Game Accessibility Information Symbol
0 Comments Published by OneSwitch.org.uk on Sunday, January 27, 2013 at 5:18 PM.
The symbol above is a public domain method of marking any computer product (game, controller, utility, console and so on), as having easy to reach accessibility information.
This can support potential end-users of a gaming product decide if it might suit their own personal abilities. It will hopefully also support developers to better promote the accessibility of their own gaming ware.
A simple example of this would be for an indie game developer to include the symbol on their game's home-page, alongside a short hyper-link pointing to a game review that includes a break down of game accessibility.
See the "Game Accessibility Information Symbol" web-page to learn more, and to down-load the image pack.
Labels: Campaigning, game accessibility
The SpecialEffect Centre
0 Comments Published by OneSwitch.org.uk on Monday, March 21, 2011 at 3:55 AM.
The 10th of March 2011 saw the official launch of 'The SpecialEffect Centre', including GamesLab, GamesRoom and offices. The images above however, are of my journey there the night before (sort of). I'd never seen LED cats-eyes before, they felt very Tron like and apt for the day to come.
Back to the point... so what is The SpecialEffect Centre? Well, it's based in Oxfordshire in the UK and serves as the base point for many different game accessibility projects. The GameRoom acts as a place where people can try out accessible game equipment for themselves. For those unable to get to Oxfordshire, there are other opportunties to try out this gear through Accessible Gaming Road Shows and a fantastic loan-library (UK only at this time).
For a more international outreach, the SpecialEffect GameBase is dedicated to sharing knowledge. To save me repeating what's been said across the web, here's some links to the story of the day: Telegraph; EuroGamer; The Guardian; C&VG; Engadget; Trabasack.
Local MP and the UK's prime minister, David Cameron opened the centre, then proceeded to take a thrashing from the ever brilliant Shaz Hossain on GT5. Speeches were given including from those representing the association for UK interactive entertainment (ukie). Accessible gaming marches on.
Image via: ClearViewTraffic.com.
Conference on Video Game Translation and Accessibility in Barcelona
3 Comments Published by Javier Mairena on Monday, November 1, 2010 at 5:19 AM.
I International Conference on Translation and Accessibility in Video Games and Virtual Worlds: 2nd and 3rd December 2010 in Barcelona, Spain
The I International Conference on Translation and Accessibility in Video Games and Virtual Worlds aims to be an interdisciplinary meeting point for all those interested in the fields of game localisation and accessibility, as well as accessibility and the role of translation in virtual worlds.
Read more »
Labels: events, game accessibility
Accessibility Fusion: Combining different perspectives from across the gaming community to improve accessibility for players with disabilities.
0 Comments Published by Chris Quinn on Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 5:45 AM.
The goal of Accessibility Fusion (http://www.accessibilityfusion.com/) is to generate interest in building an online community where game developers, players with disabilities, and accessibility experts can come together and share ideas about creating accessibility guidelines for computer and video games.
Most mainstream computer and video games today are not accessible for players with disabilities. The problem is not necessarily that they cannot be made accessible, but rather it is a lack of open dialog across the industry between game developers, players with disabilities, and accessibility experts. Everyone is working in silos, which makes it easy to lose communication and momentum. The purpose of this site is to have a central place to facilitate this dialog and increase awareness about accessibility in games.
This website is essentially translates my master's thesis, "Applying the User-Centered Design Process to Improve the Accessibility of Real-Time Strategy Games for Players with Physical Disabilities," into a blog. I used Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne as a case study for this project and wrote a keyboard accessibility script that makes it, and other RTS games accessible to players with physical disabilities. It successfully serves as a proof of concept for the process of creating accessible mainstream games, but the online community needs input from developers, experts, and users to be successful and grow for a full-scale application.
If you are interested, then please contribute ideas to get the ball rolling!
Labels: game accessibility, real-time strategy games, user-centered design process, warcraft 3
