop a supporting multiple device integrated system to help people with upper limbs impairment. To this end, AsTeRICS is following the User Centred Design methods to gather the user requirements and develop solutions in an iterative way. This paper reports requirements prioritization procedures. These procedures are described in order to illustrate the user requirements transformation into technical requirements for the system development.

AsTeRICS, a Flexible Assistive Technology Construction Set

Abstract Over the last decades a considerable number of information and communication technology based Assistive Technology devices have become available for people with disabilities. These Assistive Technology devices often ask for adaptation of software and/or hardware to fit the users abilities before they can be used. Within the Project AsTeRICS, a flexible and affordable construction set for the implementation of user driven assistive technologies solutions will be developed. This allows the combination of different sensors to process and manipulate the sensor data to control any supported device. This paper will show how a webcam mouse (head tracker) and a single switch mouse can easily be created and tailored to the user needs and possibilities. Additionally, results of user tests with the head tracker will be presented.

Towards Generalised Accessibility of Computer Games Introduction to the Special Thematic Session

This is the fourth time that a Special Thematic Session on accessible entertainment has been organised at ICCHP and we are beginning to see progress in the field. A decade ago most work focused on how to play computer games with alternative devices; today we are starting to talk about the accessibility of mainstream games. People with disabilities probably make up the single group benefiting the most from Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Not only does ICT improve their ability to do things which could be done another way, but it makes a real difference to independent living: with the support of Assistive Technology (AT) they are actually able to do things they had no chance of achieving before and this in an independent way. This positively affects many situations in their daily lives, at school as well as at work or home and concerns mobility and other issues.

Accessibility of a social network game

The social network Facebook is one of the largest social communities in the internet, where people meet online to post messages and pictures, chat and play games. While Facebook is accessible, Framville, the most played online game, embedded in Facebook, is not accessible for several user groups. This work will give a short overview about state of the art in games accessibility and will give a detailed view about accessibility issues in Fameville and the used technology, Flash. Additionally, possible improvements for Farmville and positive examples of accessible Flash games will be shown.

Making the playstation 3 accessible with AsTeRICS

People with mobility disabilities can hardly play any of the mainstream computer and video games. For most of them, special developed games are the only chance to play games. So, playing together with friends or the family is only possible on a very limited way. Within the Project AsTeRICS, a flexible and affordable construction set for the implementation of user driven assistive technologies solutions will be developed. This allows the combination of different sensors to process and manipulate the sensor data to control any supported device. This paper will show, how a Sony PlayStation 3 can become the supported device, and how the requirements of a mainstream game can be tailored to the possibilities of a disabled person. Furthermore, possible limitations of this solution will be discussed.

Entertainment software accessibility: introduction to the special thematic session

The kids of the first generation who grew up with computer games are now in their forties, and younger people have been surrounded by more and more devices allowing to use such games. The descendants of our old game stations which were displaying 2 bars on a black and white TV set to play tennis, are now very close to very powerful computers. Games appeared also on websites and mobile phones, while portable game stations allow some amazing visual features. The budgets of some of the major games have reached the level of motion pictures, and a huge number of small games are developed every year. Computer games are now in the heart of the youngsters culture. At the same time one could observe also that a growing part of the population of other age groups are using computer games. Indeed a lot of software application implementing the games the people of these older groups want to play have been designed and became more and more simple to use, while the people of these groups have been familiarised to computer at their work. Therefore its not rare to see retired people playing scrabble online or card games.