One of aims of the Game Accessibility project is to gather and provide (links to) resources for developers, publishers and researchers. Under 'Papers' you will find a collection of (academic) writings such as papers, theses, project reports, etc. 'Articles' covers articles, such as news items and gamer stories, published on other websites. 'Multimedia' provides links to audio- and/or video-footage. And under 'Organisations' you will find a list of organisations that are active with game accessibility.
This section of the website is updated regularly.
| Title | Author | Year | Abstract | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Audio Game Survey Results | Mark France | 2007 | Audio games are games that exist entirely in sound allowing accessibility for blind gamers; this report highlights the main problems areas with current audio games. A questionnaire was created and sent out to existing audio gamers to examine the types of people who play audio games and what they want out of their games, the most popular game genres, and the most significant difficulties audio gamers have while learning how to play the games. |  |
| Switch Access to Technology | David Colven & Simon Judge (ACE-Centre) | 2006 | The main subject of this freely downloadable pdf document is the switch user. The document aims to encourage developers to include switch access into their products, and standardise practice and terminology. It explains some of the issues involved for people with severe physical difficulties who access computers and other electronic devices with switches. It details the ways in which switch users interact with computer programs and other technology designed to be directly accessible to them. It also attempts to survey the whole range of issues associated with switch use. | |
| Game Accessibility Interaction Design Patterns | Eelke Folmer | 2006 | Many games suffer from accessibility problems such as lacking captions or being able to use specialized input devices which makes them accessible to a larg part of our population. An estimated 38 million people in the U.S. (14.3% of the population) are suffering from visual, auditory, cognitive or physical limitations. To improve current game design we can look at existing games and try to capture and describe elements of good game design with regard to accessibility. Many accessibility problems are also usability problems: for example playing a game without captions is an accessibility problem for an auditory disabled person but a usability problem for someone playing in a noisy environment. Motivated by this observation we explored how accessibility requirement can be described by existing usability solutions. In our previous research we have described usability solutions using interaction design patterns. A pattern is basically a three part rule describing a relationship between a problem, a context in which the problem occurs and a solution. |  |
| What Blind Gamers Want The Game Industry To Know | Various | 2006 | What you will find here is a compilation of writings by gamers with a visual handicap about their personal gaming experiences from the past and present. Their stories have been collected through the Game Accessibility project (made possible by a financial contribution by NSGK (Nederlandse Stichting voor het Gehandicapte Kind) and the AudioGames.net forum in order to give the video game industry a better understanding of what computer gaming means for a blind gamer. There are many people in the professional game industry who unfortunately have never given thought to blind people playing computer games. Many seem to think that "blind people can't play games, because they are blind" (to quote a developer at the 2004 Electronic Entertainment Expo). Hopefully these gamers' words will help you imagine what it is like to play a game while not being able to see and inspire you to make a change. |  |
| Guidelines for developing accessible games | Media Lunde Tollefsen | 2006 | This document presents a list of guidelines based on guidelines defined by MediaLT and the IGDA GA-SIG Game Accessibility white paper. | |
| Alternative Access – Feelings and Games 2005 Proceedings | Grigori Evreinov (ed.) et al. | 2005 | The seminar “Alternative Access: Feelings & Games” was organized first time in the spring of 2005 at the Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Tampere. The seminar is one of the advanced courses on human-computer interaction supported by TAUCHI Unit for Computer-Human Interaction. Game is a natural environment to study and improve interface design and interaction techniques, to test usability and accessibility. Nevertheless, primarily games are intended for people without sensory problems. There are many blind and visually impaired people; there are people with limited dexterity or a cognitive deficit; there are deaf or dumb people. There is a small group of the deaf-blind users who also need special educational and training tools. Perceptual testing & training are exceptionally important for all. The projects and ideas, which were shared during the seminars, present the novel view and understanding human feelings which should be tested as early as possible; moreover, actual or residual feelings might be involved and developed through technologies and augmented communication. | |
| If Looks Could Kill – An Evaluation of Eye Tracking in Computer Games | Erika Jonsson | 2005 | The possibility to track human eye gaze is not new. Different eye tracking devices have been available for several years. The technology has for instance been used in psychological research, usability evaluation and in equipment for disabled people. The devices have often required the user to utilize a chinrest, a biteboard or other cumbersome equipment. Hence, the use of eye tracking has been limited to restricted environments.In recent years, new non-intrusive eye tracking technology has become available. This has made it possible to use eye tracking in new, natural environments. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of eye tracking in computer games. A literature study was made to gather information about eye tracker systems, existing eye gaze interfaces and computer games. The analysis phase included interviews with people working with human-computer interaction and game development, a focus group session and an evaluation of computer games. | |
| Switch Access to Technology | David Colven & Andrew Lylsey (ACE-Centre) | 2005 | The 2005 edition of the freely-downloadable 53-page guide to introduce software developers to the issues regarding accessible software. Provides an general overview of the access problems posed by various disabilities, and gives guideline advice about how to deal with them. The document starts by defining the needs of those requiring accessibility, and outlines the benefits of providing it. Three principles of accessible software are presented, along with case studies of how developers can design their software accordingly. The Appendices include a good listing of resources, centres and organisations that can provide further advice or information on accessibility. | |
| Accessibility in Games: Motivations and Approaches | IGDA GA-SIG | 2005 | This is the official Game Accessibility white paper written by the IGDA Game Accessibility Special Interest Group. The purpose of this white paper is to provide information about game accessibility. Currently, game accessibility has been addressed in only a limited manner. By providing information about what game accessibility is, how important it is to disabled gamers, and by looking at the current state of affairs, we hope to start discussions on how games can be made more accessible to a wider population. | |
| Game Not Over: Accessibility Issues in Video Games | IGDA GA-SIG | 2005 | An issue that has been facing the game industry recently is the need to provide accessible games. There are various legal, financial, and ethical reasons for wanting more accessible games. This paper will examine the scope of the problem by reviewing the need for accessibility, the current state of the industry, and some proposed initiatives that we feel should start to occur in the near future. We also will look at case studies of several commercial games that have provided accessibility features. | |
| Accessible Game Controllers | Abilitynet | 2005 | This factsheet is for anyone with an interest in computer gaming, in particular consoles, and disability. It is intended to raise awareness of the adaptations that exist to help people with a disability use games consoles. | |
| GDC 2005 Roundtable Report | IGDA GA-SIG | 2005 | This roundtable examined issues pertaining to gamers with a variety of disabilities as well as issues/challenges to creating more accessible mainstream games and “serious games.” With 10-30 participants in each session, this roundtable covered case studies of accessible games, as well as gathering and discussing information about accessibility needed by the game development community. | |
| Playing Audio-only Games: A compendium of interacting with virtual, auditory Worlds | Niklas Röber & Maic Masuch | 2005 | Talking about games refers in today's world often to the play of audio-visual computer games. Since their first introduction in the 1960s, computer games have evolved in many ways and are today one of the fastest growing industries. Besides the classic visual games, another niche has emerged over the last decade: audio-only computer games. The main difference to conventional games is that these games can only be played and perceived through sound and acoustics. Although, initially developed by and for the visually impaired community, these games posses huge potentials for mobile (transportable) gaming and can be enjoyed by all hearing. In this work we present an overview of audio-only games, and discuss the methods and techniques to play and design such auditory worlds. We further explore the evolved genres and address the advantages, as well as the limitations of audio based gaming. Our work is motivated by our own research in this area and the development of a framework, which allows an easy design and setup of audio-only computer games. | |
| Playing in the Sandbox: Developing games for children with disabilities | Paul Kearney | 2005 | Many researchers believe that special games are needed for people with special needs. However, this study highlights some of the issues surrounding computer games and disabled children by conducting interviews to ask them what games they would like to play. Interestingly, they wanted to play the same games that everyone else did. What they do need is a way of interacting with these games, especially those on Xbox and Playstation consoles, which require two very dexterous hands to control. This paper is the start of an ongoing project to investigate input devices for disabled people, to allow them to interact with other players through playing commercial multiplayer games. The study also considers the issues of using computer games to test the abilities of disabled people in an attempt to integrate them into mainstream society. | |
| Audio Games: New perspectives on game audio | Dan Gärdenfors & Johnny Fribergr | 2004 | This paper discusses the design of audio games, a quite new computer game category that originates from games for players with visual impairments as well as from mainstream music games. In the TiM project (Tactile Interactive Multimedia), SITREC develops three sound-based games that point out new directions for game audio design. The TiM games demonstrate different ways in which games can be designed around an auditory experience. Several unique features of audio games are presented emphasising unexplored potentials for interactivity and future development areas are suggested. SITREC proposes an approach to the design of auditory interfaces that takes three listening modes into consideration: casual listening, semantic listening and reduced listening. A semiotic model is presented that illustrates this view on sound object design and ways in which sounds can be combined. The discourse focuses on issues of continuous display, musicality and clarity, and introduces the notion of ”spatialised game soundtracks,” as opposed to separated background music and game effect sounds. The main challenge when developing auditory interfaces is to balance functionality and aesthetics. Other important issues are the inclusion of meta-level information in order to achieve a high level of complexity and to provide elements of open-endedness. This refers to planning the overall gameplay, as well as to designing individual sound objects and combining them into complex, interactive soundscapes. | |
| Guidelines for the development of entertaining software for people with multiple learning disabilities | Media Lunde Tollefsen | 2004 | Persons with multiple learning disabilities have very different assumptions and requirements making it difficult to set up guidelines for the development of entertaining software. The implementation of recommendations in this document should however allow many more to use the standard programmes. The purpose of these guidelines is that program developers should take into consideration different user groups, which will benefit both the producers and the users. The guidelines are for entertaining products, but many of the items are of course valid for all program development. The guidelines are primarily for PC products, but the principles are equally relevant for other platforms (Mac, PS2, X-box,..). | |
| The Sonified Towers of Hanoi | Fredrik Winberg & Sten-Olof Hellström | 2003 | This paper presents a study of an auditory version of the game Towers of Hanoi. The goal of this study was to investi-gate the nature of continuos presentation and what this could mean when implementing auditory direct manipulation.We also wanted to find out if it was possible to make an auditory interface that met the requirements of a direct ma-nipulation interface. The results showed that it was indeed possible to implement auditory direct manipulation, but us-ing Towers of Hanoi as the underlying model restricted the possibilities of scaling the auditory space. The results alsoshowed that having a limited set of objects, the nature of continuos presentation was not as important as how to interactwith the auditory space. | |
| Designing Sound-Based Computer Games | Dan Gärdenfors | 2003 | Designing sound-based interactive entertainment for visually impaired users poses several challenges. This article points out some central issues faced when developing sound-based computer games. The three games described here were developed for the Swedish Library of Talking Books and Braille (TPB), to be published on the TPB Internet site. These games, Towers of Hanoi, Memory and Tag, can be played without the aid of graphics, although they do also feature animations of a style designed for partially sighted players. The games are quite small Flash applications, suitable for web publishing, and while not so complex as some other titles, they still emphasise some crucial design issues of creating sound-based computer games. | |
| Audio Games: Fun for all? Just for fun? | Sue Targett and Mikael Fernström | 2003 | In this paper we investigate if it is possible to create entertaining computer games that use only non-speech aural feedback and if such games could be used for skills acquisition or in therapeutic applications. To answer these questions we developed two computer games, Os & Xs (Tic Tac Toe) and Mastermind, representing all necessary information through auditory display. User testing confirmed that the games were playable and early indications are that the games can be entertaining, particularly for the blind community. Testing also suggested that playing audio games could assist in increasing both memory and ability to concentrate, thus showing potential for both skills acquisition and therapeutic applications. [read more] | |
| The TIM Project: Tactile Interactive Multimedia computer games for blind and visually impaired children | Dominique Archambault, Dominique Burger and Sebastien Sable | 2001 | TIM is a project whose main objective is to offer to visually impaired children of various levels of psychomotor development the possibility to play computer games in an autonomous way. TIM proposes to develop an adapting tool allowing to design high quality computer games using a tactile and audio interface from existing contents. TIM includes high level research on cognitive psychology and education sciences in order to ensure a high level of quality allowing blind children in early youth to use a computer, like sighted children. The software gives to the computer a double role: ludic and educational. For some children, having additional disabilities, like cognitive troubles, it can have a third role: a therapeutic tool. | |
| Title | Author | Year | Introduction | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The role of the mouse in audio games | Brian Bors | 2007 | Pre-build Computers usually ship with a free mouse. Visually impaired user usually don't use that mouse though, the keyboard is a much easier way to control their computer because it doesn’t involve clicking on things. But is it the same story in gaming? Can the mouse add to the gaming experience of an audio game? Can the mouse have more uses than just clicking on things? Could the mouse in some situations even work better than a keyboard? Can a mouse gesture recognition system be enhanced with audio feedback? This article says it can and shows why and how, not just with text, but with three simple downloadable examples. [read more] | |
| Hinn campaigns for disabled gamers | Neil Davidson | 2006 | Game developers take Michelle Hinn's phone calls these days. But they may not always like what she has to say. Hinn is chair of a special interest group in game accessibility that's part of the International Game Developers Association. The adjunct professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is passionate about her cause, opening up video gaming to the disabled. "This is a social justice issue, this is not just a gaming issue," Hinn told a seminar at the recent Montreal International Game Summit. [read more] | |
| Making Video Games Accessible: Business Justifications and Design Considerations | Brannon Zahand | 2006 | Game publishers and developers love to focus on features that will get their titles noticed by the mainstream gaming community, such as graphics and audio. But there is another audience, eager to take part in these games as well. These gamers come from the accessibility community—a community of people with disabilities, as well as those who care about their welfare. This paper is for game content developers and producers who want to reach this market by adding basic accessibility features to help people with disabilities or impairments. [read more]
A copy of the article can also be found at the MSDN home page. This article originally debuted as a lecture at Microsoft's 2006 Gamefest business conference. Click this link to download the lecture material (.ZIP). |
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| The Sound Alternative | Richard A. van Tol | 2006 | Game accessibility for players with a hearing impairment often revolves around text-based closed captions. This is an easy and cheap solution to solve the majority of problems that hearing impaired players face in games. But plain text is not as much fun as the sounds of roaring monsters and exploding rockets. When it comes to making game audio accessible for players with a hearing impairment, is text-based closed captioning the only alternative? In this feature article the author explores the possibilities of alternatives to game audio that might not only make games more accessible, but also more fun. [read more] | |
| The Theory of Parallel Game Universes: A Paradigm Shift in Multiplayer Gaming and Game Accessibility | Dimitris Grammenos | 2006 | Is there a way to set up a chess game where a 6-year old can match up a grand master? Can a blind quadriplegic compete in a massive multiplayer game against sighted, non-motor-disabled, gamers? Can two people cooperatively share a role playing game, when one of them is using a mobile phone and the other a next generation game console? These represent just a few examples of the type of questions that the Theory of Parallel Game Universes aims to address. [read more] | |
| Game Law: Everybody Conga? | Tom Buscaglia | 2006 | Remember those old movies with the long conga line in them? Well, imagine that the line is a line of gamers. But some of the gamers can't dance. So, no conga for them. They're just watching their friends have fun while dealing with a frustrated desire to dance themselves. That is what it is like for an estimated 20-25% of the population over the age of 17. This is because these potential gamers have one or more physical or cognitive disabilities. And the games most of us make do not provide a means for these folks to access them. [read more] | |
| Physical Barriers in Video Games - Problems and Solutions | Barrie Ellis and Eric Walker | 2006 | Inaccessible controllers and inaccessible games are the bane of many disabled peoples lives. Many games have too many buttons to remember, are too fast, and have very little help to offer the player at all. Many games won't allow people to use their favourite controllers, nor change the layout of their controls in a useful way. These barriers cause frustration for many. Games a person might desperately want to play, frequently prove to be an unrewarding, uncomfortable, or impossible challenge in reality. Disabled people regularly facing these barriers are novice gamers, physically disabled gamers, learning disabled gamers and many children up to the age of eight. [read more] | |
| Interview: Games and Disability | Pierluigi Casolari | 2006 | While the interest in the therapeutic benefits of games is on the rise, digital games remain inaccessible to millions of people. People that suffer from severe physical disabilities (such as blindness, for instance) cannot play games. Luckily, some initiatives have been created to solve this overlooked problem, such as audiogames for the blind. Moreover, the IGDA has recently launched Game Accessibility Group, a research squad that is currently investigating how to make games for people with disabilities. We spoke to Michelle Hinn, who is currently doing working on this project. [read more] | |
| Controlling the basics: forget the joypad | Aleks Krotoski | 2006 | Controllers have been on my mind, inspired by a presentation by Infovore's Tom Armitage, and the nomination of the one-switch game Strange Attractors at the Independent Games Festival awards. Armitage argued that the control pad interface adopted by all three major console creators is preposterous, exclusive and inaccessible. [read more] | |
| One Hand Gaming! | Albert | 2006 | Here is a small website with some information about my handicap, and how I game. When I was born I had a shortage of oxygen, that's why my right hand and leg do not function properly. Many friends and family and off course the members of www.xboxworld.nl wonder how I can game, with the loss of my right hand and leg, and at the same time be so good. That's why I put this site togheter, so I can let you guys see how I do this magic. [read more] | |
| Accessible Video Game Controllers | Barrie Ellis | 2006 | One Switch adapt existing game controllers making them switch accessible. Almost all games consoles and computers can be controlled via switches in this way from the 1977 Atari VCS to the PS2 and beyond. [read more] | |
| Success Factors of One-Button Casual Mobile Games | Brandon Sheffield | 2006 | Gamevil has been publishing games in South Korea since the year 2000, but has recently gained some fame for their one-button mobile title, Skipping Stone – the 2005 mobile game of the year across many publications. [read more] | |
| Is the Game Over for Speech Recognition? | Robin Springer | 2006 | Currently offline [read more] | |
| Ouch Guide to ... Switch Gaming | Barrie Ellis | 2005 | If you use a switch interface to access your computer and are into a bit of gaming - or think you might want to be - then read on. We've collected together some top tips, suggested games, accessibility gear, techie info, websites and messageboards you can visit to help you in your quest to become the ultimate gamesmaster. Good luck, young Jedi. [read more] | |
| Interview with Valve's Yahn Bernier on Closed Captions in Half-Life 2 | Reid Kimball | 2005 | Here at Games[CC] we take great interest in researching and developing solutions for adding closed captions into games. While playing Half-Life 2 by Valve Software, it was evident they had done their research and took the issues of closed captioning seriously. Games[CC] and the IGDA Game Accessibility SIG was interested in learning more about the experiences Valve Software had while creating their custom closed captioning system for Half-Life 2. It wasn't long before Yahn Bernier replied to the various questions we asked and his responses are well worth the read. [read more] | |
| One Button Games | Berbank Green | 2005 | This article is an exploration of interaction. It is likely to appeal most to designers with a particular interest in the low-level mechanics of basic actions. It does not intend to set out facts and figures, rather its intent is to pose questions, provide suggestions, and present possibilities. The focus is on the abstract, where exploitation of interaction is not considered or considered only in moderation where necessary. A glossary is included in the appendix. [read more] | |
| Improving Game Accessibility | Kevin Bierre | 2005 | For most gamers, the process of setting up a game and starting to play is pretty straight forward: install the game, skim over the instructions, and start playing. Unfortunately, people with disabilities find this process considerably harder. The difficulty starts at the store. A disabled purchaser has no idea if a game is accessible to them or not. There are no ratings on the box that will indicate if the game is closed captioned or supports alternative input devices. [read more] | |
| Accessible Gaming Pioneers | Barrie Ellis | 2005 | This page is a tribute to some of the pioneers in accessible gaming, low-tech and hi-tech. [read more] | |
| Games Need Closed Captioning | Reid Kimball | 2005 | Videogames need closed captioning. Why? Because you and your team have given every ounce of energy they have into making the game. Your creation deserves to be experienced by the widest possible audience. Unfortunately, outside of your control, there are bound to be players who are dying to play your game, but because they are not familar with your game's native language (English, Spanish, etc) or because they may have a hearing impairment, your game will not be experienced in the same way you intended. [read more] | |
| The Blind Fragging The Blind | David Cohn | 2005 | Michael Feir is an avid gamer. He spent so much time playing games in college he created his own online gaming magazine. But Feir doesn't play the best-selling games and has never seen World of Warcraft -- he's blind. It doesn't matter. A growing library of computer games has been built specially for blind gamers, using sound instead of visuals to let players know what's going on around them. [read more] | |
| Blind computer users are playing by ear | Hiawatha Bray | 2005 | There are about a million blind people in America, and they've got as much right to save the universe as anybody else. [read more] | |
| Assistive Technology to Enable Cyber Gamers | Samsung | 2005 | At the Grand Final of World Cyber Games 2005, SAMSUNG Electronics, a leader in the digital technology era, and The Society for the Physically Disabled (SPD), a registered voluntary welfare organization, unveiled plans of a joint collaboration to provide people with physical disabilities an opportunity to experience the joy of gaming through customised assistive technology devices. Special adviser to the collaboration is Rapture Gaming, organizers of World Cyber Games 2005 Singapore National Final. [read more] | |
| Getting Blind-Sighted: Games For All Levels Of Visual Ability | Michelle Thurlow | 2005 | One hobby my visually impaired friend Charlene and I share is a love for games of practically every sort. We've wiled away many a glorious breezy afternoon at the cabin playing card games like Kaiser, 500, Euchre, and Pinochle using my friend's special pack of brailled cards. To this day I'm still trying to figure out how she cheats using that deck. [read more] | |
| Blind Gamers Get Their Own Titles | Geoff Adams-Spink | 2005 | Visually impaired people are now increasingly able to join in the video gaming fun thanks to an ever-expanding range of audio games. [read more] | |
| Game Accessibility | Thomas Westin | 2004 | There is an estimated 180 million people worldwide who have a visual impairment. Of these, between 40 and 45 million persons are blind (World Health Organization, 2001). Add to these people with hearing impairment or deafness, motoric disability and many more, and you realise that accessibility is big business. [read more] | |
| Can bass add an extra dimension for the deaf gamer? | Deafgamers.com | 2004 | Deaf gamers really can get the rough end of the stick when it comes to software titles over the last eight years or so. The advent of the sound card, and more importantly the beginning of it's widespread use, has seen the accessibility of games for deaf gamers go from 100% down to almost 0% in some cases. Of course sound cards are not the sole reason. CD-ROM drives meant that games designers suddenly went from having 1.44MB to 650MB to store their games on and this had a catastrophic effect on games for deaf gamers. [read more] | |
| Deafgamers.com's choice of 2004. | Deafgamers.com | 2004 | There have been many great games in 2004. Every format has had its fair share of great games but we thought we'd take a look back at what we consider to be the two best games on each format. Some of our selections will surprise a few people and I daresay that some of you will completely disagree with what we've picked. In the end of course it all comes down to personal opinion but from the many games we've seen this year there's only a select few that we constantly pull out to play again and again. Let's take a look then at what we consider to be the best games of 2004. [read more] | |
| Accessible gaming | Sile O'Modhrain | 2003 | Many disabled people first get their clutches on decent accessible computers at work; access equipment and software can be prohibitively expensive to buy for home and leisure purposes. [read more] | |
| Playing by Ear: Creating Blind-Accessible Games | Gavin Andresen | 2002 | Have you ever played a game with a configuration option to turn off the graphics? I'm not talking about an option to turn down the level of detail or switch off textures, but to turn off the graphics completely? How many games have you played with options to turn off the sound? [read more] | |
| Going to before | Mr. Bond | 2002 | For all of us, the thought of being paralyzed for life is certainly a horrifying one. Simple tasks like eating and moving can suddenly become meticulous chores. When your whole lifestyle has to change, a long list of recreational activities you used to enjoy just aren't possible. Hundreds of other activities would never be experienced. For a quadriplegic thirty-something, a fast paced online computer game would usually be at the top of that list. Not for Bobby G. [read more] | |
| Gaming With A Disability | Christian "Catachan" D'Amico | 2001 | The average PC gamer has never had things so good… Fast PCs, fast internet connections, great new games with advanced graphics and sound, varied and intriguing storylines and new games constantly on release. Most people take all of this as the standard, and why not? However, there are plenty of dedicated gamers out there who don't find things so easy when it comes to interacting with that new game that revolutionizes the industry. Many people have some form of disability in this world, but that shouldn't stop them from enjoying computer games. [read more] | |
| Games Getting Out Of Hand | Justin Hall | 2000 | Imagine playing a videogame without using your hands. Joysticks, buttons, keyboards and a mouse -- they're integral to the way we think about playing games today. After too much work on a computer, I had severe RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury). My forearms ached and I knew that more work meant permanent injury. I was forced to look for ways to interact with a computer that didn't involve typing or mousing. As it turned out, I was eventually able to get around pretty effectively using my feet and my voice, but that was just word processing. Games proved to be another story, and I realized that games players who lose the ability to use their hands could find themselves stuck with Solitaire. [read more] | |
| Captioning Computer Games | Gary Robson | 1998 | When movies first appeared in the theaters, they had no sound. A sequence of flickering motion was followed by a slide containing some dialog or narration (gee -- captions!), which was then followed by more flickering motion. Deaf and hearing viewers had the same experience at the movies, except for the accompanying music. [read more] | |
The Accessibility videos are licensed under Creative Commons BY.
| Logo | Organisation | Description |
|---|---|---|
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IGDA Game Accessibility Special Interest group (GA-SIG) | The GA-SIG was formed to help the game community strive towards creating mainstream games that are universally accessible to all, regardless of disability. |
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Universally Accessible Games Activity (FORTH ICS) | The Human Computer Interaction Laboratory (HCI Lab) of FORTH-ICS , established in 1989, is an internationally recognised centre of excellence, with accumulated experience in user interface software technologies, design methodologies, and software tools. The Laboratory currently carries out the Universally Accessible Games Activity, in which the principle of universally accessible design is tested with games. It has currently delivered two accessible games: UA Chess and UA Space Invaders. Website: http://www.ics.forth.gr/hci/ua-games/index.html |
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OneSwitch.org.uk | Switch gaming for learning and/or physically disabled gamers). Lots of games and information about switch gaming. |
![Games[CC] logo](pics/logos/logo_gamescc.jpg){kind=logo} |
Games[CC] | Games[CC] is a dedicated group of captioners, translators, artists and programmers who mod existing games to add closed captioning to them. Games[CC]'s first completed project is Doom3[CC] which in addition to adding closed captions and a unique visual sound radar to Doom 3, was also nominated for the IGF Choice Award for Best Doom3 Mod of 2005. |
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AudioGames.net | AudioGames.net is a site dedicated to audio games (games based on sound) and blind-accessible games. Here you find a large database with games, a forum and more! |
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Deafgamers.com | A website with information about playing games with an auditory handicap and a database with game reviews. |
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Ablegamers.com | AbleGamers is a website that looks to bring mainstream games to the disabled community. |
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MediaLT | MediaLT develops games, query books and other computer products for visually impaired children. MediaLT collaborates with a number of persons and professional environments with different expert competence in a wide range of fields. This ensures high quality work, and their goal is to be one of the leading research and development companies in Norway. MediaLT also participates in the UPS project, a project dedicated to increasing the accessibility of mainstream games. |
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Pin Interactive AB | Pin Interactive AB creates concepts for communication and learning environments adapted to the users' needs, from a pedagogical grounding with a technical competence within digital media technology. Pin Interactive AB started the IGDA Game Accessibility SIG in 2003, contributed in writing IGDA white papers and having roundtables and panels at the Game Developers Conference about Game Accessibility. Pin Interactive also won the "Innovation in Audio Award" for their 3D blind-accessible game Terraformers. |
