Session Outlines
International Game Developers Association
Please put session outlines here and I'll move them to a better place soon!
Academics: (3 - 20 minute sessions)[Kevin Bierre]
1. Overview of current research a. Game specific i. Very little available ii. Most of the authors are in this room b. General Research i. Large amounts available ii. Easy to find iii. Typical topics (give examples of each) 1. Interfaces for seniors 2. Interfaces for blind 3. Uses of captioning (Deaf) 4. Design issues related to accessibility 5. Integration of accessibility in to courses 2. Coursework a. Accessibility as a topic in intro courses b. Accessibility in HCI courses i. Accessibility vs. usability c. Accessibility as a separate course i. “Access & Accessibility” at RIT ii. Other similar courses
Discussion topics:
1. Developers: Did your introductory programming courses cover accessibility? If so, how much coverage was given and what was covered?
2. Other: Did you have any exposure to accessibility issues in school? If so, what was covered?
3. Do you think it’s a good idea to introduce accessibility to students early? Why?
4. Ideas on introducing accessibility to students?
5. Do you think accessibility could be introduced during high school classes? Would it be a good idea? Advantages or drawbacks?
6. Do you think there should be more games related research? Why or why not? a. What areas should we be researching? b. Areas to avoid? c. Who could fund this? d. How could we get results to those who could use them?
7. Other ideas you’d like to share regarding accessibility and research?
Physically Disabled Gamers (working title): [Barrie Ellis of OneSwitch.org.uk and Eric Walker of Ominous Development]
1/2 hour for presentation 1/4 hour for demonstration and hand's on activities and questions)
1. Physical Barriers Gamers Regularly Face and Why
2. Accessible Game Controllers - (what people are presently using and how)
3. Accessible Games - (focus on existing games with features that help remove physical barriers to play)
4. One Switch Games - (reducing controls to their simplest)
5. Strange Attractors One Switch Game - (personal thoughts from Eric + demonstration)
6. Accessibility Tips - (focussed on overcoming physical barriers)
7. Conclusion
Will need a fairly powerful PC with an overhead projector and Strange Attractors installed.
Techniques for supporting motor impaired users with examples [Giannis Georgalis of ICS FORTH (replacing Dimitris Grammenos)]
(20 minutes presentation)
For our presentation we will use two universally accessible games developed by the HCI Lab of ICS-FORTH: UA-Chess & Access Invaders focusing on the aspects of these game that render them accessible to motor-impaired people and suggesting how these could be reused in other games.
General
1. Introduction to the concept of scanning & hierarchical scanning
2. External vs. embedded scanning
UA-Chess
3. Demo of how scanning is used in UA-Chess & point out how scanning can be implemented using a focus manager
4. How the technique can be re-used in any strategy game
Access Invaders
5. How scanning is employed for interacting with the game’s interface
6. How gamers that can use 3, 2, or just 1 switch are supported and additional customization capabilities for supporting people with different types of motor-impairments
7. Ideas for re-using these techniques in other games
Also, we will present 1-2 slides about the Universally Accessible Games Activity of our Lab, in the context of which the two games were developed.
