[games_access] Next GA SIG meeting: Tuesday, 5 July at 2pm US ET

[hinn at uiuc.edu]

Hi everyone!

Well, I am pumped after today's SIG meeting. It was so great 
to see so many of you there today!

To review what was discussed...

* We talked about plans for GDC 2006 (it's never too early!) 
and brainstormed a bit about the tutorial session we're 
planning for and a "meet and greet" at the conference that 
will allow us to reach out to the non-giga pass attendees 
(ie, the students!). We'll be brainstorming more in future 
meetings so there's still plenty of time to give us your 
ideas! We really want to present an interactive session that 
includes game demos that let people know what it's like to 
play a game with a disability (blindfolds were suggested by 
one person). So start thinking about things to do at the 
tutorial session (we have 6 hours to fill!) and we'll be 
talking more about it soon.

* We talked about the book -- at the moment we are waiting 
for the final go ahead from the publisher. Looking good!

* We talked briefly about some upcoming articles for the 
Journal of Game Development (Thomas and Michelle), Gamasutra 
(Kevin), and the ACM Computers in Entertainment Magazine 
(Michelle). Please...if any of you have articles in the 
works or just published, let me know! We love to give props 
to all the SIG members helping to get the word out on game 
accessibility!

* I am working on a template for those of us doing 
conference presentations to use -- it definitely helps to 
have a nice shell to work with! Thomas has sent me a past 
template that he's used that I'll modify for general use. 
Let me know if you need a powerpoint template for a SIG-
related conference talk!

* We're going to have a GDC volunteer assisting us with the 
design overhaul of our website! Yay!!!

* We're getting some general SIG business cards for people 
to hand out at conferences. Email me at hinn at uiuc.edu with 
your snail mail address if you'd like for me to mail you 
some. It will have the SIG website address plus the SIG 
email address on it. 

* The SIG will be sending Microsoft an email quoting Reid on 
his great letter he sent to us on the list and talking about 
things that could be done on Xbox 360 and/or future Xbox 
iterations to improve accessibility. We also talked about 
emailing Sony and Nintendo as well at a (near) future date.

* Again, you are asked to take a look at Reid's survey at 
http://game.rbkdesign.com/cc_survey/index.php?sid=1 and let 
him know your suggestions as soon as possible at 
rkimball at gmail.com

So the next SIG meeting will be held on Tuesday, 5 July 2005 
at 2pm US ET. This will be our new time slot for the near 
future. I'm still analyzing the feedback on meeting venues 
so for now we'll continue using MSN Messenger just so we 
don't change too many things all at once. ;)

Thanks everyone and hope to see you next week!

Michelle
Chair, IGDA Game Accessibility SIG