Thomas Westin

Advances in game accessibility from 2005 to 2010

The research in the area of game accessibility has grown significantly since the last time it was examined in 2005. This paper examines the body of work between 2005 and 2010. We selected a set of papers on topics we felt represented the scope of the field, but were not able to include all papers on the subject. A summary of the research we examined is provided, along with suggestions for future work in game accessibility. It is hoped that this summary will prompt others to perform further research in this area.

Design of a Curriculum Framework for Raising Awareness of Game Accessibility

While game accessibility is well researched, many game developers lack awareness of issues and solutions and there is no framework to support educators in teaching about game accessibility. This study is based on an international survey to accessibility researchers, as well as people in the game industry and related communities. The quantitative data shows the most weighted topics in a curriculum, and the qualitative data provides detailed quotes to explain how a curriculum framework could be designed. Results also show that there is a need to change attitudes to game accessibility, but also to focus on practice, basic concepts and needs of disabled in an introductory course, while an advanced course could focus more on theory and solutions which are harder to implement. Future research is to follow-up this study to further validate our conclusions.

Evaluation and Redesign of a Curriculum Framework for Education About Game Accessibility

Game Accessibility (GA) has been brought to the front of the video game landscape thanks to a recent but major change in the US law called the Communications and Video Accessibility Act; GA is now a legal obligation for game developers in the US. However, there is a gap between legislation and practice of GA. This study is based upon a previous tentative curriculum framework (TCF) for GA. The questions are: What are the opinions among educators and game developers regarding the TCF? How could the TCF be redesigned? To answer the questions, the TCF was surveyed with practitioners and researchers in the GA community. This paper presents an evaluation and redesign of the TCF, divided into different categories, depending on the students’ profiles, scopes and skills. Furthermore, how the curriculum content can be created and shared is also discussed, as well as future work.

Game Accessibility Guidelines and WCAG 2.0 – A Gap Analysis

Game accessibility is to remove unnecessary barriers for people with disabilities (PwD), within the limitation of game rules. Canvas in HTML5 and WebGL means that virtually every web browser is a game runtime environment. The problem is that web-based games can only be optimised to follow WCAG within limits of game rules and WCAG may not include what is needed for accessible games. The W3C Silver Taskforce is at the time of this writing preparing the next version of WCAG. This paper compares WCAG 2.0 and a set of current game accessibility guidelines (GAG), to answer: (1) Which similarities and differences can be found between WCAG 2.0 and GAG?; (2) How may these differences inform the W3C Silver Taskforce in the ongoing work to prepare the next version of WCAG?; and (3) How could the optimisation for accessibility in web-based games be performed? 107 GAGs were compared with WCAG 2.0, resulting in 61 survey questions plus comments and demographics, sent to experts and other users of WCAG. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted. Conclusions are that there is a clear gap but WCAG 2.1 bridges a few parts. Furthermore, the study seems relevant for the Silver Taskforce in understanding the demarcation line between apps in general and games and possibly for how extended reality applications could be made more accessible.

Supporting Sustainability Through Collaborative Awareness Raising – A Case of Sri Lankan Telecentres

For the development of sustainable ICT services, participation of the local communities is crucial. A meaningful involvement requires awareness and understanding of the various possibilities of the ICTs. In this paper, the processes of awareness raising among underprivileged population in the Sri Lankan tea estate district of Nuwara Eliya are examined, drawing on the findings from an empirical study conducted at two telecentres. A specific participatory methodology, where co-inspirational sessions and brainstorming constituted main activities of co-creation of knowledge was applied. Our empirical data confirms that the participatory methods can trigger curiosity and engagement among participants. Ideas and suggestions that emerged during brainstorming demonstrate relevance, realism as well as they are a proof of real needs and requirements of a population that lives under difficult conditions in remote locations. Participatory methods can initiate community engagement for a longstanding, sustainable transformation of the TCs, in collaboration with ICT developers, and TC staff.

Telecenters for the Future in Tea Estates of Sri Lanka

This paper reports on a study conducted at one of the Sri Lankan tea estate districts, exploring the present day status of telecenters to examine how they have succeeded in meeting the initial high expectations attached to them. During a field study, two major types of telecenters have been examined through observations, interviews and document analysis. Our findings suggest that the challenges of the initiation phase still prevail. The hopes are placed on the younger generation, as they are regarded as those who can benefit from the ICTs and thus contribute to the development of the remote communities of tea estates. In the concluding discussion, we advocate for the possibilities of co-designing new services that might help to transform the telecenters to meet the needs and requirements of the tea estate communities of today and tomorrow.

Balancing game universes for playing without sight or hearing.

Equal access to cultural activities is important for inclusion and computer gaming is one of the most common activities in digital culture. However, many people with impairments are excluded from participating. While parallel game universes (PGUs) provide a method to achieve equal access, the question is: how can a balanced collaborative real-time game be designed with the help of PGU for playing without sight or hearing? Balance is a central concept in game design and is important to avoid perceived cheating or disadvantages due to individual or environmental differences. The question was examined with a design science approach, where a game prototype was created in two iterations with a structured design method and evaluated using interviews and observations. In this first step of a more long-term study, ten experienced gamers without impairments were selected with purposive sampling to provide relevant data through simulation of temporary impairments or environmental issues, which can affect many or all gamers. By sorting out these issues first, later testing with actual blind and deaf gamers can focus on more specific issues for each group. The ten participants played either without sight or hearing. The results confirm the use of PGUs for creating a balanced experience but also finds that while multiplayer feel is not optimal, it is a reasonable trade-off for universal access for blind and deaf being able to play together. The results also show that a help system and equal understanding of the game play between the blind and deaf players are important aspects to achieve game balance. Further research should be done involving actual blind and deaf gamers, and similar evaluations of game balance should be conducted with users having other types of impairments.

Return on Investment in Game Accessibility for Cognition Impairments

Education is a human right but many pupils in Sweden, especially boys, have trouble of grading in school. Formal education exists to socialise young people in society, which today is characterised by a digital culture, where playing computer games is one of the most common youth activities. However, previous research has shown: barriers of using games in school; different views of games in school (e.g. as tools or culture); and that the potential for social inclusion through games should be investigated further. Related to this, there are also issues of accessibility in games. As the games in this study are commercial products and guidelines exist for how to achieve game accessibility, one issue of game accessibility concerns investment. Thus, the problem in this study is: The barriers of the formal education system related to games as well as the issues of games related to accessibility are obstacles, which have to be addressed from the perspective of inclusion.Based on the problem, two questions were investigated. The first question was: -When situations were found where the learning worked, how were meaningful affordances created by the pupils? This was studied with ethnography in an upper secondary education designed for gamers (P2) between 2010 and 2012. P2 was aimed at youth who have had different but significant issues in traditional school, and a strong interest in games. Data was collected with semi-structured interviews, participatory observation and various media files and game environments created by the pupils. Analysis was made iteratively with both abductive and retroductive approaches, where tentative hypotheses were created and rejected along the way. The results show that the pupils’ affordances made them interested in attending formal education, in contrast to their previous school experiences. However, when P2 was transformed into traditional education, the affordances broke down.The second question was: - Can implementation of solutions for increased accessibility with focus on cognitive impairments give return on investment for game developers? A web-based survey was conducted, sent to ~100 game producers in Sweden and the USA. Based upon previous research with census data of people with disabilities, it was calculated that ~4% of the population (those with cognitive impairments) would benefit from following available game accessibility guidelines. The questions concerned the number of man-hours each of the basic guidelines. The results showed that it would require ~3% of the total budget. As this is less than the number of potential gamers who would benefit from the guidelines, it indicates that return on investment can be achieved. The return on investment is also discussed from goal rational and value rational points of view. Finally, further research is presented.