[games_access] ICCHP wrap up :)

[AudioGames.net]

Hi,

And for those interested, here's the wrap up of the OTHER important game 
accessibility event: this years ICCHP conference (www.icchp.org)
Here there were several sessions about "accessible entertainment" - although 
many game-presentations mostly focused on games for the blind (aside from
Dimitris' and Yannis' presentation).
I figured that not everyone has easy access to these papers, so I've scanned 
(with quick OCR) the papers from the ICCHP publication. You can download it 
from:

http://www.audiogames.net/pics/upload/icchp2006gameaccessibility.pdf

I plan to collect all papers in .pdf or .doc format from the original 
authors (as well as from the previous ICCHP) for archiving purposes on 
http://www.game-accessibility.com (going to improve our resources section 
soon I hope!) - but since I do not yet have permission from the respective 
authors, please use this .pdf for your personal backup only :)
By the way: if anyone has any (academic) resources that are not yet here: 
http://www.game-accessibility.com/index.php?pagefile=papers, please email
me!

What I find most interesting is that "the game accessibility workgroup" 
(lead by the University of Linz and MediaLT) is currently very serious about
guidelines, game accessibility testing tools and a certification for game 
accessibility. Although great developments, including that it is mentioned
that the group will "start co-operation or intensify co-operation with other 
organisations and companies working in the field of game accessibility", I
do get the idea that these developments do not incorporate members of the 
game industrie. Which is a big problem, I think. To quote Dominique (page
2):

"The next step is to write guidelines for accessibility of Games, and to 
make them accepted and used by mainstream game developers."

Which gets me thinking: why on earth would Sony or Microsoft or Nintendo 
ever accept guidelines that were developed without them in the first place?
Anyway, to form your own ideas and opinions about this and other issues, see 
the .PDF. Certainly food for thought, maybe also for SIGGRAPH/SANDBOX
Conference (Boston) in a few weeks?

I personally think Matthew's (of AGRIP) paper is an excellent read and does 
include very helpful design-information which, I think, the industry is 
interested in. And of course, Dimitris' and Yannis' paper is excellent as 
well (especially the Game Universes idea :). By the way, you can find 
Dimitris' presentation here:

http://www.ics.forth.gr/hci/ua-games/docs/Grammenos_et_%20al-AccessInvaders.pdf

And you can find the other ICCHP presentations here:

http://www.icchp.org/content/view/79/113/#track3 (see links under Session F: 
16:00 - 18:00)

Greets,

Richard

http://www.game-accessibility.com