[games_access] Future Play 2006

[AudioGames]

Hi,

Good idea, Kevin! If there's anything I can do (write stuff, do some graphic 
design, whatever), please email me!

Greets,

Richard!

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kevin J. Bierre" <kjb at it.rit.edu>
To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" <games_access at igda.org>
Sent: Friday, August 04, 2006 4:43 PM
Subject: [games_access] Future Play 2006


Just so everyone is up to date: In one of our recent online meetings, I 
brought up the possibility of doing a poster session at Future Play 2006. 
Future Play is a conference that is supposed to bring academics and industry 
leaders together. This one will
be held in London, Ontario (Canada) at the University of Western Ontario on 
October 10 - 12.

Because of the large number of game development schools that will be 
present, this would be an ideal location to get the word out and hopefully 
get people thinking about accessibility.

The following is the abstract I plan to submit. If you have any suggestions 
or comments, please let me know. I have until Aug 18th to submit the 
abstract, so there is time to make any required changes.

Future Play 2006 Poster Abstract

Kevin Bierre:  [ mailto:kjb at it.rit.edu ]kjb at it.rit.edu  (Member of the IGDA 
Game Accessibility SIG)

The IGDA Game Accessibility SIG has been presenting on the topic of game 
accessibility at conferences over the last two years. We feel that this is a 
very important topic that is not adequately addressed within the commercial 
game industry, or within
academic game development programs.

We would like to present a poster at Future Play 2006 on what game 
accessibility is, why it is needed, and some simple ways to provide 
accessibility when creating games.

The game accessibility definition would be the one our group has defined 
over the past three years.

The section on why accessibility is needed would cover the following areas:
1. Statistics: the number of people with various disabilities.
2. Legal reasons for providing accessibility.
3. Economic reasons for providing accessibility.
4. Moral reasons for providing accessibility.
5. Effects that various disabilities have on the ability to play games.

We have come up with a "top ten" list of ways that will allow developers to 
provide accessibility:
1. Allow all controls to be remapped.
2. Add closed-captioning to all dialog and important sound effects.
3. Provide documentation in an accessible format such as HTML or plain text.
4. Provide assist modes such as auto-targeting, training options, etc.
5. Provide a broad range of difficulty levels.
6. Make interface fonts scalable.
7. Allow for high-contrast color-schemes.
8. Add audio tags to all significant elements including actors, doors, 
items, resulting actions, etc.
9. Allow for a varied range of control over play speed.
10. Announce accessibility features on the packaging.

A list of organizations that are working on game accessibility will be part 
of the poster.

Because this conference brings both industry and academic leaders together, 
we feel this is a good venue to provide this information.


Kevin Bierre,  Assistant Professor 
(kjb at it.rit.edu)
Information Technology,  Rochester Institute of Technology 
585-475-5358
102 Lomb Memorial Drive 
Bldg 70B-2637
Rochester, NY 14623


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