From rkimball at gmail.com Fri Sep 1 01:46:59 2006 From: rkimball at gmail.com (Reid Kimball) Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 22:46:59 -0700 Subject: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 - Game Reviewers Needed! In-Reply-To: <001d01c6cd41$f3fde970$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> References: <00c601c6cd1a$c8f6a950$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> <003401c6cd1b$964604a0$6402a8c0@Delletje> <001d01c6cd41$f3fde970$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> Message-ID: I tried out about 8 of them, berzerkerbotz firestart ghost busters panther super mario land plus star wars the goonies three dck berzerkerbots: did not seem to be accessible, skipped star wars: I don't have a head tracker but even with the mouse and one button clicks it was really fun. The production values are impressive in my opinion. ghost busters: did not seem to offer any accessibility features (skipped) panther: crashed and skipped super mario land plus: could not figure out how to get past the scrolling opening title screen. skipped. the goonies: crashed and skipped threedck: This one has a lot of potential it seems after playing with it for a mere 3 minutes. It presents a very challenging interface and tries to make it work for one switches. It also includes a voice synthesizer to read instructions, though it only read the first sentence of each screen in the control setup wizard. firestart: this one really impressed me and has a lot of potential I think. It's an FPS that works with one mouse and two buttons (though could work with one). They can make it a one button game if it was context sensitive. If my crosshair is hovering over a door, it should open when I left click rather than shoot my weapon. If the crosshair is over an enemy, then it could shoot the weapon. Note that the crosshair is separate from the mouse cursor. The mouse cursor is moved by the user into different areas of the screen to move their character through the 3d world. Moving the cursor to the top middle of the screen will move the character forward. Moving it to the bottom middle will make the character walk backward. Left top will turn left and right top of the screen will turn right. Moving the bottom left will strafe left and bottom right will strafe right. It sounds confusing, but it actually works better than I expected. I have some suggestions for improvement. 1. In the game, right clicking opens doors. As I describe above, all actions could be done with one mouse button if the game recognized context senstive events. 2. I would like to see my mouse movements restricted to a smaller area of the screen, rather than the whole screen. Currently, I have to make a lot of wide movements to make my char move. 3. Add analog stick-like sensitivity to the movement of my char. If my mouse cursor is at the top middle of the screen, my char moves forward at full speed. If the cursor is lower, more towards the center of the screen but not quite, my char could slowly walk forward. Same effect for turning. If my cursor is slightly off center towards the upper right, then I should turn slowly to the right. Current setup has an all or nothing feel to movement. All in all, I'm very happy with Firestart, I've never seen an FPS that could be played with a single mouse. I'd love to see this control scheme used for a console FPS game. With Microsoft's XNA just released, someone could program the X360 controller to work in that fashion. Hmmmm... -Reid On 8/31/06, Barrie Ellis wrote: > > > Hi all, > > Yes, I shall be writing up thoughts on the competition entries - but I would > really appreciate the thoughts and suggestions of others... > > > From: > http://www.game-accessibility.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=122 > > The Retro Remakes 2006 Competition closes tonight. As I speak 60+ games have > been uploaded to www.retroremakes.co.uk - Now it's time to play! > > > It would be very arrogant of me to say whether or not these games are > accessible or not without consulting disabled gamers and others interested > in this field. > > So... As the games become available from tomorrow, I would love to hear > people's thoughts. > > Please feel free to post on this forum, to e-mail me at > barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk , or to e-mail the IGDA's Game Accessibility > SIG e-mail list at games_access[at]igda.org. > > More soon... > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > > > From barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk Fri Sep 1 04:33:49 2006 From: barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk (Barrie Ellis) Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2006 09:33:49 +0100 Subject: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 - Game Reviewers Needed! References: <00c601c6cd1a$c8f6a950$0202a8c0@OneSwitch><003401c6cd1b$964604a0$6402a8c0@Delletje><001d01c6cd41$f3fde970$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> Message-ID: <005101c6cda1$597c87c0$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> Thanks Reid - noted, and much appreciated. I totally agree with your account of "Star Wars". Plus, it works really, really nicely with a head-tracker. It is "dwell clicker" compatible too, and features constant firing where needed. The invincibility mode opens it up to many other gamers. I'd also like to try it out with "CPU Killer" to see if I can slow the game down. "Kaboom" is a very simple game, but has dwell clicking built in for starting and quitting the game (pretty essential really!). Although at later levels people may get a stiff neck without any level breaks for a rest (although I didn't at all with this game) - it works very, very well. I've been extremely impressed by "Demon Attack" regarding head-tracker compatibility. Give it a whirl at http://www.remakes.org/comp2006/screenshots.php?page=3 - and let me know what you think? Barrie www.OneSwitch.org.uk From barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk Fri Sep 1 04:44:45 2006 From: barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk (Barrie Ellis) Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2006 09:44:45 +0100 Subject: [games_access] Request for ideas References: <003601c6cd64$ae2a28a0$6501a8c0@HOME> Message-ID: <006901c6cda2$e0238ca0$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> Nothing more important than having reconfigurable controls for many gamers. It would be nice to see an open source menu built for this to share with other developers. So - how to do it really well...? Good challenge I think for the students. MAME's versatility would be very nice. Bear in mind not all people will be using an Xbox 360 JoyPad. Although the choice of controllers for this console is very poor - there are a few different ones out there to take into account. Multiple mapping of buttons. For gamers using a small number of controls, it would be nice for their main action button to also start the game if possible. Consider if a one-switch game appeared. It might be nice to map that one function to every single analogue stick movement, D-pad and button press. Good luck. Barrie www.OneSwitch.org.uk ----- Original Message ----- From: lynnvm at carolina.rr.com To: games_access at igda.org Sent: Friday, September 01, 2006 2:19 AM Subject: [games_access] Request for ideas Hi all, This semester I'm taking a class about AI programming for games. We are using the beta version of Microsoft XNA for the Xbox 360. Although I will be learning how to program for the controller, I'd like to keep accessibility in mind when I'm working on some of my assignments. There are about 10 students in the class I'm taking, and I'd like to share ideas about game accessibility with my classmates. The class is taught in a computer science department and is made up mostly of graduate students. I'm open to any suggestions you might have. I'm a school psychologist, so I'm familiar with the needs of young people with a variety of disabilities. I'd like to adapt some of my assignments so my work will be accessible to my students. Some of the students I work with have significant physical impairments. Thanks! Lynn Marentette TechPsych Interactive Multimedia Technology ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From hinn at uiuc.edu Sun Sep 3 22:57:29 2006 From: hinn at uiuc.edu (d. michelle hinn) Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2006 21:57:29 -0500 Subject: [games_access] GDC 2007: Check it out!!! In-Reply-To: <005101c6cda1$597c87c0$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> References: <00c601c6cd1a$c8f6a950$0202a8c0@OneSwitch><003401c6cd1b$964604a0$6402a8c0@ Delletje><001d01c6cd41$f3fde970$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> <005101c6cda1$597c87c0$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> Message-ID: So not all is gloom and doom with regard to GDC 2007! For the first time we'll be presenting "Accessibility Arcade" as a standalone roundtable (they usually give you multiple (2-3) repeat slots too): https://www.cmpevents.com/GD07/a.asp?option=G&V=3&id=277060 No word yet on our regular "top ten" roundtable. There will, however, be a meet and greet where we can pass out press kits/stickers/tshirts/etc because it won't be at 9am the night after the big party...right Jason Della Rocca if you are reading this??? ;) Also, Accessibility Idol is a 100% go and because it's a two hour session (rather than the usual one hour sessions), we have lots of room for "teachable moments" during the "show." Ping me offline if you are even 80% sure you'll be attending so I can start working on the conference speaker passes. In order to get a speaker's pass, you must be involved in one of these innovative sessions. Remember, this year we are NOT presenting a one day tutorial so speaker's passes will be much more selective. I know that Richard, Reid, and Robert (R x 3?) are involved plus Ernest Adams. There's no room for speech giving so this is going to be a much wilder GDC for us. Plus if you in a speech making mode of mind...this won't be the right year for you to do this. So keep that in mind! And Tim? We WILL get the tshirts this year...especially if we start now! Can you send me the design(s) you had worked up again so I can cafe press them? And if anyone else had some time to do some cool graphic design work for a tshirt, we can always put more than one design on cafe press! Cheers/Greets/Peace, Michelle -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk Mon Sep 4 17:04:46 2006 From: barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk (Barrie Ellis) Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2006 22:04:46 +0100 Subject: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid Message-ID: <000801c6d065$c17fa480$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> I'd be really interested to read people's thoughts on "The Pyramid" from Pug Fugly Games. http://www.pugfuglygames.com/Downloads/ThePyramid.zip (PC only) Barrie www.OneSwitch.org.uk -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brannonz at microsoft.com Tue Sep 5 14:55:07 2006 From: brannonz at microsoft.com (Brannon Zahand) Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 11:55:07 -0700 Subject: [games_access] Accessible Console Peripherals In-Reply-To: Message-ID: I'm doing a bit of research for someone who has lost his right arm and is looking for a controller to help him play original Xbox console games. Does anyone have any recommendations? His left arm/hand is completely functional. Thanks, Brannon From barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk Tue Sep 5 16:16:36 2006 From: barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk (Barrie Ellis) Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 21:16:36 +0100 Subject: Fw: [games_access] Accessible Console Peripherals Message-ID: <03ad01c6d128$306a55d0$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> Hi Brannon, Re. the one handed controller on an original Xbox. I've just had delivered some new stock in of the DragonPlus one handed controller. To get it running on an Xbox you'll need an adapter, as this controller was originally designed for a PS2. I have these in stock too, albeit in low numbers. http://www.oneswitch.org.uk/1/one-hand-dragon.htm Price: So the total is 55 pounds sterling (roughly $105 according to www.xe.com). The DragonPlus one handed controller is 30 pounds sterling (GBP). The Playstation to Xbox adapter is 15 pounds. Postage and Packing is 10 pounds to the US. I'll hold it for a couple of days, whilst I wait for your reply. Cheers, Barrie www.OneSwitch.org.uk p.s. Tried e-mailing you off list, but kept being spam filtered out. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brannon Zahand" To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 7:55 PM Subject: [games_access] Accessible Console Peripherals I'm doing a bit of research for someone who has lost his right arm and is looking for a controller to help him play original Xbox console games. Does anyone have any recommendations? His left arm/hand is completely functional. Thanks, Brannon _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: dragonplus-one-handed-controller-small.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 13147 bytes Desc: not available URL: From barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk Tue Sep 5 19:26:45 2006 From: barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk (Barrie Ellis) Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 00:26:45 +0100 Subject: [games_access] fw: Brannon Message-ID: <046801c6d142$c072bef0$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> Hi Brannon, Sorry to do this on the public list - but I can't get hold of either you, nor Sue via your microsoft e-mails. I can receive yours and Sue's (although they get marked as spam), but can't send to you, as I am being blocked. Do you have a non-microsoft e-mail? In the interim, would you please tell her that I'll hold her potential order until we can communicate effectively. Barrie www.OneSwitch.org.uk host mail1.exchange.microsoft.com[131.107.1.17] said: 550 5.7.1 Email rejected because %0 is listed by bl.spamcop.net. Please see http://www.spamcop.net/bl.shtml for more information. If you still need assistance contact gtsrbl23 at microsoft.com (in reply to RCPT TO command) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From richard at audiogames.net Wed Sep 6 11:48:10 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 17:48:10 +0200 Subject: [games_access] Chat today? Message-ID: <003501c6d1cb$dad20100$6402a8c0@Delletje> Hi, Is there a chat today? Greets, Richard -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kjb at it.rit.edu Wed Sep 6 11:57:23 2006 From: kjb at it.rit.edu (Kevin J. Bierre) Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 11:57:23 -0400 Subject: [games_access] Chat today? In-Reply-To: <003501c6d1cb$dad20100$6402a8c0@Delletje> References: <003501c6d1cb$dad20100$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List on Wednesday, September 06, 2006 at 11:48 AM -0500 wrote: >Hi, > >Is there a chat today? > >Greets, > >Richard_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access There's supposed to be one. Kevin Bierre, Assistant Professor (kjb at it.rit.edu) Information Technology, Rochester Institute of Technology 585-475-5358 102 Lomb Memorial Drive Bldg 70B-2637 Rochester, NY 14623 From richard at audiogames.net Wed Sep 6 11:59:23 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 17:59:23 +0200 Subject: [games_access] Chat today? References: <003501c6d1cb$dad20100$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: <004101c6d1cd$6c635d70$6402a8c0@Delletje> > There's supposed to be one. K... my MSN is on, currently running between my computer and my kitchen (cooking).... From kjb at it.rit.edu Wed Sep 6 13:52:58 2006 From: kjb at it.rit.edu (Kevin J. Bierre) Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 13:52:58 -0400 Subject: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List In-Reply-To: <004101c6d1cd$6c635d70$6402a8c0@Delletje> References: <003501c6d1cb$dad20100$6402a8c0@Delletje> <, > <,> <004101c6d1cd$6c635d70$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: I guess we're out of luck as far as a meeting goes. Based on prior email, I thought there was one today. Since I have to get started on this poster for Future Play 2006, I'll kick things off here on the list instead. I was planning to have the top 10 list as part of the poster. A comment was made about updating the list (sorry, don't remember who said it) because some of the advice was rather general. Any comments from others about updating our top 10? Here's the current list: GA SIG Top 10 List 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. 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 From arthit73 at cablespeed.com Wed Sep 6 14:01:49 2006 From: arthit73 at cablespeed.com (Robert Florio) Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 14:01:49 -0400 Subject: Florio's speech [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Thanks Kevin for posting this I didn't get the news about the meeting? I don't have msm I have to set that up will my AOL account still work to communicate with you guys? Along with this list you together is at the same list we use that GDC 2006 if so to use the same thing at my speech I wanted to talk with you guys about that games for health conference September 28 that I'm preparing? Anyone else can include their thoughts but I'm not too sure about the HTML 3. Provide documentation in an accessible format such as HTML or plain text If I was to explain that point of a top 10 list of accessible features what does this mean exactly for consoles or is it just for PC use can it be a feature on any handheld as well maybe just a little example of what documentation examples actually mean? Thanks. I'm actually just recovering from pneumonia I got sick August 31. Feeling much better book behind in school work and stuff to write my speech for the games for health conference on hoping to meet with all you members if you have AOL instant messaging anyone please let me know when we can talk I like to go over my speech make sure it's something we all can focus on our overall goal. Plus is my first time I don't want to miss anything. Thanks. AOL arthit73sga Robert AI online SGA President arthit73 at cablespeed.com www.RobertFlorio.com -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Kevin J. Bierre Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 1:53 PM To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Subject: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List I guess we're out of luck as far as a meeting goes. Based on prior email, I thought there was one today. Since I have to get started on this poster for Future Play 2006, I'll kick things off here on the list instead. I was planning to have the top 10 list as part of the poster. A comment was made about updating the list (sorry, don't remember who said it) because some of the advice was rather general. Any comments from others about updating our top 10? Here's the current list: GA SIG Top 10 List 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. 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 _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From hinn at uiuc.edu Wed Sep 6 14:05:57 2006 From: hinn at uiuc.edu (d. michelle hinn) Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 13:05:57 -0500 Subject: [games_access] Chat today? In-Reply-To: References: <003501c6d1cb$dad20100$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: Hi -- I wasn't able to schedule one in today because the three classes I'm teaching have me completely overloaded with administrative crap (some people can't register for some reason, something wiped some of them off the registration system for some reason, etc). My boss also quit and she's now left officially leaving our program in complete chaos...all of which has landed in my lap. I'm hoping that my 18+ hour days will cool down some next week. I'm planning for a meeting next week and I'll announce it the monday prior to the meeting so that there is no more confusion. I don't remember announcing a meeting for this week but then, again, I'm hardly sleeping right now so there's plenty of room for forgetfulness. My apologies for any confusion! Michelle >IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List on >Wednesday, September 06, 2006 at 11:48 AM -0500 wrote: >>Hi, >> >>Is there a chat today? >> >>Greets, >> >>Richard_______________________________________________ >>games_access mailing list >>games_access at igda.org >>http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > >There's supposed to be one. > >Kevin Bierre, Assistant Professor >(kjb at it.rit.edu) >Information Technology, Rochester Institute of Technology >585-475-5358 >102 Lomb Memorial Drive >Bldg 70B-2637 >Rochester, NY 14623 > > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From rkimball at gmail.com Thu Sep 7 11:13:39 2006 From: rkimball at gmail.com (Reid Kimball) Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 08:13:39 -0700 Subject: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List In-Reply-To: References: <003501c6d1cb$dad20100$6402a8c0@Delletje> <004101c6d1cd$6c635d70$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: The only thing that seems general to me is "Training options" and "broad range of difficulty levels". Is the term "Audio tags" merely to mean add sound effects for all the events of doors opening, etc? Other than that, the list is clear to me, but maybe I'm not the best judge being entrenched in this stuff for so long. -Reid On 9/6/06, Kevin J. Bierre wrote: > I guess we're out of luck as far as a meeting goes. Based on prior email, I thought there was one today. > > Since I have to get started on this poster for Future Play 2006, I'll kick things off here on the list instead. > > I was planning to have the top 10 list as part of the poster. A comment was made about updating the list (sorry, don't remember who said it) because some of the advice was rather general. Any comments from others about updating our top 10? > > Here's the current list: > > GA SIG Top 10 List > 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. > > 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 > > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > From bsawyer at dmill.com Thu Sep 7 11:27:59 2006 From: bsawyer at dmill.com (Ben Sawyer) Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 11:27:59 -0400 Subject: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List In-Reply-To: References: <003501c6d1cb$dad20100$6402a8c0@Delletje> <004101c6d1cd$6c635d70$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: do you want to send a copy of this poster to Games for Health as well? On Sep 7, 2006, at 11:13 AM, Reid Kimball wrote: > The only thing that seems general to me is "Training options" and > "broad range of difficulty levels". > > Is the term "Audio tags" merely to mean add sound effects for all the > events of doors opening, etc? > > Other than that, the list is clear to me, but maybe I'm not the best > judge being entrenched in this stuff for so long. > > -Reid > > On 9/6/06, Kevin J. Bierre wrote: >> I guess we're out of luck as far as a meeting goes. Based on prior >> email, I thought there was one today. >> >> Since I have to get started on this poster for Future Play 2006, >> I'll kick things off here on the list instead. >> >> I was planning to have the top 10 list as part of the poster. A >> comment was made about updating the list (sorry, don't remember >> who said it) because some of the advice was rather general. Any >> comments from others about updating our top 10? >> >> Here's the current list: >> >> GA SIG Top 10 List >> 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. >> >> 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 >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> games_access mailing list >> games_access at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >> > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From arthit73 at cablespeed.com Thu Sep 7 13:03:29 2006 From: arthit73 at cablespeed.com (Robert Florio) Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 13:03:29 -0400 Subject: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List In-Reply-To: Message-ID: If there is a poster being made I would like to incorporate it into my speech that ben is talking about I will be speaking on behalf of our special interest group September 28th and using these points in my speech. Robert -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Ben Sawyer Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 11:28 AM To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Subject: Re: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List do you want to send a copy of this poster to Games for Health as well? On Sep 7, 2006, at 11:13 AM, Reid Kimball wrote: > The only thing that seems general to me is "Training options" and > "broad range of difficulty levels". > > Is the term "Audio tags" merely to mean add sound effects for all the > events of doors opening, etc? > > Other than that, the list is clear to me, but maybe I'm not the best > judge being entrenched in this stuff for so long. > > -Reid > > On 9/6/06, Kevin J. Bierre wrote: >> I guess we're out of luck as far as a meeting goes. Based on prior >> email, I thought there was one today. >> >> Since I have to get started on this poster for Future Play 2006, >> I'll kick things off here on the list instead. >> >> I was planning to have the top 10 list as part of the poster. A >> comment was made about updating the list (sorry, don't remember >> who said it) because some of the advice was rather general. Any >> comments from others about updating our top 10? >> >> Here's the current list: >> >> GA SIG Top 10 List >> 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. >> >> 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 >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> games_access mailing list >> games_access at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >> > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk Thu Sep 7 17:45:56 2006 From: barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk (Barrie Ellis) Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 22:45:56 +0100 Subject: Florio's speech [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List References: Message-ID: <00e601c6d2c7$002be780$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> > Anyone else can include their thoughts but I'm not too sure about the HTML > > 3. Provide documentation in an accessible format such as HTML or plain > text > > If I was to explain that point of a top 10 list of accessible features > what > does this mean exactly for consoles or is it just for PC use can it be a > feature on any handheld as well maybe just a little example of what > documentation examples actually mean? Thanks. > Increasingly, web-access is the way to get hold of information. Thus if your game instructions can be found on-line (as with the very lovely one-switch game "Alice Amazed" here: http://www.michi.nu/games/alice/index.php) - chances are that disabled gamers will have a better chance of accessing them. People requiring screen magnification, speech readers, increased text size etc. will find instructions in HTML format easier to cope with than the printed word in many instances. Of course web-access comes into play here too... http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-accessibility/testing-web-accessibility.shtml - Fairly simple pointers for designing accessible web-pages. Hope this rambling answer clears this up a bit... Barrie www.OneSwitch.org.uk From arthit73 at cablespeed.com Thu Sep 7 19:09:57 2006 From: arthit73 at cablespeed.com (Robert Florio) Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 19:09:57 -0400 Subject: Florio's speech [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10List In-Reply-To: <00e601c6d2c7$002be780$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> Message-ID: I thank you for getting back to me with the written text in HTML format web site nothing special coding I'll see how someone could read coding it's just text that you can bring up on the Internet that other software can translate. Is that right? Thanks. Things like manuals, instructions, and so on. Robert AI online SGA President arthit73 at cablespeed.com www.RobertFlorio.com -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Barrie Ellis Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 5:46 PM To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Subject: Re: Florio's speech [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10List > Anyone else can include their thoughts but I'm not too sure about the HTML > > 3. Provide documentation in an accessible format such as HTML or plain > text > > If I was to explain that point of a top 10 list of accessible features > what > does this mean exactly for consoles or is it just for PC use can it be a > feature on any handheld as well maybe just a little example of what > documentation examples actually mean? Thanks. > Increasingly, web-access is the way to get hold of information. Thus if your game instructions can be found on-line (as with the very lovely one-switch game "Alice Amazed" here: http://www.michi.nu/games/alice/index.php) - chances are that disabled gamers will have a better chance of accessing them. People requiring screen magnification, speech readers, increased text size etc. will find instructions in HTML format easier to cope with than the printed word in many instances. Of course web-access comes into play here too... http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-accessibility/testi ng-web-accessibility.shtml - Fairly simple pointers for designing accessible web-pages. Hope this rambling answer clears this up a bit... Barrie www.OneSwitch.org.uk _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From richard at audiogames.net Thu Sep 7 19:32:14 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2006 01:32:14 +0200 Subject: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List References: <003501c6d1cb$dad20100$6402a8c0@Delletje><004101c6d1cd$6c635d70$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: <000901c6d2d5$d9d6fc50$6402a8c0@Delletje> Hi, I think I was one of the people who said the list might benifit if we did an update and Eelke (Folmer) critisized the list during his Brighton presentation as well. The thing with it was that some things, but especially the audio guideline, were a bit too vague for a developer to really do something with (the sentence vs. a practical implementation). Actually I agree more with the top 10 list now than a year ago but I think we can still aprove it here and there. I personally would like to experiment a bit with Eelke's design patterns (see: http://www.eelke.com/research/IDP/accessibility.html ) and the top 10 list. The design pattern list consists of 6 points, which all relate to point in the original top 10 list: 1. Allow all controls to be remapped >> http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Reconfigurable%20Buttons 2. Add closed-captioning to all dialog and important sound effects >> closed captions = http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Closed%20Captioning 4. Provide assist modes such as auto-targeting, training options, etc. >> assist mode = http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Assist%20Mode 5. Provide a broad range of difficulty levels. >> adaptive difficulty level = http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Adaptive%20Difficulty%20Level 9. Allow for a varied range of control over play speed. >> slow = http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Slow Eelke also had tutorial agent: http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Tutorial%20Agent , which leaves: 3. Provide documentation in an accessible format such as HTML or plain text 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. 10. Announce accessibility features on the packaging. I agree with every point above, except with point 8 since I don't believe that simply "adding audio tags" will make a game more accessible for the blind (which is how I interpreted this point). I guess point 1,2,4,5 and 9 might make an excellent top 5. But compare point 7 next to this: x. Allow for alternative color- and contrast schemes. With the recent commotion about accessibility for color blind gamers (Rockstar's Table Tennis - see www.game-accessibility.com) I guess that a guideline concerning colorblindess should definitely be in the top 10 (quote: "Color blindness certainly isn't the only or the most problematic disability preventing people from getting enjoyment out of games, although it is possibly THE MOST WIDESPREAD.") . And point 6: x. Make the game scalable Why only "interface fonts"? And what are interface fonts actually? Text in the head-up display (HUD)? Does this include all fonts (including the menu's and credits) or just the text during gameplay? And why not the icons in WoW? I guess point 3 and 10 are kind of on the same level - it's the stuff *outside* of the game. Maybe it is possible to merge that into one point? I personally think the current point 10 doesn't really make a game more accessible and it is on a completely different level than the other points... although of course it would help our cause a great deal ;) I would definately *NOT* refer to the top 10 list as a "list of guidelines" because using that term might open up a great deal of discussion. Instead I would refer to it as a Top 10 List of Things That Make Your Game More Accessible. What do we call it now by the way? Not guidelines, right? Just "The Top 10 List...".... ;) grin :) ??? And there should be a place somewhere (on the web > SIG-website + Game-Accessibility.com) where these guidelines are explained in detail so there is no room for interpretation (like there is now) - preferably with examples... (and I prefer the design pattern format above a W3C-like format like 'the other' guidelines although I'm open to any format anyone might think of). K... gotta go to sleep now, this was just a first, hope we can conitnue this issue... Oh, and I'd be happy to work on some artwork, including handout- and poster design if you want, Kevin... Greets, Richard http://www.audiogames.net ----- Original Message ----- From: "Reid Kimball" To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 5:13 PM Subject: Re: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List > The only thing that seems general to me is "Training options" and > "broad range of difficulty levels". > > Is the term "Audio tags" merely to mean add sound effects for all the > events of doors opening, etc? > > Other than that, the list is clear to me, but maybe I'm not the best > judge being entrenched in this stuff for so long. > > -Reid > > On 9/6/06, Kevin J. Bierre wrote: >> I guess we're out of luck as far as a meeting goes. Based on prior email, >> I thought there was one today. >> >> Since I have to get started on this poster for Future Play 2006, I'll >> kick things off here on the list instead. >> >> I was planning to have the top 10 list as part of the poster. A comment >> was made about updating the list (sorry, don't remember who said it) >> because some of the advice was rather general. Any comments from others >> about updating our top 10? >> >> Here's the current list: >> >> GA SIG Top 10 List >> 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. >> >> 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 >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> games_access mailing list >> games_access at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >> > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From richard at audiogames.net Thu Sep 7 20:12:44 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2006 02:12:44 +0200 Subject: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List References: <003501c6d1cb$dad20100$6402a8c0@Delletje><004101c6d1cd$6c635d70$6402a8c0@Delletje> <000901c6d2d5$d9d6fc50$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: <001701c6d2db$81fb2af0$6402a8c0@Delletje> Sorry for the many typo's... really tired now ;) ----- Original Message ----- From: "AudioGames.net" To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 1:32 AM Subject: Re: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List > Hi, > > I think I was one of the people who said the list might benifit if we did > an update and Eelke (Folmer) critisized the list during his Brighton > presentation as well. The thing with it was that some things, but > especially the audio guideline, were a bit too vague for a developer to > really do something with (the sentence vs. a practical implementation). > Actually I agree more with the top 10 list now than a year ago but I think > we can still aprove it here and there. I personally would like to > experiment a bit with Eelke's design patterns (see: > http://www.eelke.com/research/IDP/accessibility.html ) and the top 10 > list. The design pattern list consists of 6 points, which all relate to > point in > the original top 10 list: > > 1. Allow all controls to be remapped >> > http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Reconfigurable%20Buttons > 2. Add closed-captioning to all dialog and important sound effects >> > closed captions = http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Closed%20Captioning > 4. Provide assist modes such as auto-targeting, training options, etc. >> > assist mode = http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Assist%20Mode > 5. Provide a broad range of difficulty levels. >> adaptive difficulty > level = http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Adaptive%20Difficulty%20Level > 9. Allow for a varied range of control over play speed. >> slow = > http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Slow > > Eelke also had tutorial agent: > http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Tutorial%20Agent , which leaves: > > > 3. Provide documentation in an accessible format such as HTML or plain > text > 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. > 10. Announce accessibility features on the packaging. > > I agree with every point above, except with point 8 since I don't believe > that simply "adding audio tags" will make a game more accessible for the > blind (which is how I interpreted this point). I guess point 1,2,4,5 and 9 > might make an excellent top 5. But compare point 7 next to this: > > x. Allow for alternative color- and contrast schemes. > > With the recent commotion about accessibility for color blind gamers > (Rockstar's Table Tennis - see www.game-accessibility.com) I guess that a > guideline concerning colorblindess should definitely be in the top 10 > (quote: "Color blindness certainly isn't the only or the most problematic > disability preventing people from getting enjoyment out of games, although > it is possibly THE MOST WIDESPREAD.") . > > And point 6: > > x. Make the game scalable > > Why only "interface fonts"? And what are interface fonts actually? Text in > the head-up display (HUD)? Does this include all fonts (including the > menu's and credits) or just the text during gameplay? And why not the > icons in WoW? > > I guess point 3 and 10 are kind of on the same level - it's the stuff > *outside* of the game. Maybe it is possible to merge that into one point? > I personally think the current point 10 doesn't really make a game more > accessible and it is on a completely different level than the other > points... although of course it would help our cause a great deal ;) > > I would definately *NOT* refer to the top 10 list as a "list of > guidelines" because using that term might open up a great deal of > discussion. Instead I would refer to it as a Top 10 List of Things That > Make Your Game More Accessible. What do we call it now by the way? Not > guidelines, right? Just "The Top 10 List...".... ;) grin :) ??? > And there should be a place somewhere (on the web > SIG-website + > Game-Accessibility.com) where these guidelines are explained in detail so > there is no room for interpretation (like there is now) - preferably with > examples... (and I prefer the design pattern format above a W3C-like > format like 'the other' guidelines although I'm open to any format anyone > might think of). > > K... gotta go to sleep now, this was just a first, hope we can conitnue > this issue... > > Oh, and I'd be happy to work on some artwork, including handout- and > poster design if you want, Kevin... > > Greets, > > Richard > > http://www.audiogames.net > > > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Reid Kimball" > To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" > Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 5:13 PM > Subject: Re: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List > > >> The only thing that seems general to me is "Training options" and >> "broad range of difficulty levels". >> >> Is the term "Audio tags" merely to mean add sound effects for all the >> events of doors opening, etc? >> >> Other than that, the list is clear to me, but maybe I'm not the best >> judge being entrenched in this stuff for so long. >> >> -Reid >> >> On 9/6/06, Kevin J. Bierre wrote: >>> I guess we're out of luck as far as a meeting goes. Based on prior >>> email, >>> I thought there was one today. >>> >>> Since I have to get started on this poster for Future Play 2006, I'll >>> kick things off here on the list instead. >>> >>> I was planning to have the top 10 list as part of the poster. A comment >>> was made about updating the list (sorry, don't remember who said it) >>> because some of the advice was rather general. Any comments from others >>> about updating our top 10? >>> >>> Here's the current list: >>> >>> GA SIG Top 10 List >>> 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. >>> >>> 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 >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> games_access mailing list >>> games_access at igda.org >>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> games_access mailing list >> games_access at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From hinn at uiuc.edu Fri Sep 8 02:18:41 2006 From: hinn at uiuc.edu (d. michelle hinn) Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2006 01:18:41 -0500 Subject: [games_access] Fwd: [AGDev-discuss] Matthew in Orthopedics Ward, Getting Better Message-ID: Just an FYI for those that know Matthew -- sounds like he's on the mend but any messages to him will be delayed for a while. Michelle >Hi all, > >See this for background and updates: >http://lists.agrip.org.uk/pipermail/agrip-announce/2006-August/000070.html > >He's doing alright now. He's looking forward to getting out of there, >anyway. Always a good sign. :-) > >He asked me to ask you to please keep informed anyone with whom you have >connections (lists, audyssey, IGDA, or whoever) so that you'll all >understand why he's delaying in his recent emails/posts etc. and in any >technical procedures. I've done my best for the other lists I'm on and >my/his other friends all seem to be informed now, but I'm quite tied over >meself so any help would be appreciated. They reckon he'll be due to leave >in a couple weeks in a wheelchair, so hopefully he'll be back on the case >soonafter. > >Cheers, >Sabahattin > >_______________________________________________ >AGDev-discuss mailing list >AGDev-discuss at lists.agdev.org >http://lists.agdev.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/agdev-discuss From richard at audiogames.net Fri Sep 8 13:01:14 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2006 19:01:14 +0200 Subject: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List References: <003501c6d1cb$dad20100$6402a8c0@Delletje><004101c6d1cd$6c635d70$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: <001401c6d368$64c799e0$6402a8c0@Delletje> That's a good idea! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ben Sawyer" To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 5:27 PM Subject: Re: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List > do you want to send a copy of this poster to Games for Health as well? > > > On Sep 7, 2006, at 11:13 AM, Reid Kimball wrote: > >> The only thing that seems general to me is "Training options" and >> "broad range of difficulty levels". >> >> Is the term "Audio tags" merely to mean add sound effects for all the >> events of doors opening, etc? >> >> Other than that, the list is clear to me, but maybe I'm not the best >> judge being entrenched in this stuff for so long. >> >> -Reid >> >> On 9/6/06, Kevin J. Bierre wrote: >>> I guess we're out of luck as far as a meeting goes. Based on prior >>> email, I thought there was one today. >>> >>> Since I have to get started on this poster for Future Play 2006, >>> I'll kick things off here on the list instead. >>> >>> I was planning to have the top 10 list as part of the poster. A >>> comment was made about updating the list (sorry, don't remember >>> who said it) because some of the advice was rather general. Any >>> comments from others about updating our top 10? >>> >>> Here's the current list: >>> >>> GA SIG Top 10 List >>> 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. >>> >>> 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 >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> games_access mailing list >>> games_access at igda.org >>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> games_access mailing list >> games_access at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From arthit73 at cablespeed.com Fri Sep 8 13:16:15 2006 From: arthit73 at cablespeed.com (Robert Florio) Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2006 13:16:15 -0400 Subject: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List In-Reply-To: <001401c6d368$64c799e0$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: If someone greets the poster and sends it to Ben Sawyer let me know so I can display it September 28. Robert AI online SGA President arthit73 at cablespeed.com www.RobertFlorio.com -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of AudioGames.net Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 1:01 PM To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Subject: Re: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List That's a good idea! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ben Sawyer" To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 5:27 PM Subject: Re: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List > do you want to send a copy of this poster to Games for Health as well? > > > On Sep 7, 2006, at 11:13 AM, Reid Kimball wrote: > >> The only thing that seems general to me is "Training options" and >> "broad range of difficulty levels". >> >> Is the term "Audio tags" merely to mean add sound effects for all the >> events of doors opening, etc? >> >> Other than that, the list is clear to me, but maybe I'm not the best >> judge being entrenched in this stuff for so long. >> >> -Reid >> >> On 9/6/06, Kevin J. Bierre wrote: >>> I guess we're out of luck as far as a meeting goes. Based on prior >>> email, I thought there was one today. >>> >>> Since I have to get started on this poster for Future Play 2006, >>> I'll kick things off here on the list instead. >>> >>> I was planning to have the top 10 list as part of the poster. A >>> comment was made about updating the list (sorry, don't remember >>> who said it) because some of the advice was rather general. Any >>> comments from others about updating our top 10? >>> >>> Here's the current list: >>> >>> GA SIG Top 10 List >>> 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. >>> >>> 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 >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> games_access mailing list >>> games_access at igda.org >>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> games_access mailing list >> games_access at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk Sat Sep 9 03:17:23 2006 From: barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk (Barrie Ellis) Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2006 08:17:23 +0100 Subject: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List References: <003501c6d1cb$dad20100$6402a8c0@Delletje><004101c6d1cd$6c635d70$6402a8c0@Delletje> <000901c6d2d5$d9d6fc50$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: <004701c6d3df$ff789c60$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> I agree with all of Richards' message. Maybe a top 5 would be a good idea too. Agree with the scalable fonts, especially after playing "The Pyramid" from the Retro Remakes competition. This game, developed on and off over 3 months has: Remapable controls (joystick, keyboard, mouse, single switch, and head-tracker compatible). Assist modes (training - auto-fire etc.) Broad range of difficulty levels Speed control Re-scalable graphics (you can zoom in on the whole game - where there are assistive icons to help with off screen goals/targets). Changable fonts (to make easier to read). Options are automatically saved. Download it here: http://www.remakes.org/comp2006/screenshots.php?page=2 Nice to have games to point people at perhaps via the "design patterns". Regards, Barrie ----- Original Message ----- From: "AudioGames.net" To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 12:32 AM Subject: Re: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List > Hi, > > I think I was one of the people who said the list might benifit if we did > an update and Eelke (Folmer) critisized the list during his Brighton > presentation as well. The thing with it was that some things, but > especially the audio guideline, were a bit too vague for a developer to > really do something with (the sentence vs. a practical implementation). > Actually I agree more with the top 10 list now than a year ago but I think > we can still aprove it here and there. I personally would like to > experiment a bit with Eelke's design patterns (see: > http://www.eelke.com/research/IDP/accessibility.html ) and the top 10 > list. The design pattern list consists of 6 points, which all relate to > point in > the original top 10 list: > > 1. Allow all controls to be remapped >> > http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Reconfigurable%20Buttons > 2. Add closed-captioning to all dialog and important sound effects >> > closed captions = http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Closed%20Captioning > 4. Provide assist modes such as auto-targeting, training options, etc. >> > assist mode = http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Assist%20Mode > 5. Provide a broad range of difficulty levels. >> adaptive difficulty > level = http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Adaptive%20Difficulty%20Level > 9. Allow for a varied range of control over play speed. >> slow = > http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Slow > > Eelke also had tutorial agent: > http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Tutorial%20Agent , which leaves: > > > 3. Provide documentation in an accessible format such as HTML or plain > text > 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. > 10. Announce accessibility features on the packaging. > > I agree with every point above, except with point 8 since I don't believe > that simply "adding audio tags" will make a game more accessible for the > blind (which is how I interpreted this point). I guess point 1,2,4,5 and 9 > might make an excellent top 5. But compare point 7 next to this: > > x. Allow for alternative color- and contrast schemes. > > With the recent commotion about accessibility for color blind gamers > (Rockstar's Table Tennis - see www.game-accessibility.com) I guess that a > guideline concerning colorblindess should definitely be in the top 10 > (quote: "Color blindness certainly isn't the only or the most problematic > disability preventing people from getting enjoyment out of games, although > it is possibly THE MOST WIDESPREAD.") . > > And point 6: > > x. Make the game scalable > > Why only "interface fonts"? And what are interface fonts actually? Text in > the head-up display (HUD)? Does this include all fonts (including the > menu's and credits) or just the text during gameplay? And why not the > icons in WoW? > > I guess point 3 and 10 are kind of on the same level - it's the stuff > *outside* of the game. Maybe it is possible to merge that into one point? > I personally think the current point 10 doesn't really make a game more > accessible and it is on a completely different level than the other > points... although of course it would help our cause a great deal ;) > > I would definately *NOT* refer to the top 10 list as a "list of > guidelines" because using that term might open up a great deal of > discussion. Instead I would refer to it as a Top 10 List of Things That > Make Your Game More Accessible. What do we call it now by the way? Not > guidelines, right? Just "The Top 10 List...".... ;) grin :) ??? > And there should be a place somewhere (on the web > SIG-website + > Game-Accessibility.com) where these guidelines are explained in detail so > there is no room for interpretation (like there is now) - preferably with > examples... (and I prefer the design pattern format above a W3C-like > format like 'the other' guidelines although I'm open to any format anyone > might think of). > > K... gotta go to sleep now, this was just a first, hope we can conitnue > this issue... > > Oh, and I'd be happy to work on some artwork, including handout- and > poster design if you want, Kevin... > > Greets, > > Richard > > http://www.audiogames.net > > > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Reid Kimball" > To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" > Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 5:13 PM > Subject: Re: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List > > >> The only thing that seems general to me is "Training options" and >> "broad range of difficulty levels". >> >> Is the term "Audio tags" merely to mean add sound effects for all the >> events of doors opening, etc? >> >> Other than that, the list is clear to me, but maybe I'm not the best >> judge being entrenched in this stuff for so long. >> >> -Reid >> >> On 9/6/06, Kevin J. Bierre wrote: >>> I guess we're out of luck as far as a meeting goes. Based on prior >>> email, >>> I thought there was one today. >>> >>> Since I have to get started on this poster for Future Play 2006, I'll >>> kick things off here on the list instead. >>> >>> I was planning to have the top 10 list as part of the poster. A comment >>> was made about updating the list (sorry, don't remember who said it) >>> because some of the advice was rather general. Any comments from others >>> about updating our top 10? >>> >>> Here's the current list: >>> >>> GA SIG Top 10 List >>> 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. >>> >>> 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 >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> games_access mailing list >>> games_access at igda.org >>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> games_access mailing list >> games_access at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > > From rkimball at gmail.com Sat Sep 9 13:56:53 2006 From: rkimball at gmail.com (Reid Kimball) Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2006 10:56:53 -0700 Subject: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid In-Reply-To: <000801c6d065$c17fa480$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> References: <000801c6d065$c17fa480$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> Message-ID: After playing it I am really impressed with its wide range of accessibility options and I think it could be a great model for other developers to look at. It's valuable to have one game to look at that incorporates many features instead of looking at 10 different games that each do one accessibility feature. All the elements work well together and improve the enjoyment of the game for many people. I could play the game just as easily and enjoyably in "normal" mode and also when I had nearly all of the accessibility features turned on. Excellent job. -Reid On 9/4/06, Barrie Ellis wrote: > > > I'd be really interested to read people's thoughts on "The Pyramid" from Pug > Fugly Games. > > http://www.pugfuglygames.com/Downloads/ThePyramid.zip (PC > only) > > > Barrie > www.OneSwitch.org.uk > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > > > From richard at audiogames.net Sat Sep 9 15:09:50 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2006 21:09:50 +0200 Subject: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid References: <000801c6d065$c17fa480$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> Message-ID: <001b01c6d443$86660c90$6402a8c0@Delletje> Hi, I copy that. This is an excellent example of accessibility features in a game! I especially liked the solutions to some possible design problems. Such as when you zoom in on the game, the location of the enemies is shown by exclamation marks (!) on the sides of the screen. When looking at this game, game accessibility seems so simple, doesn't it? Ok, I would have given a 10 (or an A+ for those outside of Holland) if this game was accessible for the blind as well. Still this is an excellent 9,5 (or A-?) ! Barrie (and others of course: would you like to set up an interview together for www.game-accessibility.com with the developer on his experiences building this game (including his experiences in the spare room he mentioned... ;) ? Greets, Richard http://www.audiogames.net ----- Original Message ----- From: "Reid Kimball" To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 7:56 PM Subject: Re: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid > After playing it I am really impressed with its wide range of > accessibility options and I think it could be a great model for other > developers to look at. It's valuable to have one game to look at that > incorporates many features instead of looking at 10 different games > that each do one accessibility feature. All the elements work well > together and improve the enjoyment of the game for many people. I > could play the game just as easily and enjoyably in "normal" mode and > also when I had nearly all of the accessibility features turned on. > Excellent job. > > -Reid > > On 9/4/06, Barrie Ellis wrote: >> >> >> I'd be really interested to read people's thoughts on "The Pyramid" from >> Pug >> Fugly Games. >> >> http://www.pugfuglygames.com/Downloads/ThePyramid.zip (PC >> only) >> >> >> Barrie >> www.OneSwitch.org.uk >> >> _______________________________________________ >> games_access mailing list >> games_access at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >> >> >> > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From arthit73 at cablespeed.com Sat Sep 9 15:16:14 2006 From: arthit73 at cablespeed.com (Robert Florio) Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2006 15:16:14 -0400 Subject: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid In-Reply-To: <001b01c6d443$86660c90$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: I disagree I think this game even though it has a lot of free set up features or you can custom set up all the moving for keys, already part of the beginning features of the game, someone like me I can't use my fingers I couldn't reach the keys to even assign different movements left and right so I like sticking with those one click games. This might be a good example for me to use playing aesthetic game a tempting accessible feature making it so that the player can set up the accessible environment but what happens when someone like me can not even reach the keys. I might use this for my speech games for health conference September 28. Robert AI online SGA President arthit73 at cablespeed.com www.RobertFlorio.com -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of AudioGames.net Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 3:10 PM To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Subject: Re: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid Hi, I copy that. This is an excellent example of accessibility features in a game! I especially liked the solutions to some possible design problems. Such as when you zoom in on the game, the location of the enemies is shown by exclamation marks (!) on the sides of the screen. When looking at this game, game accessibility seems so simple, doesn't it? Ok, I would have given a 10 (or an A+ for those outside of Holland) if this game was accessible for the blind as well. Still this is an excellent 9,5 (or A-?) ! Barrie (and others of course: would you like to set up an interview together for www.game-accessibility.com with the developer on his experiences building this game (including his experiences in the spare room he mentioned... ;) ? Greets, Richard http://www.audiogames.net ----- Original Message ----- From: "Reid Kimball" To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 7:56 PM Subject: Re: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid > After playing it I am really impressed with its wide range of > accessibility options and I think it could be a great model for other > developers to look at. It's valuable to have one game to look at that > incorporates many features instead of looking at 10 different games > that each do one accessibility feature. All the elements work well > together and improve the enjoyment of the game for many people. I > could play the game just as easily and enjoyably in "normal" mode and > also when I had nearly all of the accessibility features turned on. > Excellent job. > > -Reid > > On 9/4/06, Barrie Ellis wrote: >> >> >> I'd be really interested to read people's thoughts on "The Pyramid" from >> Pug >> Fugly Games. >> >> http://www.pugfuglygames.com/Downloads/ThePyramid.zip (PC >> only) >> >> >> Barrie >> www.OneSwitch.org.uk >> >> _______________________________________________ >> games_access mailing list >> games_access at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >> >> >> > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From richard at audiogames.net Sat Sep 9 15:24:22 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2006 21:24:22 +0200 Subject: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid References: Message-ID: <002e01c6d445$92e8f390$6402a8c0@Delletje> Good of you to join in, Robert! Yeah, I noticed this as well - that the game should first be customized using an 'inaccessible' menu in order to be accessible. That's certainly a point of improvement for this game... and although I can think of other points as well (contrast/colour schemes, spoken menu items, accessibility for the blind, a sound mixer, etc. etc.), I don't think I've come across a game with so much accessibility features (well, aside from Access Invaders and the other occasional academic game ;) ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Florio" To: "'IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List'" Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 9:16 PM Subject: RE: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid >I disagree I think this game even though it has a lot of free set up > features or you can custom set up all the moving for keys, already part of > the beginning features of the game, someone like me I can't use my fingers > I > couldn't reach the keys to even assign different movements left and right > so > I like sticking with those one click games. This might be a good example > for me to use playing aesthetic game a tempting accessible feature making > it > so that the player can set up the accessible environment but what happens > when someone like me can not even reach the keys. I might use this for my > speech games for health conference September 28. > > Robert > AI online SGA President > arthit73 at cablespeed.com > www.RobertFlorio.com > > -----Original Message----- > From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] > On Behalf Of AudioGames.net > Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 3:10 PM > To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List > Subject: Re: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid > > Hi, > > I copy that. This is an excellent example of accessibility features in a > game! I especially liked the solutions to some possible design problems. > Such as when you zoom in on the game, the location of the enemies is shown > by exclamation marks (!) on the sides of the screen. When looking at this > game, game accessibility seems so simple, doesn't it? > > Ok, I would have given a 10 (or an A+ for those outside of Holland) if > this > game was accessible for the blind as well. Still this is an excellent 9,5 > (or A-?) ! > > Barrie (and others of course: would you like to set up an interview > together > > for www.game-accessibility.com with the developer on his experiences > building this game (including his experiences in the spare room he > mentioned... ;) ? > > Greets, > > Richard > > http://www.audiogames.net > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Reid Kimball" > To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" > Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 7:56 PM > Subject: Re: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid > > >> After playing it I am really impressed with its wide range of >> accessibility options and I think it could be a great model for other >> developers to look at. It's valuable to have one game to look at that >> incorporates many features instead of looking at 10 different games >> that each do one accessibility feature. All the elements work well >> together and improve the enjoyment of the game for many people. I >> could play the game just as easily and enjoyably in "normal" mode and >> also when I had nearly all of the accessibility features turned on. >> Excellent job. >> >> -Reid >> >> On 9/4/06, Barrie Ellis wrote: >>> >>> >>> I'd be really interested to read people's thoughts on "The Pyramid" from >>> Pug >>> Fugly Games. >>> >>> http://www.pugfuglygames.com/Downloads/ThePyramid.zip (PC >>> only) >>> >>> >>> Barrie >>> www.OneSwitch.org.uk >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> games_access mailing list >>> games_access at igda.org >>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >>> >>> >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> games_access mailing list >> games_access at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk Sat Sep 9 15:52:18 2006 From: barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk (Barrie Ellis) Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2006 20:52:18 +0100 Subject: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid References: Message-ID: <009601c6d449$74f06310$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> Hi Robert, Are you using your Quadcontroller with your PC? You should be able to get any Playstation or Xbox compatible controller working with a PC with an adapter (see below). From here you can get it to act as a keyboard using a free software utility called JoyToKey. http://www.lik-sang.com/list.php?category=160 - PC adapters from Lik-Sang http://www.oneswitch.org.uk/2/I/JoyToKey/JoyToKey.htm) - JoyToKey download and info I can't think of many controllers that won't work with this game in this way. All the best, Barrie ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Florio" To: "'IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List'" Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 8:16 PM Subject: RE: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid >I disagree I think this game even though it has a lot of free set up > features or you can custom set up all the moving for keys, already part of > the beginning features of the game, someone like me I can't use my fingers > I > couldn't reach the keys to even assign different movements left and right > so > I like sticking with those one click games. This might be a good example > for me to use playing aesthetic game a tempting accessible feature making > it > so that the player can set up the accessible environment but what happens > when someone like me can not even reach the keys. I might use this for my > speech games for health conference September 28. > > Robert > AI online SGA President > arthit73 at cablespeed.com > www.RobertFlorio.com > > -----Original Message----- > From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] > On Behalf Of AudioGames.net > Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 3:10 PM > To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List > Subject: Re: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid > > Hi, > > I copy that. This is an excellent example of accessibility features in a > game! I especially liked the solutions to some possible design problems. > Such as when you zoom in on the game, the location of the enemies is shown > by exclamation marks (!) on the sides of the screen. When looking at this > game, game accessibility seems so simple, doesn't it? > > Ok, I would have given a 10 (or an A+ for those outside of Holland) if > this > game was accessible for the blind as well. Still this is an excellent 9,5 > (or A-?) ! > > Barrie (and others of course: would you like to set up an interview > together > > for www.game-accessibility.com with the developer on his experiences > building this game (including his experiences in the spare room he > mentioned... ;) ? > > Greets, > > Richard > > http://www.audiogames.net > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Reid Kimball" > To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" > Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 7:56 PM > Subject: Re: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid > > >> After playing it I am really impressed with its wide range of >> accessibility options and I think it could be a great model for other >> developers to look at. It's valuable to have one game to look at that >> incorporates many features instead of looking at 10 different games >> that each do one accessibility feature. All the elements work well >> together and improve the enjoyment of the game for many people. I >> could play the game just as easily and enjoyably in "normal" mode and >> also when I had nearly all of the accessibility features turned on. >> Excellent job. >> >> -Reid >> >> On 9/4/06, Barrie Ellis wrote: >>> >>> >>> I'd be really interested to read people's thoughts on "The Pyramid" from >>> Pug >>> Fugly Games. >>> >>> http://www.pugfuglygames.com/Downloads/ThePyramid.zip (PC >>> only) >>> >>> >>> Barrie >>> www.OneSwitch.org.uk >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> games_access mailing list >>> games_access at igda.org >>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >>> >>> >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> games_access mailing list >> games_access at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > > From hinn at uiuc.edu Sat Sep 9 16:06:02 2006 From: hinn at uiuc.edu (d. michelle hinn) Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2006 15:06:02 -0500 Subject: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid In-Reply-To: <002e01c6d445$92e8f390$6402a8c0@Delletje> References: <002e01c6d445$92e8f390$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: I think that this points to the difficulties in creating an accessible game that is also an autonomous accessible game -- that is, a game that requires no set up by another, a game that the gamer is fully in control of the start of the game, can start the game themselves, etc. I think that this is a nice example of an honest attempt at creating as many accessible features as possible. I think with the amount of user scenarios our there, it's especially hard for the independent designer to foresee all of them or, perhaps a designer might have certain assumptions about how a potential audience will come to play the game that isn't exactly spot on. That's where user testing comes in -- instead of thinking the user comes to the game with xyz abilities, test that out on a representative sample or cast a wider net and try to get an idea of a more full range or user differences. That's why we need some brave designers to jump in and give it a go and then, as we're doing here, figure out the process of discovering the things we didn't think about -- sure, we'll find some "room for improvement" but at least now we're really facing the issues at hand. Ok I think I got a bit off course here but basically this is where accessibility moves into usability and even that weird area of "user preferences" -- one gamer may mind very much that they need someone to set a game up so that it works for them while for another they don't mind at all or perhaps views it as a cooperative activity versus a single player experience. But at any rate I laud the efforts of the designer who I hope (!) will value the feedback on how it can now be made more accessible. Great conversation! Michelle >Good of you to join in, Robert! Yeah, I noticed this as well - that >the game should first be customized using an 'inaccessible' menu in >order to be accessible. That's certainly a point of improvement for >this game... and although I can think of other points as well >(contrast/colour schemes, spoken menu items, accessibility for the >blind, a sound mixer, etc. etc.), I don't think I've come across a >game with so much accessibility features (well, aside from Access >Invaders and the other occasional academic game ;) > > >----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Florio" >To: "'IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List'" >Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 9:16 PM >Subject: RE: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid > >>I disagree I think this game even though it has a lot of free set up >>features or you can custom set up all the moving for keys, already part of >>the beginning features of the game, someone like me I can't use my fingers I >>couldn't reach the keys to even assign different movements left and right so >>I like sticking with those one click games. This might be a good example >>for me to use playing aesthetic game a tempting accessible feature making it >>so that the player can set up the accessible environment but what happens >>when someone like me can not even reach the keys. I might use this for my >>speech games for health conference September 28. >> >>Robert >>AI online SGA President >>arthit73 at cablespeed.com >>www.RobertFlorio.com >> >>-----Original Message----- >>From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] >>On Behalf Of AudioGames.net >>Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 3:10 PM >>To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List >>Subject: Re: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid >> >>Hi, >> >>I copy that. This is an excellent example of accessibility features in a >>game! I especially liked the solutions to some possible design problems. >>Such as when you zoom in on the game, the location of the enemies is shown >>by exclamation marks (!) on the sides of the screen. When looking at this >>game, game accessibility seems so simple, doesn't it? >> >>Ok, I would have given a 10 (or an A+ for those outside of Holland) if this >>game was accessible for the blind as well. Still this is an excellent 9,5 >>(or A-?) ! >> >>Barrie (and others of course: would you like to set up an interview together >> >>for www.game-accessibility.com with the developer on his experiences >>building this game (including his experiences in the spare room he >>mentioned... ;) ? >> >>Greets, >> >>Richard >> >>http://www.audiogames.net >> >> >> >> >>----- Original Message ----- From: "Reid Kimball" >>To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" >>Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 7:56 PM >>Subject: Re: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid >> >>>After playing it I am really impressed with its wide range of >>>accessibility options and I think it could be a great model for other >>>developers to look at. It's valuable to have one game to look at that >>>incorporates many features instead of looking at 10 different games >>>that each do one accessibility feature. All the elements work well >>>together and improve the enjoyment of the game for many people. I >>>could play the game just as easily and enjoyably in "normal" mode and >>>also when I had nearly all of the accessibility features turned on. >>>Excellent job. >>> >>>-Reid >>> >>>On 9/4/06, Barrie Ellis wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>>I'd be really interested to read people's thoughts on "The Pyramid" from >>>>Pug >>>>Fugly Games. >>>> >>>>http://www.pugfuglygames.com/Downloads/ThePyramid.zip (PC >>>>only) >>>> >>>> >>>>Barrie >>>>www.OneSwitch.org.uk >>>> >>>>_______________________________________________ >>>>games_access mailing list >>>>games_access at igda.org >>>>http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >>>> >>>> >>>_______________________________________________ >>>games_access mailing list >>>games_access at igda.org >>>http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >> >>_______________________________________________ >>games_access mailing list >>games_access at igda.org >>http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >> >> >>_______________________________________________ >>games_access mailing list >>games_access at igda.org >>http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk Sat Sep 9 16:43:50 2006 From: barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk (Barrie Ellis) Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2006 21:43:50 +0100 Subject: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid References: Message-ID: <00b301c6d450$a84e3e10$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> Hi Robert, What features do you think would make the game more accessible to you? It can be played as a one switch game by the way. I think the credits page should run straight into the game on a timer personally. It's quite possible that Chris Roper, the programmer, could put some fixes in, as he's quite an amenable fellow. Cheers, Barrie ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Florio" To: "'IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List'" Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 8:16 PM Subject: RE: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid >I disagree I think this game even though it has a lot of free set up > features or you can custom set up all the moving for keys, already part of > the beginning features of the game, someone like me I can't use my fingers > I > couldn't reach the keys to even assign different movements left and right > so > I like sticking with those one click games. This might be a good example > for me to use playing aesthetic game a tempting accessible feature making > it > so that the player can set up the accessible environment but what happens > when someone like me can not even reach the keys. I might use this for my > speech games for health conference September 28. > > Robert > AI online SGA President > arthit73 at cablespeed.com > www.RobertFlorio.com > > -----Original Message----- > From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] > On Behalf Of AudioGames.net > Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 3:10 PM > To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List > Subject: Re: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid > > Hi, > > I copy that. This is an excellent example of accessibility features in a > game! I especially liked the solutions to some possible design problems. > Such as when you zoom in on the game, the location of the enemies is shown > by exclamation marks (!) on the sides of the screen. When looking at this > game, game accessibility seems so simple, doesn't it? > > Ok, I would have given a 10 (or an A+ for those outside of Holland) if > this > game was accessible for the blind as well. Still this is an excellent 9,5 > (or A-?) ! > > Barrie (and others of course: would you like to set up an interview > together > > for www.game-accessibility.com with the developer on his experiences > building this game (including his experiences in the spare room he > mentioned... ;) ? > > Greets, > > Richard > > http://www.audiogames.net > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Reid Kimball" > To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" > Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 7:56 PM > Subject: Re: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid > > >> After playing it I am really impressed with its wide range of >> accessibility options and I think it could be a great model for other >> developers to look at. It's valuable to have one game to look at that >> incorporates many features instead of looking at 10 different games >> that each do one accessibility feature. All the elements work well >> together and improve the enjoyment of the game for many people. I >> could play the game just as easily and enjoyably in "normal" mode and >> also when I had nearly all of the accessibility features turned on. >> Excellent job. >> >> -Reid >> >> On 9/4/06, Barrie Ellis wrote: >>> >>> >>> I'd be really interested to read people's thoughts on "The Pyramid" from >>> Pug >>> Fugly Games. >>> >>> http://www.pugfuglygames.com/Downloads/ThePyramid.zip (PC >>> only) >>> >>> >>> Barrie >>> www.OneSwitch.org.uk >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> games_access mailing list >>> games_access at igda.org >>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >>> >>> >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> games_access mailing list >> games_access at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > > From richard at audiogames.net Sat Sep 9 17:13:38 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2006 23:13:38 +0200 Subject: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List References: <003501c6d1cb$dad20100$6402a8c0@Delletje><004101c6d1cd$6c635d70$6402a8c0@Delletje><000901c6d2d5$d9d6fc50$6402a8c0@Delletje> <004701c6d3df$ff789c60$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> Message-ID: <000301c6d454$eb762e10$6402a8c0@Delletje> Hi again, I would stay with a top 10 list, if only to offer some more choice and advice to developers. If 3 to 5 suggestions are a bit vague or debatable, then instead of just removing them, maybe let's debate and improve them? I'll contact Eelke about the design patterns again, we did already talk about it and there are some pro's and con's with using a "pattern approach", depending on the target audience. Eelke is not on this list yet (or so I believe) but I'll mail him now. How I see it, is not going deep into the field of design patterns, but simply using the format that Eelke uses to describe his design patterns for describing the meaning of this top 10 list. Next monday I'll setup a page on www.game-accessibility.com for it that everyone can link to. Or better yet: we can also provide some small code that people can put on their website which will then display the top 10 list? So there is one source, and then we put it on igda.org/accessibility and the wiki and wherever? How's that? And I would like to improve point 8: "Add audio tags to all significant elements including actors, doors, items, resulting actions, etc." I think this point is not very practicle in this form, and I doubt it will make a game much more accessible with 'tags'. Keeping in mind of course that there several mainstream games being played by the blind simply because they do contain a lot of sound - but in turn, the gameplay itsself is also responsible for this. I do not yet have a great alternative. I think making games accessible for the blind would surely include: - point 3 and 4 of the current list - an auditory "narrator" function - basically a stream of explanatory sound, providing enough references to fully play the game. This could consist of several techniques, such as speech giving descriptions, a continu ousradar or sonar indicating locations and directions, etc. etc. I see that this is probably the current point 8 in other words :) The difference being in the word "tags". - - this could be a modification to Eelke's Tutorial Agent (as a constant assistan ----- Original Message ----- From: "Barrie Ellis" To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 9:17 AM Subject: Re: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List >I agree with all of Richards' message. > > Maybe a top 5 would be a good idea too. > > Agree with the scalable fonts, especially after playing "The Pyramid" from > the Retro Remakes competition. > > This game, developed on and off over 3 months has: > > Remapable controls (joystick, keyboard, mouse, single switch, and > head-tracker compatible). > Assist modes (training - auto-fire etc.) > Broad range of difficulty levels > Speed control > Re-scalable graphics (you can zoom in on the whole game - where there are > assistive icons to help with off screen goals/targets). > Changable fonts (to make easier to read). > Options are automatically saved. > > Download it here: http://www.remakes.org/comp2006/screenshots.php?page=2 > > Nice to have games to point people at perhaps via the "design patterns". > > Regards, > > Barrie > > > > > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "AudioGames.net" > To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" > Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 12:32 AM > Subject: Re: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List > > >> Hi, >> >> I think I was one of the people who said the list might benifit if we did >> an update and Eelke (Folmer) critisized the list during his Brighton >> presentation as well. The thing with it was that some things, but >> especially the audio guideline, were a bit too vague for a developer to >> really do something with (the sentence vs. a practical implementation). >> Actually I agree more with the top 10 list now than a year ago but I >> think we can still aprove it here and there. I personally would like to >> experiment a bit with Eelke's design patterns (see: >> http://www.eelke.com/research/IDP/accessibility.html ) and the top 10 >> list. The design pattern list consists of 6 points, which all relate to >> point in >> the original top 10 list: >> >> 1. Allow all controls to be remapped >> >> http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Reconfigurable%20Buttons >> 2. Add closed-captioning to all dialog and important sound effects >> >> closed captions = http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Closed%20Captioning >> 4. Provide assist modes such as auto-targeting, training options, etc. >> >> assist mode = http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Assist%20Mode >> 5. Provide a broad range of difficulty levels. >> adaptive difficulty >> level = http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Adaptive%20Difficulty%20Level >> 9. Allow for a varied range of control over play speed. >> slow = >> http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Slow >> >> Eelke also had tutorial agent: >> http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Tutorial%20Agent , which leaves: >> >> >> 3. Provide documentation in an accessible format such as HTML or plain >> text >> 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. >> 10. Announce accessibility features on the packaging. >> >> I agree with every point above, except with point 8 since I don't believe >> that simply "adding audio tags" will make a game more accessible for the >> blind (which is how I interpreted this point). I guess point 1,2,4,5 and >> 9 might make an excellent top 5. But compare point 7 next to this: >> >> x. Allow for alternative color- and contrast schemes. >> >> With the recent commotion about accessibility for color blind gamers >> (Rockstar's Table Tennis - see www.game-accessibility.com) I guess that >> a guideline concerning colorblindess should definitely be in the top 10 >> (quote: "Color blindness certainly isn't the only or the most problematic >> disability preventing people from getting enjoyment out of games, >> although it is possibly THE MOST WIDESPREAD.") . >> >> And point 6: >> >> x. Make the game scalable >> >> Why only "interface fonts"? And what are interface fonts actually? Text >> in the head-up display (HUD)? Does this include all fonts (including the >> menu's and credits) or just the text during gameplay? And why not the >> icons in WoW? >> >> I guess point 3 and 10 are kind of on the same level - it's the stuff >> *outside* of the game. Maybe it is possible to merge that into one point? >> I personally think the current point 10 doesn't really make a game more >> accessible and it is on a completely different level than the other >> points... although of course it would help our cause a great deal ;) >> >> I would definately *NOT* refer to the top 10 list as a "list of >> guidelines" because using that term might open up a great deal of >> discussion. Instead I would refer to it as a Top 10 List of Things That >> Make Your Game More Accessible. What do we call it now by the way? Not >> guidelines, right? Just "The Top 10 List...".... ;) grin :) ??? >> And there should be a place somewhere (on the web > SIG-website + >> Game-Accessibility.com) where these guidelines are explained in detail so >> there is no room for interpretation (like there is now) - preferably with >> examples... (and I prefer the design pattern format above a W3C-like >> format like 'the other' guidelines although I'm open to any format anyone >> might think of). >> >> K... gotta go to sleep now, this was just a first, hope we can conitnue >> this issue... >> >> Oh, and I'd be happy to work on some artwork, including handout- and >> poster design if you want, Kevin... >> >> Greets, >> >> Richard >> >> http://www.audiogames.net >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Reid Kimball" >> To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" >> Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 5:13 PM >> Subject: Re: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List >> >> >>> The only thing that seems general to me is "Training options" and >>> "broad range of difficulty levels". >>> >>> Is the term "Audio tags" merely to mean add sound effects for all the >>> events of doors opening, etc? >>> >>> Other than that, the list is clear to me, but maybe I'm not the best >>> judge being entrenched in this stuff for so long. >>> >>> -Reid >>> >>> On 9/6/06, Kevin J. Bierre wrote: >>>> I guess we're out of luck as far as a meeting goes. Based on prior >>>> email, >>>> I thought there was one today. >>>> >>>> Since I have to get started on this poster for Future Play 2006, I'll >>>> kick things off here on the list instead. >>>> >>>> I was planning to have the top 10 list as part of the poster. A comment >>>> was made about updating the list (sorry, don't remember who said it) >>>> because some of the advice was rather general. Any comments from others >>>> about updating our top 10? >>>> >>>> Here's the current list: >>>> >>>> GA SIG Top 10 List >>>> 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. >>>> >>>> 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 >>>> >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> games_access mailing list >>>> games_access at igda.org >>>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >>>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> games_access mailing list >>> games_access at igda.org >>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >> >> _______________________________________________ >> games_access mailing list >> games_access at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >> >> > > > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From richard at audiogames.net Sat Sep 9 17:23:27 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2006 23:23:27 +0200 Subject: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List References: <003501c6d1cb$dad20100$6402a8c0@Delletje><004101c6d1cd$6c635d70$6402a8c0@Delletje><000901c6d2d5$d9d6fc50$6402a8c0@Delletje><004701c6d3df$ff789c60$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> <000301c6d454$eb762e10$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: <000501c6d456$30f0c800$6402a8c0@Delletje> Hi, I wasn't finished with this email but it got sent by accident. The rest will follow... ----- Original Message ----- From: "AudioGames.net" To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 11:13 PM Subject: Re: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List > Hi again, > > I would stay with a top 10 list, if only to offer some more choice and > advice to developers. If 3 to 5 suggestions are a bit vague or debatable, > then instead of just removing them, maybe let's debate and improve them? > I'll contact Eelke about the design patterns again, we did already talk > about it and there are some pro's and con's with using a "pattern > approach", depending on the target audience. Eelke is not on this list yet > (or so I believe) but I'll mail him now. > > How I see it, is not going deep into the field of design patterns, but > simply using the format that Eelke uses to describe his design patterns > for describing the meaning of this top 10 list. Next monday I'll setup a > page on www.game-accessibility.com for it that everyone can link to. Or > better yet: we can also provide some small code that people can put on > their website which will then display the top 10 list? So there is one > source, and then we put it on igda.org/accessibility and the wiki and > wherever? How's that? > > And I would like to improve point 8: "Add audio tags to all significant > elements including actors, doors, items, resulting actions, etc." > I think this point is not very practicle in this form, and I doubt it will > make a game much more accessible with 'tags'. Keeping in mind of course > that there several mainstream games being played by the blind simply > because they do contain a lot of sound - but in turn, the gameplay itsself > is also responsible for this. > > I do not yet have a great alternative. I think making games accessible for > the blind would surely include: > > - point 3 and 4 of the current list > - an auditory "narrator" function - basically a stream of explanatory > sound, providing enough references to fully play the game. This could > consist of several techniques, such as speech giving descriptions, a > continu ousradar or sonar indicating locations and directions, etc. etc. I > see that this is probably the current point 8 in other words :) The > difference being in the word "tags". > - > > > - > > this could be a modification to Eelke's Tutorial Agent (as a constant > assistan > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Barrie Ellis" > To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" > Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 9:17 AM > Subject: Re: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List > > >>I agree with all of Richards' message. >> >> Maybe a top 5 would be a good idea too. >> >> Agree with the scalable fonts, especially after playing "The Pyramid" >> from the Retro Remakes competition. >> >> This game, developed on and off over 3 months has: >> >> Remapable controls (joystick, keyboard, mouse, single switch, and >> head-tracker compatible). >> Assist modes (training - auto-fire etc.) >> Broad range of difficulty levels >> Speed control >> Re-scalable graphics (you can zoom in on the whole game - where there are >> assistive icons to help with off screen goals/targets). >> Changable fonts (to make easier to read). >> Options are automatically saved. >> >> Download it here: http://www.remakes.org/comp2006/screenshots.php?page=2 >> >> Nice to have games to point people at perhaps via the "design patterns". >> >> Regards, >> >> Barrie >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "AudioGames.net" >> To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" >> Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 12:32 AM >> Subject: Re: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List >> >> >>> Hi, >>> >>> I think I was one of the people who said the list might benifit if we >>> did an update and Eelke (Folmer) critisized the list during his Brighton >>> presentation as well. The thing with it was that some things, but >>> especially the audio guideline, were a bit too vague for a developer to >>> really do something with (the sentence vs. a practical implementation). >>> Actually I agree more with the top 10 list now than a year ago but I >>> think we can still aprove it here and there. I personally would like to >>> experiment a bit with Eelke's design patterns (see: >>> http://www.eelke.com/research/IDP/accessibility.html ) and the top 10 >>> list. The design pattern list consists of 6 points, which all relate to >>> point in >>> the original top 10 list: >>> >>> 1. Allow all controls to be remapped >> >>> http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Reconfigurable%20Buttons >>> 2. Add closed-captioning to all dialog and important sound effects >> >>> closed captions = http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Closed%20Captioning >>> 4. Provide assist modes such as auto-targeting, training options, etc. >>> >> assist mode = http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Assist%20Mode >>> 5. Provide a broad range of difficulty levels. >> adaptive difficulty >>> level = http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Adaptive%20Difficulty%20Level >>> 9. Allow for a varied range of control over play speed. >> slow = >>> http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Slow >>> >>> Eelke also had tutorial agent: >>> http://eelke.com/wiki/index.php?Tutorial%20Agent , which leaves: >>> >>> >>> 3. Provide documentation in an accessible format such as HTML or plain >>> text >>> 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. >>> 10. Announce accessibility features on the packaging. >>> >>> I agree with every point above, except with point 8 since I don't >>> believe that simply "adding audio tags" will make a game more accessible >>> for the blind (which is how I interpreted this point). I guess point >>> 1,2,4,5 and 9 might make an excellent top 5. But compare point 7 next to >>> this: >>> >>> x. Allow for alternative color- and contrast schemes. >>> >>> With the recent commotion about accessibility for color blind gamers >>> (Rockstar's Table Tennis - see www.game-accessibility.com) I guess that >>> a guideline concerning colorblindess should definitely be in the top 10 >>> (quote: "Color blindness certainly isn't the only or the most >>> problematic disability preventing people from getting enjoyment out of >>> games, although it is possibly THE MOST WIDESPREAD.") . >>> >>> And point 6: >>> >>> x. Make the game scalable >>> >>> Why only "interface fonts"? And what are interface fonts actually? Text >>> in the head-up display (HUD)? Does this include all fonts (including the >>> menu's and credits) or just the text during gameplay? And why not the >>> icons in WoW? >>> >>> I guess point 3 and 10 are kind of on the same level - it's the stuff >>> *outside* of the game. Maybe it is possible to merge that into one >>> point? I personally think the current point 10 doesn't really make a >>> game more accessible and it is on a completely different level than the >>> other points... although of course it would help our cause a great deal >>> ;) >>> >>> I would definately *NOT* refer to the top 10 list as a "list of >>> guidelines" because using that term might open up a great deal of >>> discussion. Instead I would refer to it as a Top 10 List of Things That >>> Make Your Game More Accessible. What do we call it now by the way? Not >>> guidelines, right? Just "The Top 10 List...".... ;) grin :) ??? >>> And there should be a place somewhere (on the web > SIG-website + >>> Game-Accessibility.com) where these guidelines are explained in detail >>> so there is no room for interpretation (like there is now) - preferably >>> with examples... (and I prefer the design pattern format above a >>> W3C-like format like 'the other' guidelines although I'm open to any >>> format anyone might think of). >>> >>> K... gotta go to sleep now, this was just a first, hope we can conitnue >>> this issue... >>> >>> Oh, and I'd be happy to work on some artwork, including handout- and >>> poster design if you want, Kevin... >>> >>> Greets, >>> >>> Richard >>> >>> http://www.audiogames.net >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> ----- Original Message ----- >>> From: "Reid Kimball" >>> To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" >>> Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 5:13 PM >>> Subject: Re: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List >>> >>> >>>> The only thing that seems general to me is "Training options" and >>>> "broad range of difficulty levels". >>>> >>>> Is the term "Audio tags" merely to mean add sound effects for all the >>>> events of doors opening, etc? >>>> >>>> Other than that, the list is clear to me, but maybe I'm not the best >>>> judge being entrenched in this stuff for so long. >>>> >>>> -Reid >>>> >>>> On 9/6/06, Kevin J. Bierre wrote: >>>>> I guess we're out of luck as far as a meeting goes. Based on prior >>>>> email, >>>>> I thought there was one today. >>>>> >>>>> Since I have to get started on this poster for Future Play 2006, I'll >>>>> kick things off here on the list instead. >>>>> >>>>> I was planning to have the top 10 list as part of the poster. A >>>>> comment >>>>> was made about updating the list (sorry, don't remember who said it) >>>>> because some of the advice was rather general. Any comments from >>>>> others >>>>> about updating our top 10? >>>>> >>>>> Here's the current list: >>>>> >>>>> GA SIG Top 10 List >>>>> 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. >>>>> >>>>> 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 >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> games_access mailing list >>>>> games_access at igda.org >>>>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >>>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> games_access mailing list >>>> games_access at igda.org >>>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> games_access mailing list >>> games_access at igda.org >>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >>> >>> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> games_access mailing list >> games_access at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From arthit73 at cablespeed.com Sat Sep 9 19:44:19 2006 From: arthit73 at cablespeed.com (Robert Florio) Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2006 19:44:19 -0400 Subject: call for Roberts meeting RE: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid In-Reply-To: <009601c6d449$74f06310$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> Message-ID: I definitely have joy to key it's a hassle getting someone to set up my mouth controller just to play this what looks like a casual game wouldn't make me feel very casual except for taking 30 minutes to set up so I think if right off the bat this game could be played with just the click of a mouse it would've been much more confined for accessible issues. Thanks for chatting I think I will go to use the example in my speech and maybe chat with a few of you before September 28 about how to incorporate the game as an example. This one. Would be cool if I could play it in front of the crowd and point out all the things that need to be made to make a simple game like this more playable I think a huge visual representation. For example I'll start the game, start going through the configurations and show people I can't reach the keys on my keyboard, and I don't have a joystick set up so the game is played with a mouse, so from right there on stock and then we'll have to call someone to hit control alt and delete to to help me because it froze on me the first time I played it and I have to get someone to restart the computer. I couldn't reach the escape button that's why. This might work in a speech but I must meet with Michelle or someone I can't make the this Wednesday chat but I need to chat with some people get this speech I am writing nailed down with some input from you guys. Anyone interested in meeting this Sunday 6:00 p.m. Eastern New York time instant message? This is my first huge speech I asked my media frenzy that my story in the town so maybe they could bring a newsgroup don't know though but would like to use that poster you guys are talking about make it also. More things to talk about hopefully this Sunday or maybe next Sunday or Wednesday. September 10 and September 17. trillion. Yahoo. arts144 Robert AI online SGA President arthit73 at cablespeed.com www.RobertFlorio.com -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Barrie Ellis Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 3:52 PM To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Subject: Re: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid Hi Robert, Are you using your Quadcontroller with your PC? You should be able to get any Playstation or Xbox compatible controller working with a PC with an adapter (see below). From here you can get it to act as a keyboard using a free software utility called JoyToKey. http://www.lik-sang.com/list.php?category=160 - PC adapters from Lik-Sang http://www.oneswitch.org.uk/2/I/JoyToKey/JoyToKey.htm) - JoyToKey download and info I can't think of many controllers that won't work with this game in this way. All the best, Barrie ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Florio" To: "'IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List'" Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 8:16 PM Subject: RE: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid >I disagree I think this game even though it has a lot of free set up > features or you can custom set up all the moving for keys, already part of > the beginning features of the game, someone like me I can't use my fingers > I > couldn't reach the keys to even assign different movements left and right > so > I like sticking with those one click games. This might be a good example > for me to use playing aesthetic game a tempting accessible feature making > it > so that the player can set up the accessible environment but what happens > when someone like me can not even reach the keys. I might use this for my > speech games for health conference September 28. > > Robert > AI online SGA President > arthit73 at cablespeed.com > www.RobertFlorio.com > > -----Original Message----- > From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] > On Behalf Of AudioGames.net > Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 3:10 PM > To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List > Subject: Re: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid > > Hi, > > I copy that. This is an excellent example of accessibility features in a > game! I especially liked the solutions to some possible design problems. > Such as when you zoom in on the game, the location of the enemies is shown > by exclamation marks (!) on the sides of the screen. When looking at this > game, game accessibility seems so simple, doesn't it? > > Ok, I would have given a 10 (or an A+ for those outside of Holland) if > this > game was accessible for the blind as well. Still this is an excellent 9,5 > (or A-?) ! > > Barrie (and others of course: would you like to set up an interview > together > > for www.game-accessibility.com with the developer on his experiences > building this game (including his experiences in the spare room he > mentioned... ;) ? > > Greets, > > Richard > > http://www.audiogames.net > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Reid Kimball" > To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" > Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 7:56 PM > Subject: Re: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid > > >> After playing it I am really impressed with its wide range of >> accessibility options and I think it could be a great model for other >> developers to look at. It's valuable to have one game to look at that >> incorporates many features instead of looking at 10 different games >> that each do one accessibility feature. All the elements work well >> together and improve the enjoyment of the game for many people. I >> could play the game just as easily and enjoyably in "normal" mode and >> also when I had nearly all of the accessibility features turned on. >> Excellent job. >> >> -Reid >> >> On 9/4/06, Barrie Ellis wrote: >>> >>> >>> I'd be really interested to read people's thoughts on "The Pyramid" from >>> Pug >>> Fugly Games. >>> >>> http://www.pugfuglygames.com/Downloads/ThePyramid.zip (PC >>> only) >>> >>> >>> Barrie >>> www.OneSwitch.org.uk >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> games_access mailing list >>> games_access at igda.org >>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >>> >>> >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> games_access mailing list >> games_access at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > > _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk Sun Sep 10 07:51:44 2006 From: barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk (Barrie Ellis) Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2006 12:51:44 +0100 Subject: call for Roberts meeting RE: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games:The Pyramid References: Message-ID: <00f401c6d4cf$7dacc030$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> Hello Robert, I really don't advise using this game to point out inaccessible game play - as it's one of the best efforts to date in my eyes. However, there are a few things that could be impoved and fixed, bearing in mind your difficulties, so I'd really like to identify what needs to be done. Mouse and Head Tracker users I have found with a number of games, dwell clicking has proved to be a problem. Some games do not recognised certain dwell clickers at all. After your e-mail I noticed that the "Click here to continue" banner on the "Pyramid" does not work either, with my older dwell clicker software. Solution: I contacted Natural Point, who have supplied an "2kXP" compatible dwell clicker for all games. I have attached this for anyone wishing to try this out (works with a standard mouse too). You need to go to the "set up" icon, then click the "2k/Xp clicking mode" button. Seems that there is an issue with Windows 2000 and XP and the way that clicks are sent and recognised with lots of games (generally games that use Direct X to take over the whole screen - many windowed games seem to work fine. >From this update, I have played "The Pyramid" perfectly using a head tracker with and without a switch. You should be able to pause the game for a rest, and quit too pretty easily back to the front menu and in turn Windows / your operating system. What head-tracker system are you using? Also are you even using dwell clicking, or are you using a sip/puff switch to act as mouse clicks? There is another issue with many head trackers, where dwell clicking doesn't allow for toggled controls (e.g. Imagine a car game. You may find it beneficial to dwell click for accellerator on which is held on until you dwell click again for accellerator off. Most dwell clickers will be a fast on/off click at present. Certainly an issue - for instance - dwell clickers won't work well with "Flow in Games": http://intihuatani.usc.edu/cloud/flowing/). One Switch gamers Works well. Hold the button down to select, tap to move down through menu options. There is an issue with switches used with adapted joypads/joysticks. If the switch is connected to UP, DOWN, LEFT or RIGHT and you are using JoyToKey to trigger a SPACE press, the game will respond as though you are using both at the same time, and trigger double presses. Thus you'll find that tapping a switch connected to DOWN causes double presses, making you fly down the menu faster than you'd like to. Solution: In One Switch control mode - ignore the joystick. Another potential problem would be for gamers unable to hold the space bar down reliably. A scan and select menu might be beneficial. Joystick gamers At the Retro Remakes splash screen, you can not proceed without recourse to a different control system (keyboard or left mouse click). Solution: Display the splash screen for a fixed time, then automatically go to the main menu. Detect joystick movement - go to the main menu. User-defining the joystick has some issues. You don't seem to be able to define a Playstation controller standard UP, DOWN, LEFT and RIGHT as the controls. Seems like a small bug that could be fixed fairly easily. All gamers The front menu screen is perhaps a little cluttered and might benefit from some symbols (e.g. spanner for options - traditional exit of man running through a door for exit - and a start symbol - don't know what). Otherwise - please, Robert - don't use this game as an example of an inaccessible game. You may found that the dwell clicker fix opens the whole game up to you. From here there are many things we all want to see included in accessible games. Wide difficulty levels, speed controls, choice of control methods and reconfigurable controls, options for visually impaired gamers, pause options for head tracker users to avoid neck ache, free-play testing areas, clear instructions and so on. Apart from Access Invaders, there's not much else to touch this for all round accessibility. I'll pass on these thoughts and others to Chris Roper of PugFugly games, and see what he says. Archaist (by Tesa and Michi) Well, another game in the meanwhile....Archaist (http://www.michi.nu/games/archaist/index.php) - Again some very nice accessibility features. Head tracker users may need the "2K/XP" fix. What do people think on this one? Barrie www.OneSwitch.org.uk ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Florio" To: "'IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List'" Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2006 12:44 AM Subject: call for Roberts meeting RE: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games:The Pyramid >I definitely have joy to key it's a hassle getting someone to set up my > mouth controller just to play this what looks like a casual game wouldn't > make me feel very casual except for taking 30 minutes to set up so I think > if right off the bat this game could be played with just the click of a > mouse it would've been much more confined for accessible issues. Thanks for > chatting I think I will go to use the example in my speech and maybe chat > with a few of you before September 28 about how to incorporate the game as > an example. This one. Would be cool if I could play it in front of the > crowd and point out all the things that need to be made to make a simple > game like this more playable I think a huge visual representation. > > For example I'll start the game, start going through the configurations and > show people I can't reach the keys on my keyboard, and I don't have a > joystick set up so the game is played with a mouse, so from right there on > stock and then we'll have to call someone to hit control alt and delete to > to help me because it froze on me the first time I played it and I have to > get someone to restart the computer. I couldn't reach the escape button > that's why. This might work in a speech but I must meet with Michelle or > someone I can't make the this Wednesday chat but I need to chat with some > people get this speech I am writing nailed down with some input from you > guys. > > Anyone interested in meeting this Sunday 6:00 p.m. Eastern New York time > instant message? > > This is my first huge speech I asked my media frenzy that my story in the > town so maybe they could bring a newsgroup don't know though but would like > to use that poster you guys are talking about make it also. More things to > talk about hopefully this Sunday or maybe next Sunday or Wednesday. > September 10 and September 17. > > trillion. Yahoo. arts144 > > Robert > AI online SGA President > arthit73 at cablespeed.com > www.RobertFlorio.com > > -----Original Message----- > From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] > On Behalf Of Barrie Ellis > Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 3:52 PM > To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List > Subject: Re: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid > > Hi Robert, > > Are you using your Quadcontroller with your PC? You should be able to get > any Playstation or Xbox compatible controller working with a PC with an > adapter (see below). From here you can get it to act as a keyboard using a > free software utility called JoyToKey. > > http://www.lik-sang.com/list.php?category=160 - PC adapters from Lik-Sang > http://www.oneswitch.org.uk/2/I/JoyToKey/JoyToKey.htm) - JoyToKey download > and info > > I can't think of many controllers that won't work with this game in this > way. > > All the best, > > Barrie > > > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Robert Florio" > To: "'IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List'" > Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 8:16 PM > Subject: RE: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid > > >>I disagree I think this game even though it has a lot of free set up >> features or you can custom set up all the moving for keys, already part of >> the beginning features of the game, someone like me I can't use my fingers > >> I >> couldn't reach the keys to even assign different movements left and right >> so >> I like sticking with those one click games. This might be a good example >> for me to use playing aesthetic game a tempting accessible feature making >> it >> so that the player can set up the accessible environment but what happens >> when someone like me can not even reach the keys. I might use this for my >> speech games for health conference September 28. >> >> Robert >> AI online SGA President >> arthit73 at cablespeed.com >> www.RobertFlorio.com >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] >> On Behalf Of AudioGames.net >> Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 3:10 PM >> To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List >> Subject: Re: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid >> >> Hi, >> >> I copy that. This is an excellent example of accessibility features in a >> game! I especially liked the solutions to some possible design problems. >> Such as when you zoom in on the game, the location of the enemies is shown >> by exclamation marks (!) on the sides of the screen. When looking at this >> game, game accessibility seems so simple, doesn't it? >> >> Ok, I would have given a 10 (or an A+ for those outside of Holland) if >> this >> game was accessible for the blind as well. Still this is an excellent 9,5 >> (or A-?) ! >> >> Barrie (and others of course: would you like to set up an interview >> together >> >> for www.game-accessibility.com with the developer on his experiences >> building this game (including his experiences in the spare room he >> mentioned... ;) ? >> >> Greets, >> >> Richard >> >> http://www.audiogames.net >> >> >> >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Reid Kimball" >> To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" >> Sent: Saturday, September 09, 2006 7:56 PM >> Subject: Re: [games_access] Retro Remakes 2006 Games: The Pyramid >> >> >>> After playing it I am really impressed with its wide range of >>> accessibility options and I think it could be a great model for other >>> developers to look at. It's valuable to have one game to look at that >>> incorporates many features instead of looking at 10 different games >>> that each do one accessibility feature. All the elements work well >>> together and improve the enjoyment of the game for many people. I >>> could play the game just as easily and enjoyably in "normal" mode and >>> also when I had nearly all of the accessibility features turned on. >>> Excellent job. >>> >>> -Reid >>> >>> On 9/4/06, Barrie Ellis wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>> I'd be really interested to read people's thoughts on "The Pyramid" from >>>> Pug >>>> Fugly Games. >>>> >>>> http://www.pugfuglygames.com/Downloads/ThePyramid.zip (PC >>>> only) >>>> >>>> >>>> Barrie >>>> www.OneSwitch.org.uk -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Dwell Click with 2kXP click method option.zip Type: application/octet-stream Size: 60541 bytes Desc: not available URL: From thomas at pininteractive.com Sun Sep 10 16:33:15 2006 From: thomas at pininteractive.com (Thomas Westin) Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2006 22:33:15 +0200 Subject: [games_access] Future Play Poster 2006 and Top 10 List In-Reply-To: References: <003501c6d1cb$dad20100$6402a8c0@Delletje> < > < > <004101c6d1cd$6c635d70$6402a8c0@Delletje> < > Message-ID: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List writes: >> 10. Announce accessibility features on the packaging. until the day all games must be accessible by law, then the announcement should read on those that don't comply "WARNING This game may be inaccessible to some or most users" :) /thomas Pin Interactive AB www.pininteractive.com Call for Free via Skype. My Skype ID: thomaswestin Time zone: CET (GMT+1, PST+9) ____________________________________________________ Award Winning 3D Game for Blind and Sighted: www.terraformers.nu IGDA Game Accessibility SIG www.igda.org/accessibility/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dosadi at aha.ru Mon Sep 11 12:21:30 2006 From: dosadi at aha.ru (Mikhail Zislis) Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 20:21:30 +0400 Subject: [games_access] some hopefully relevant info: opinions wanted! In-Reply-To: <000301c6d454$eb762e10$6402a8c0@Delletje> References: <003501c6d1cb$dad20100$6402a8c0@Delletje><004101c6d1cd$6c635d70$6402a8c0@Delletje><000901c6d2d5$d9d6fc50$6402a8c0@Delletje> <004701c6d3df$ff789c60$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> <000301c6d454$eb762e10$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: <1711577430.20060911202130@aha.ru> Hello, GA SIG! Just wanted to let everyone know that we have released a beta preview of Personalizer, a game development component that will let games discover personalized gameplay preferences of the person who plays the games. Currently we are looking for some feedback from the people who can relate to the problem [of preferences], so I figured that GA SIG must be among the places to look. In developing Personalizer, we state that games should not only let the players remap bindings and set options, but should also memorize the choices made and tell other games about these choices. In context of a disabled person, Personalizer-aware games would know without telling that certain accessibility cues must be enabled for the person to play comfortably. More information is available at http://personalizer.softwarespecies.com (or you can enter through http://DefaultsSuck.Com if you happen to like Macromedia Flash a bit :)). We are looking for any critique and opinions. And thanks everyone for keeping GA SIG an interesting reading! Breathe deep, Mikhail [MSN: Icon__ at hotmail.com] From arthit73 at cablespeed.com Mon Sep 11 12:47:12 2006 From: arthit73 at cablespeed.com (Robert Florio) Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 12:47:12 -0400 Subject: [games_access] some hopefully relevant info: opinions wanted! In-Reply-To: <1711577430.20060911202130@aha.ru> Message-ID: Thanks for the news is it a video game? thanks for your efforts it looks promising. I can't wait to test it and we should start discussing it here soon. Robert AI online SGA President arthit73 at cablespeed.com www.RobertFlorio.com -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Mikhail Zislis Sent: Monday, September 11, 2006 12:22 PM To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Subject: [games_access] some hopefully relevant info: opinions wanted! Hello, GA SIG! Just wanted to let everyone know that we have released a beta preview of Personalizer, a game development component that will let games discover personalized gameplay preferences of the person who plays the games. Currently we are looking for some feedback from the people who can relate to the problem [of preferences], so I figured that GA SIG must be among the places to look. In developing Personalizer, we state that games should not only let the players remap bindings and set options, but should also memorize the choices made and tell other games about these choices. In context of a disabled person, Personalizer-aware games would know without telling that certain accessibility cues must be enabled for the person to play comfortably. More information is available at http://personalizer.softwarespecies.com (or you can enter through http://DefaultsSuck.Com if you happen to like Macromedia Flash a bit :)). We are looking for any critique and opinions. And thanks everyone for keeping GA SIG an interesting reading! Breathe deep, Mikhail [MSN: Icon__ at hotmail.com] _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From dosadi at aha.ru Mon Sep 11 12:56:56 2006 From: dosadi at aha.ru (Mikhail Zislis) Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 20:56:56 +0400 Subject: [games_access] some hopefully relevant info: opinions wanted! In-Reply-To: References: <1711577430.20060911202130@aha.ru> Message-ID: <1497087330.20060911205656@aha.ru> Robert, it's a component for game developers. I think you will get a better idea if you page through the short presentation/overview at http://personalizer.softwarespecies.com/slides. Personalizer won't work for all games, unfortunately, but it will work across games that incorporate the approach we suggest. > Thanks for the news is it a video game? thanks for your efforts it looks > promising. I can't wait to test it and we should start discussing it here > soon. Breathe deep, Mikhail [MSN: Icon__ at hotmail.com] From rkimball at gmail.com Mon Sep 11 16:48:50 2006 From: rkimball at gmail.com (Reid Kimball) Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 13:48:50 -0700 Subject: [games_access] some hopefully relevant info: opinions wanted! In-Reply-To: <1711577430.20060911202130@aha.ru> References: <003501c6d1cb$dad20100$6402a8c0@Delletje> <004101c6d1cd$6c635d70$6402a8c0@Delletje> <000901c6d2d5$d9d6fc50$6402a8c0@Delletje> <004701c6d3df$ff789c60$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> <000301c6d454$eb762e10$6402a8c0@Delletje> <1711577430.20060911202130@aha.ru> Message-ID: I think this is really cool. Might not seem obvious to others how this relates to accessibility but I think it does and could be extended to not only keyboard setups, but accessibility option setups. Imagine having hundreds of games with many of the accessibility feature options that The Pryamid game offers. Each one would take just as long, if not longer to setup than most FPS and RTS games. Do you know of any games that already support this middleware? It could be useful to make an XNA version (C#). I had hoped that console manufacturers would make something similar so that whenever I loaded a game, it would know I wanted subtitles/captioning on for all my games. Curerently, I have to turn it on for all of my console games. With something like the Personalizer I wouldn't have to. I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops. -Reid On 9/11/06, Mikhail Zislis wrote: > Hello, GA SIG! > > Just wanted to let everyone know that we have released a beta preview > of Personalizer, a game development component that will let games > discover personalized gameplay preferences of the person who plays the > games. Currently we are looking for some feedback from the people who > can relate to the problem [of preferences], so I figured that GA SIG > must be among the places to look. > > In developing Personalizer, we state that games should not only let > the players remap bindings and set options, but should also memorize the > choices made and tell other games about these choices. In context of > a disabled person, Personalizer-aware games would know without telling that > certain accessibility cues must be enabled for the person to play > comfortably. > > More information is available at > http://personalizer.softwarespecies.com (or you can enter through > http://DefaultsSuck.Com if you happen to like Macromedia Flash a bit :)). > > We are looking for any critique and opinions. > > And thanks everyone for keeping GA SIG an interesting reading! > > > Breathe deep, > Mikhail > > [MSN: Icon__ at hotmail.com] > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > From dosadi at aha.ru Mon Sep 11 18:35:20 2006 From: dosadi at aha.ru (Mikhail Zislis) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 02:35:20 +0400 Subject: [games_access] some hopefully relevant info: opinions wanted! In-Reply-To: References: <003501c6d1cb$dad20100$6402a8c0@Delletje> <004101c6d1cd$6c635d70$6402a8c0@Delletje> <000901c6d2d5$d9d6fc50$6402a8c0@Delletje> <004701c6d3df$ff789c60$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> <000301c6d454$eb762e10$6402a8c0@Delletje> <1711577430.20060911202130@aha.ru> Message-ID: <385919525.20060912023520@aha.ru> Reid, thanks! There are no games to use Personalizer just yet; this only a preview of the beta. I think we will have a more solid production grade release a bit later this year (finally.) Of course I'm considering wrappers for other languages such as C#, and rolling the system out to console platforms also would certainly be nice, but we shouldn't try to run before we can walk. :) What is that game you have mentioned, "The Pyramid"? Can you refer me to a web site if it is downloadable? We were also hoping to initiate a discussion about the actual accessibility options/features that may appear in games, because these are rare in the games that we usually analyze. As the result, Personalizer's library of options only has "stubs" that I got from the IGDA White Paper on accessibility. So if anyone has ideas or can refer me to tons :) of games with accessibility options in them, I'd be glad to know. The point is to identify, name, and describe possible accessibility options. > I think this is really cool. Might not seem obvious to others how this > relates to accessibility but I think it does and could be extended to > not only keyboard setups, but accessibility option setups. Imagine > having hundreds of games with many of the accessibility feature > options that The Pryamid game offers. Each one would take just as > long, if not longer to setup than most FPS and RTS games. > Do you know of any games that already support this middleware? It > could be useful to make an XNA version (C#). > I had hoped that console manufacturers would make something similar so > that whenever I loaded a game, it would know I wanted > subtitles/captioning on for all my games. Curerently, I have to turn > it on for all of my console games. With something like the > Personalizer I wouldn't have to. > I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops. > -Reid > On 9/11/06, Mikhail Zislis wrote: >> Hello, GA SIG! >> >> Just wanted to let everyone know that we have released a beta preview >> of Personalizer, a game development component that will let games >> discover personalized gameplay preferences of the person who plays the >> games. Currently we are looking for some feedback from the people who >> can relate to the problem [of preferences], so I figured that GA SIG >> must be among the places to look. >> >> In developing Personalizer, we state that games should not only let >> the players remap bindings and set options, but should also memorize the >> choices made and tell other games about these choices. In context of >> a disabled person, Personalizer-aware games would know without telling that >> certain accessibility cues must be enabled for the person to play >> comfortably. >> >> More information is available at >> http://personalizer.softwarespecies.com (or you can enter through >> http://DefaultsSuck.Com if you happen to like Macromedia Flash a bit :)). >> >> We are looking for any critique and opinions. >> >> And thanks everyone for keeping GA SIG an interesting reading! >> >> >> Breathe deep, >> Mikhail >> >> [MSN: Icon__ at hotmail.com] >> >> _______________________________________________ >> games_access mailing list >> games_access at igda.org >> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >> Breathe deep, Mikhail [MSN: Icon__ at hotmail.com] From barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk Tue Sep 12 09:13:52 2006 From: barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk (Barrie Ellis) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 14:13:52 +0100 Subject: [games_access] Game Accessibility article: "Games That Reach Out" - News Gazette Message-ID: <000501c6d66d$4b530870$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> There's a great article on Michelle's blog here: http://vrgrrl.blogspot.com/2006/09/btw-i-never-did-put-up-that-article.html I've pasted it below too - hope you don't mind, Michelle, but I thought it was too good a read not to. Games That Reach Out video games are a part of modern life for a lot of adults as well as kids, michelle hinn says. people talk about the latest games like they talk about the latest episode of the "sopranos" or the latest best-selling book. some online multiplayer games are, in fact, little societies in and of themselves. hinn, a university of illinois doctoral student, is doing her dissertation on social interactions and learning among college students in such games, which she became interested in during a stint working for microsoft. here's no law saying that games have to be accessible," hinn said. while a few game developers have begun to include accessibility features -- "half life 2" sported closed-captioning and the adventure game "terraformers" was designed to be played solely by sound as well as visuals -- hinn is working to make the practice widespread. she founded the international game developers association game accessibility special interest group, has chaired it the last two years and is running for a seat on the association's board [note: well...that didn't end up working out but, hey, it was my first effort in game politics]. at the 2006 game developer's conference in san jose, calif., last month, she was one of three people who received an MVP award from the association. she works internationally with other people promoting and developing accessible games and is co-writing a book on accessible game development for charles river media, a computer books publisher. she's also started a software company, donationcoder, with friend jesse reichler, a doctoral student in computer science at the UI, and is starting a consulting business centered on accessible game development. "i'm just trying to create my own job basically," hinn said jokingly. she does all this in between, among other things, teaching classes at the UI and serving as a counselor and instructor for the women in math, science and engineering section of the florida avenue residence halls, a classroom and residential program for women majoring in scientific and technical fields. hinn is the rare person older than 30 that college students think of as "cool," said piper hodson, who directs the women in math, science and engineering program. hodson thinks that's due in part to "street cred" from having worked for a big-name tech company like microsoft and also a result of hinn's research, which gives her a feel for youth culture. "energy" is a word that seems to come up when people talk about hinn, including UI professor bertram "chip" bruce, her dissertation adviser. bruce said he's excited about the insights that could come from hinn's research using games as a window into understanding how young people collaborate, learn from each other, interact and share information. "i think michelle is doing terrific work," he said. jason della rocca, executive director of the international game developers association, wouldn't disagree. "she's full of energy and excitement and really has a drive to advocate for building accessibility into video games,? he wrote in an e-mail. "she is an exemplary leader and has done so much to organize and coordinate the efforts of the IGDA's game accessibility SIG -- one of our most active groups." besides closed-captioning and audio games for the blind, hinn said games can be made more accessible in a variety of ways. for example, designing them so that the controls can be remapped by the user to allow game play to be conducted easier with a mouth stick or the feet. likewise, font sizes and colors could be adjustable for people with low vision. members of the game accessibility group hinn chairs created a game modification program, or mod, for doom III that allows not only closed-captioning for dialogue, but also for ambient sounds that tell a gamer an enemy is close. game consoles also could be made to more easily accommodate alternative controller hardware, hinn said, like a finger pad to allow someone in a wheelchair to play the popular footwork game "dance dance revolution" with friends. "each group is going to have their own different need," hinn said. she noted that accessibility can have advantages for game companies beyond the new customers with disabilities it may yield for them. for instance, "switch," or one-button, games easily usable by the disabled also work well on cellphones, a growing and potentially lucrative game market. hinn, who should finish her doctorate in august (note: well...there's been a bit of a delay with that...), earned bachelor's degrees in music performance and psychology and a master's in instructional systems design at virginia tech before coming to the UI's college of education for a national science foundation fellowship focused on educational technology. she got interested in web-based classes and simulation games for educational purposes and has worked on projects related to those topics at the UI, the national center for supercomputing applications and elsewhere. her own experience overcoming dyslexia and experiences with disabled friends and students working in programming and on computers got her interested in accessibility, first in educational software and online resources. hinn, who described herself as being into computers and social justice, was interested in games already, and accessibility in games gradually became a big interest. "we always had game consoles in the house (growing up)," she said. writer: greg kline From arthit73 at cablespeed.com Tue Sep 12 11:59:40 2006 From: arthit73 at cablespeed.com (Robert Florio) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 11:59:40 -0400 Subject: [games_access] Game Accessibility article: "Games That Reach Out" -News Gazette In-Reply-To: <000501c6d66d$4b530870$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> Message-ID: <003201c6d684$7603b760$6401a8c0@RobertFlorio> Great article thanks for sharing this with us. It's a nice revitalizing message to give us to specifically at the time I'm going to write my speech for games for health conference September 28 something that inspiration to focus. Thanks. Robert AI online SGA President arthit73 at cablespeed.com www.RobertFlorio.com -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Barrie Ellis Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 9:14 AM To: IGDA GA mailing list Subject: [games_access] Game Accessibility article: "Games That Reach Out" -News Gazette There's a great article on Michelle's blog here: http://vrgrrl.blogspot.com/2006/09/btw-i-never-did-put-up-that-article.html I've pasted it below too - hope you don't mind, Michelle, but I thought it was too good a read not to. Games That Reach Out video games are a part of modern life for a lot of adults as well as kids, michelle hinn says. people talk about the latest games like they talk about the latest episode of the "sopranos" or the latest best-selling book. some online multiplayer games are, in fact, little societies in and of themselves. hinn, a university of illinois doctoral student, is doing her dissertation on social interactions and learning among college students in such games, which she became interested in during a stint working for microsoft. here's no law saying that games have to be accessible," hinn said. while a few game developers have begun to include accessibility features -- "half life 2" sported closed-captioning and the adventure game "terraformers" was designed to be played solely by sound as well as visuals -- hinn is working to make the practice widespread. she founded the international game developers association game accessibility special interest group, has chaired it the last two years and is running for a seat on the association's board [note: well...that didn't end up working out but, hey, it was my first effort in game politics]. at the 2006 game developer's conference in san jose, calif., last month, she was one of three people who received an MVP award from the association. she works internationally with other people promoting and developing accessible games and is co-writing a book on accessible game development for charles river media, a computer books publisher. she's also started a software company, donationcoder, with friend jesse reichler, a doctoral student in computer science at the UI, and is starting a consulting business centered on accessible game development. "i'm just trying to create my own job basically," hinn said jokingly. she does all this in between, among other things, teaching classes at the UI and serving as a counselor and instructor for the women in math, science and engineering section of the florida avenue residence halls, a classroom and residential program for women majoring in scientific and technical fields. hinn is the rare person older than 30 that college students think of as "cool," said piper hodson, who directs the women in math, science and engineering program. hodson thinks that's due in part to "street cred" from having worked for a big-name tech company like microsoft and also a result of hinn's research, which gives her a feel for youth culture. "energy" is a word that seems to come up when people talk about hinn, including UI professor bertram "chip" bruce, her dissertation adviser. bruce said he's excited about the insights that could come from hinn's research using games as a window into understanding how young people collaborate, learn from each other, interact and share information. "i think michelle is doing terrific work," he said. jason della rocca, executive director of the international game developers association, wouldn't disagree. "she's full of energy and excitement and really has a drive to advocate for building accessibility into video games,? he wrote in an e-mail. "she is an exemplary leader and has done so much to organize and coordinate the efforts of the IGDA's game accessibility SIG -- one of our most active groups." besides closed-captioning and audio games for the blind, hinn said games can be made more accessible in a variety of ways. for example, designing them so that the controls can be remapped by the user to allow game play to be conducted easier with a mouth stick or the feet. likewise, font sizes and colors could be adjustable for people with low vision. members of the game accessibility group hinn chairs created a game modification program, or mod, for doom III that allows not only closed-captioning for dialogue, but also for ambient sounds that tell a gamer an enemy is close. game consoles also could be made to more easily accommodate alternative controller hardware, hinn said, like a finger pad to allow someone in a wheelchair to play the popular footwork game "dance dance revolution" with friends. "each group is going to have their own different need," hinn said. she noted that accessibility can have advantages for game companies beyond the new customers with disabilities it may yield for them. for instance, "switch," or one-button, games easily usable by the disabled also work well on cellphones, a growing and potentially lucrative game market. hinn, who should finish her doctorate in august (note: well...there's been a bit of a delay with that...), earned bachelor's degrees in music performance and psychology and a master's in instructional systems design at virginia tech before coming to the UI's college of education for a national science foundation fellowship focused on educational technology. she got interested in web-based classes and simulation games for educational purposes and has worked on projects related to those topics at the UI, the national center for supercomputing applications and elsewhere. her own experience overcoming dyslexia and experiences with disabled friends and students working in programming and on computers got her interested in accessibility, first in educational software and online resources. hinn, who described herself as being into computers and social justice, was interested in games already, and accessibility in games gradually became a big interest. "we always had game consoles in the house (growing up)," she said. writer: greg kline _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From rkimball at gmail.com Tue Sep 12 13:11:45 2006 From: rkimball at gmail.com (Reid Kimball) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 10:11:45 -0700 Subject: [games_access] Capcom says, no to text size increase Message-ID: I'm really disappointed Capcom would say this but they have decided not to release a patch to increase the text size for Dead Rising. http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3153521 "Dead Rising was optimized for HD and we offered some suggestions for SD TV owners," said a company representative. "Due to the amount of text and the size of the patch necessary to change the text, a patch isn't possible for this issue," said the company. "We had asked the team if it was even possible but ... due to the scope of what a patch would need to cover, it wasn't possible." I guarantee we'll see more occurrences like this which illustrate the need for allowing users to change text size or even fonts. -Reid From hinn at uiuc.edu Tue Sep 12 15:46:44 2006 From: hinn at uiuc.edu (d. michelle hinn) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 14:46:44 -0500 Subject: [games_access] Game Accessibility article: "Games That Reach Out" - News Gazette In-Reply-To: <000501c6d66d$4b530870$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> References: <000501c6d66d$4b530870$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> Message-ID: *blush* Thanks, Barrie! I finally got around to putting it up -- it came out in April. Here's some more news... I just got an email this morning to let me know that I had made Next Gen's list of 100 Most Influential Women in Gaming: http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3783&Itemid=2&limit=1&limitstart=4 The full article starts here: http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3783&Itemid=2 So, this media blitz is kinda weird for me. Everything keeps saying I founded the SIG but that was Thomas Westin -- I was one of the original members. Just wanted to clarify that. :) Michelle >There's a great article on Michelle's blog here: > >http://vrgrrl.blogspot.com/2006/09/btw-i-never-did-put-up-that-article.html > >I've pasted it below too - hope you don't mind, >Michelle, but I thought it was too good a read >not to. > > > >Games That Reach Out > >video games are a part of modern life for a lot >of adults as well as kids, michelle hinn says. >people talk about the latest games like they >talk about the latest episode of the "sopranos" >or the latest best-selling book. some online >multiplayer games are, in fact, little societies >in and of >themselves. > >hinn, a university of illinois doctoral student, >is doing her dissertation on social interactions >and learning among college students in such >games, which she became interested in during a >stint working for microsoft. here's no law >saying that games have to be accessible," hinn >said. > >while a few game developers have begun to >include accessibility features -- "half life 2" >sported closed-captioning and the adventure game >"terraformers" was designed to be played solely >by sound as well as visuals -- hinn is working >to make the practice widespread. > >she founded the international game developers >association game accessibility special interest >group, has chaired it the last two years and is >running for a seat on the association's board >[note: well...that didn't end up working out >but, hey, it was my first effort in game >politics]. at the 2006 game developer's >conference in san jose, calif., last month, she >was one of three people who received an MVP >award from the association. she works >internationally with other people promoting and >developing accessible games and is co-writing a >book on accessible game development for charles >river media, a computer books publisher. > >she's also started a software company, >donationcoder, with friend jesse reichler, a >doctoral student in computer science at the UI, >and is starting a consulting business centered >on accessible game development. > >"i'm just trying to create my own job basically," hinn said jokingly. > >she does all this in between, among other >things, teaching classes at the UI and serving >as a counselor and instructor for the women in >math, science and engineering section of the >florida avenue residence halls, a classroom and >residential program for women majoring in >scientific and technical fields. > >hinn is the rare person older than 30 that >college students think of as "cool," said piper >hodson, who directs the women in math, science >and engineering program. > >hodson thinks that's due in part to "street >cred" from having worked for a big-name tech >company like microsoft and also a result of >hinn's research, which gives her a feel for >youth culture. > >"energy" is a word that seems to come up when >people talk about hinn, including UI professor >bertram "chip" bruce, her dissertation adviser. >bruce said he's excited about the insights that >could come from hinn's research using games as a >window into understanding how young people >collaborate, learn from each other, interact and >share information. "i think michelle is doing >terrific work," he said. > >jason della rocca, executive director of the >international game developers association, >wouldn't disagree. "she's full of energy and >excitement and really has a drive to advocate >for building accessibility into video games,? he >wrote in an e-mail. "she is an exemplary leader >and has done so much to organize and coordinate >the efforts of the IGDA's game accessibility SIG >-- one of our most active groups." > >besides closed-captioning and audio games for >the blind, hinn said games can be made more >accessible in a variety of ways. for example, >designing them so that the controls can be >remapped by the user to allow game play to be >conducted easier with a mouth stick or the feet. >likewise, font sizes and colors could be >adjustable for people with low vision. > >members of the game accessibility group hinn >chairs created a game modification program, or >mod, for doom III that allows not only >closed-captioning for dialogue, but also for >ambient sounds that tell a gamer an enemy is >close. > >game consoles also could be made to more easily >accommodate alternative controller hardware, >hinn said, like a finger pad to allow someone in >a wheelchair to play the popular footwork game >"dance dance revolution" with friends. > >"each group is going to have their own different >need," hinn said. she noted that accessibility >can have advantages for game companies beyond >the new customers with disabilities it may yield >for them. for instance, "switch," or one-button, >games easily usable by the disabled also work >well on cellphones, a growing and potentially >lucrative game market. > >hinn, who should finish her doctorate in august >(note: well...there's been a bit of a delay with >that...), earned bachelor's degrees in music >performance and psychology and a master's in >instructional systems design at virginia tech >before coming to the UI's college of education >for a national science foundation fellowship >focused on educational technology. > >she got interested in web-based classes and >simulation games for educational purposes and >has worked on projects related to those topics >at the UI, the national center for >supercomputing applications and elsewhere. > >her own experience overcoming dyslexia and >experiences with disabled friends and students >working in programming and on computers got her >interested in accessibility, first in >educational software and online resources. > >hinn, who described herself as being into >computers and social justice, was interested in >games already, and accessibility in games >gradually became a big interest. > >"we always had game consoles in the house (growing up)," she said. > >writer: greg kline > > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From richard at audiogames.net Tue Sep 12 16:12:58 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 22:12:58 +0200 Subject: [games_access] Game Accessibility article: "Games That ReachOut" - News Gazette References: <000501c6d66d$4b530870$0202a8c0@OneSwitch> Message-ID: <001001c6d6a7$d7384730$6402a8c0@Delletje> Re: [games_access] Game Accessibility article: "Games ThatI didn't even know there were 100 women in gaming...? hihihihi... no just kidding... excellent, congrats, Michelle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ----- Original Message ----- From: d. michelle hinn To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 9:46 PM Subject: Re: [games_access] Game Accessibility article: "Games That ReachOut" - News Gazette *blush* Thanks, Barrie! I finally got around to putting it up -- it came out in April. Here's some more news... I just got an email this morning to let me know that I had made Next Gen's list of 100 Most Influential Women in Gaming: http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3783&Itemid=2&limit=1&limitstart=4 The full article starts here: http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3783&Itemid=2 So, this media blitz is kinda weird for me. Everything keeps saying I founded the SIG but that was Thomas Westin -- I was one of the original members. Just wanted to clarify that. :) Michelle There's a great article on Michelle's blog here: http://vrgrrl.blogspot.com/2006/09/btw-i-never-did-put-up-that-article.html I've pasted it below too - hope you don't mind, Michelle, but I thought it was too good a read not to. Games That Reach Out video games are a part of modern life for a lot of adults as well as kids, michelle hinn says. people talk about the latest games like they talk about the latest episode of the "sopranos" or the latest best-selling book. some online multiplayer games are, in fact, little societies in and of themselves. hinn, a university of illinois doctoral student, is doing her dissertation on social interactions and learning among college students in such games, which she became interested in during a stint working for microsoft. here's no law saying that games have to be accessible," hinn said. while a few game developers have begun to include accessibility features -- "half life 2" sported closed-captioning and the adventure game "terraformers" was designed to be played solely by sound as well as visuals -- hinn is working to make the practice widespread. she founded the international game developers association game accessibility special interest group, has chaired it the last two years and is running for a seat on the association's board [note: well...that didn't end up working out but, hey, it was my first effort in game politics]. at the 2006 game developer's conference in san jose, calif., last month, she was one of three people who received an MVP award from the association. she works internationally with other people promoting and developing accessible games and is co-writing a book on accessible game development for charles river media, a computer books publisher. she's also started a software company, donationcoder, with friend jesse reichler, a doctoral student in computer science at the UI, and is starting a consulting business centered on accessible game development. "i'm just trying to create my own job basically," hinn said jokingly. she does all this in between, among other things, teaching classes at the UI and serving as a counselor and instructor for the women in math, science and engineering section of the florida avenue residence halls, a classroom and residential program for women majoring in scientific and technical fields. hinn is the rare person older than 30 that college students think of as "cool," said piper hodson, who directs the women in math, science and engineering program. hodson thinks that's due in part to "street cred" from having worked for a big-name tech company like microsoft and also a result of hinn's research, which gives her a feel for youth culture. "energy" is a word that seems to come up when people talk about hinn, including UI professor bertram "chip" bruce, her dissertation adviser. bruce said he's excited about the insights that could come from hinn's research using games as a window into understanding how young people collaborate, learn from each other, interact and share information. "i think michelle is doing terrific work," he said. jason della rocca, executive director of the international game developers association, wouldn't disagree. "she's full of energy and excitement and really has a drive to advocate for building accessibility into video games,? he wrote in an e-mail. "she is an exemplary leader and has done so much to organize and coordinate the efforts of the IGDA's game accessibility SIG -- one of our most active groups." besides closed-captioning and audio games for the blind, hinn said games can be made more accessible in a variety of ways. for example, designing them so that the controls can be remapped by the user to allow game play to be conducted easier with a mouth stick or the feet. likewise, font sizes and colors could be adjustable for people with low vision. members of the game accessibility group hinn chairs created a game modification program, or mod, for doom III that allows not only closed-captioning for dialogue, but also for ambient sounds that tell a gamer an enemy is close. game consoles also could be made to more easily accommodate alternative controller hardware, hinn said, like a finger pad to allow someone in a wheelchair to play the popular footwork game "dance dance revolution" with friends. "each group is going to have their own different need," hinn said. she noted that accessibility can have advantages for game companies beyond the new customers with disabilities it may yield for them. for instance, "switch," or one-button, games easily usable by the disabled also work well on cellphones, a growing and potentially lucrative game market. hinn, who should finish her doctorate in august (note: well...there's been a bit of a delay with that...), earned bachelor's degrees in music performance and psychology and a master's in instructional systems design at virginia tech before coming to the UI's college of education for a national science foundation fellowship focused on educational technology. she got interested in web-based classes and simulation games for educational purposes and has worked on projects related to those topics at the UI, the national center for supercomputing applications and elsewhere. her own experience overcoming dyslexia and experiences with disabled friends and students working in programming and on computers got her interested in accessibility, first in educational software and online resources. hinn, who described herself as being into computers and social justice, was interested in games already, and accessibility in games gradually became a big interest. "we always had game consoles in the house (growing up)," she said. writer: greg kline _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From richard at audiogames.net Tue Sep 12 17:03:19 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 23:03:19 +0200 Subject: [games_access] Audio Game Maker: game building environment for the blind Message-ID: <008101c6d6ae$e014c930$6402a8c0@Delletje> (forwarded from AudioGames.net / Game-Accessibility.com - please forward to anyone who might be interested) ========== Audio Game Maker: game building environment for the blind The Bartim?us Accessibility foundation has announced the development of Audio Game Maker, an application which enables visually impaired people to make their own computer games. A first prototype of the application is scheduled to be released in Februari of 2007. Audio Game Maker aims to increase the number of computer games for the visually impaired, since very few accessible computer games exist. Many visually impaired players want to create their own games but give up when confronted with programming difficulties and other technical issues. Creative players manage to modify existing games with their own recorded sounds in order to make 'new' games. Despite these efforts, there is a huge demand for an accessible tool that enables visually impaired people to make computer games. Audio Game Maker aims to be a solution for this problem by offering a simple and accessible game building environment. Audio Game Maker is part of project Game Accessibility, a series of activities conducted by the Bartim?us Accessibility foundation in order to improve the accessibility of computer games for players with impairments. Accessibility has been researching the accessibility of computer games over the past few years, and participated in the development of two games for the blind: Drive, an audio racing game, and Demor, a location-based audio-augmented reality game. For more information, please visit http://www.game-accessibility.com ========== Greets, Richard -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From thomas at pininteractive.com Tue Sep 12 17:07:51 2006 From: thomas at pininteractive.com (Thomas Westin) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 23:07:51 +0200 Subject: [games_access] quick summary Message-ID: Hi all, I have had a hard time keep up to pace with you all since May (!) - this list is busy! Could someone please make a quick summary / bullet list of the ongoing things, especially for GDC 2007, what are our activities there. I can update the SIG wiki Projects page with the bullet list in return :) Thanks, Thomas Pin Interactive AB www.pininteractive.com Call for Free via Skype. My Skype ID: thomaswestin Time zone: CET (GMT+1, PST+9) ____________________________________________________ Award Winning 3D Game for Blind and Sighted: www.terraformers.nu IGDA Game Accessibility SIG www.igda.org/accessibility/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From richard at audiogames.net Tue Sep 12 18:08:50 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 00:08:50 +0200 Subject: [games_access] quick summary References: Message-ID: <001001c6d6b8$06f40620$6402a8c0@Delletje> Or use the Game Accessibility forum GA-SIG Project page: http://www.game-accessibility.com/forum/viewforum.php?id=12 ----- Original Message ----- From: Thomas Westin To: games_access at igda.org Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 11:07 PM Subject: [games_access] quick summary Hi all, I have had a hard time keep up to pace with you all since May (!) - this list is busy! Could someone please make a quick summary / bullet list of the ongoing things, especially for GDC 2007, what are our activities there. I can update the SIG wiki Projects page with the bullet list in return :) Thanks, Thomas Pin Interactive AB www.pininteractive.com Call for Free via Skype. My Skype ID: thomaswestin Time zone: CET (GMT+1, PST+9) ____________________________________________________ Award Winning 3D Game for Blind and Sighted: www.terraformers.nu IGDA Game Accessibility SIG www.igda.org/accessibility/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From hinn at uiuc.edu Tue Sep 12 19:54:52 2006 From: hinn at uiuc.edu (d. michelle hinn) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 18:54:52 -0500 Subject: [games_access] SIG Meeting Wednesday Sept 13th In-Reply-To: <008101c6d6ae$e014c930$6402a8c0@Delletje> References: <008101c6d6ae$e014c930$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: Hi everyone, The next SIG online meeting will be tomorrow, Wednesday Sept 13th 8am PST (LA)/10am CST (Chicago)/11am EST (NYC)/16:00 (London)/17:00 (Amsterdam) and 23:00 (Taipei) See this link for YOUR time zone if I didn't represent it above. :) http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=9&day=13&year=2006&hour=11&min=0&sec=0&p1=179 As is tradition, we'll meet on MSN Messenger. Add me (vrgrrl at hotmail.com) to your buddies/friends/whatever list and I'll look for you a few minutes before the meeting starts and add you to the meeting room. If you are late then just IM me and I'll add you mid-meeting. Hope to see many of you tomorrow! :) Michelle -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From richard at audiogames.net Wed Sep 13 06:58:47 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 12:58:47 +0200 Subject: [games_access] SIG Meeting Wednesday Sept 13th References: <008101c6d6ae$e014c930$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: <005001c6d723$967ba2b0$6402a8c0@Delletje> SIG Meeting Wednesday Sept 13thHi, I will not be able to make it tonight to the chat, since the birthday-party plans have changed a bit. Michelle, can you send me a transcript of the chat? Greets, Richard ----- Original Message ----- From: d. michelle hinn To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 1:54 AM Subject: [games_access] SIG Meeting Wednesday Sept 13th Hi everyone, The next SIG online meeting will be tomorrow, Wednesday Sept 13th 8am PST (LA)/10am CST (Chicago)/11am EST (NYC)/16:00 (London)/17:00 (Amsterdam) and 23:00 (Taipei) See this link for YOUR time zone if I didn't represent it above. :) http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=9&day=13&year=2006&hour=11&min=0&sec=0&p1=179 As is tradition, we'll meet on MSN Messenger. Add me (vrgrrl at hotmail.com) to your buddies/friends/whatever list and I'll look for you a few minutes before the meeting starts and add you to the meeting room. If you are late then just IM me and I'll add you mid-meeting. Hope to see many of you tomorrow! :) Michelle ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From thomas at pininteractive.com Wed Sep 13 07:41:55 2006 From: thomas at pininteractive.com (Thomas Westin) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 13:41:55 +0200 Subject: [games_access] quick summary In-Reply-To: <001001c6d6b8$06f40620$6402a8c0@Delletje> References: <,> <001001c6d6b8$06f40620$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: OK, great :) Perhaps we should link to that page from the wiki to avoid confusion with two project pages? /Thomas IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List writes: >Or use the Game Accessibility forum GA-SIG Project page: > >[ http://www.game-accessibility.com/forum/viewforum.php?id=12 ]http://www.game-accessibility.com/forum/viewforum.php?id=12 > > >----- Original Message ----- >From: [ mailto:thomas at pininteractive.com ]Thomas Westin >To: [ mailto:games_access at igda.org ]games_access at igda.org >Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 11:07 PM >Subject: [games_access] quick summary > > >Hi all, > >I have had a hard time keep up to pace with you all since May (!) - this list is busy! Could someone please make a quick summary / bullet list of the ongoing things, especially for GDC 2007, what are our activities there. > >I can update the SIG wiki Projects page with the bullet list in return :) > >Thanks, >Thomas > > >Pin Interactive AB [ http://www.pininteractive.com ]www.pininteractive.com >Call for Free via Skype. My Skype ID: thomaswestin >Time zone: CET (GMT+1, PST+9) >____________________________________________________ >Award Winning 3D Game for Blind and Sighted: [ http://www.terraformers.nu ]www.terraformers.nu >IGDA Game Accessibility SIG [ http://www.igda.org/accessibility/ ]www.igda.org/accessibility/ > > > > >--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >- > > > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access Pin Interactive AB www.pininteractive.com Call for Free via Skype. My Skype ID: thomaswestin Time zone: CET (GMT+1, PST+9) ____________________________________________________ Award Winning 3D Game for Blind and Sighted: www.terraformers.nu IGDA Game Accessibility SIG www.igda.org/accessibility/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From richard at audiogames.net Wed Sep 13 08:56:07 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 14:56:07 +0200 Subject: [games_access] quick summary References: <, ><001001c6d6b8$06f40620$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: <003f01c6d733$fb05c0c0$6402a8c0@Delletje> Yes, that's good. I was under the impression that we would use the forum pages for documenting SIG projects, but I may be mistaken? ----- Original Message ----- From: Thomas Westin To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 1:41 PM Subject: Re: [games_access] quick summary OK, great :) Perhaps we should link to that page from the wiki to avoid confusion with two project pages? /Thomas IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List writes: Or use the Game Accessibility forum GA-SIG Project page: http://www.game-accessibility.com/forum/viewforum.php?id=12 ----- Original Message ----- From: Thomas Westin To: games_access at igda.org Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 11:07 PM Subject: [games_access] quick summary Hi all, I have had a hard time keep up to pace with you all since May (!) - this list is busy! Could someone please make a quick summary / bullet list of the ongoing things, especially for GDC 2007, what are our activities there. I can update the SIG wiki Projects page with the bullet list in return :) Thanks, Thomas Pin Interactive AB www.pininteractive.com Call for Free via Skype. My Skype ID: thomaswestin Time zone: CET (GMT+1, PST+9) ____________________________________________________ Award Winning 3D Game for Blind and Sighted: www.terraformers.nu IGDA Game Accessibility SIG www.igda.org/accessibility/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access Pin Interactive AB www.pininteractive.com Call for Free via Skype. My Skype ID: thomaswestin Time zone: CET (GMT+1, PST+9) ____________________________________________________ Award Winning 3D Game for Blind and Sighted: www.terraformers.nu IGDA Game Accessibility SIG www.igda.org/accessibility/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From richard at audiogames.net Wed Sep 13 08:58:24 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 14:58:24 +0200 Subject: [games_access] SIG Meeting Wednesday Sept 13th References: <008101c6d6ae$e014c930$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: <006401c6d734$4c91c290$6402a8c0@Delletje> SIG Meeting Wednesday Sept 13thHi, I copied your post to... http://www.game-accessibility.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=54 as well... Greets, Richard ----- Original Message ----- From: d. michelle hinn To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 1:54 AM Subject: [games_access] SIG Meeting Wednesday Sept 13th Hi everyone, The next SIG online meeting will be tomorrow, Wednesday Sept 13th 8am PST (LA)/10am CST (Chicago)/11am EST (NYC)/16:00 (London)/17:00 (Amsterdam) and 23:00 (Taipei) See this link for YOUR time zone if I didn't represent it above. :) http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=9&day=13&year=2006&hour=11&min=0&sec=0&p1=179 As is tradition, we'll meet on MSN Messenger. Add me (vrgrrl at hotmail.com) to your buddies/friends/whatever list and I'll look for you a few minutes before the meeting starts and add you to the meeting room. If you are late then just IM me and I'll add you mid-meeting. Hope to see many of you tomorrow! :) Michelle ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From richard at audiogames.net Wed Sep 13 09:03:29 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 15:03:29 +0200 Subject: [games_access] SIG Meeting Wednesday Sept 13th References: <008101c6d6ae$e014c930$6402a8c0@Delletje> <006401c6d734$4c91c290$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: <007d01c6d735$027e54b0$6402a8c0@Delletje> SIG Meeting Wednesday Sept 13thBy the way, this part of the GA-forum ("IGDA Game Accessibility SIG General Chat Forum) is only available for those who are registered for it. For those who are not registered for this section, please send Michelle or me a request to be added to this forum. I also added a new thread to post the transcripts of the online chats. Greets, Richard ----- Original Message ----- From: AudioGames.net To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 2:58 PM Subject: Re: [games_access] SIG Meeting Wednesday Sept 13th Hi, I copied your post to... http://www.game-accessibility.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=54 as well... Greets, Richard ----- Original Message ----- From: d. michelle hinn To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 1:54 AM Subject: [games_access] SIG Meeting Wednesday Sept 13th Hi everyone, The next SIG online meeting will be tomorrow, Wednesday Sept 13th 8am PST (LA)/10am CST (Chicago)/11am EST (NYC)/16:00 (London)/17:00 (Amsterdam) and 23:00 (Taipei) See this link for YOUR time zone if I didn't represent it above. :) http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=9&day=13&year=2006&hour=11&min=0&sec=0&p1=179 As is tradition, we'll meet on MSN Messenger. Add me (vrgrrl at hotmail.com) to your buddies/friends/whatever list and I'll look for you a few minutes before the meeting starts and add you to the meeting room. If you are late then just IM me and I'll add you mid-meeting. Hope to see many of you tomorrow! :) Michelle ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From hinn at uiuc.edu Wed Sep 13 10:54:49 2006 From: hinn at uiuc.edu (d. michelle hinn) Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 09:54:49 -0500 Subject: [games_access] quick summary In-Reply-To: <003f01c6d733$fb05c0c0$6402a8c0@Delletje> References: <, ><001001c6d6b8$06f40620$6402a8c0@Delletje> <003f01c6d733$fb05c0c0$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: Yes, that's the idea -- we'll be merging more toward the gameaccessibility forum now but we should link from the wiki to there. >Yes, that's good. I was under the impression that we would use the >forum pages for documenting SIG projects, but I may be mistaken? > >----- Original Message ----- >From: Thomas Westin >To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List >Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 1:41 PM >Subject: Re: [games_access] quick summary > >OK, great :) > >Perhaps we should link to that page from the wiki to avoid confusion >with two project pages? > >/Thomas > >IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List ><games_access at igda.org> writes: >Or use the Game Accessibility forum GA-SIG Project page: > >http://www.game-accessibility.com/forum/viewforum.php?id=12 > > >----- Original Message ----- >From: Thomas Westin >To: games_access at igda.org >Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 11:07 PM >Subject: [games_access] quick summary > > >Hi all, > >I have had a hard time keep up to pace with you all since May (!) - >this list is busy! Could someone please make a quick summary / >bullet list of the ongoing things, especially for GDC 2007, what are >our activities there. > >I can update the SIG wiki Projects page with the bullet list in return :) > >Thanks, >Thomas > > >Pin Interactive AB www.pininteractive.com >Call for Free via Skype. My Skype ID: thomaswestin >Time zone: CET (GMT+1, PST+9) >____________________________________________________ >Award Winning 3D Game for Blind and Sighted: >www.terraformers.nu >IGDA Game Accessibility SIG >www.igda.org/accessibility/ > > > > > > > > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > > > > >Pin Interactive AB www.pininteractive.com >Call for Free via Skype. My Skype ID: thomaswestin >Time zone: CET (GMT+1, PST+9) >____________________________________________________ >Award Winning 3D Game for Blind and Sighted: >www.terraformers.nu >IGDA Game Accessibility SIG >www.igda.org/accessibility/ > > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From richard at audiogames.net Thu Sep 14 12:17:11 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 18:17:11 +0200 Subject: [games_access] SIG Meeting Wednesday Sept 13th References: <008101c6d6ae$e014c930$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: <001e01c6d819$3c132ef0$6402a8c0@Delletje> SIG Meeting Wednesday Sept 13thHi, How was the chat? Is there a transcript maybe? Greets, Richard ----- Original Message ----- From: d. michelle hinn To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 1:54 AM Subject: [games_access] SIG Meeting Wednesday Sept 13th Hi everyone, The next SIG online meeting will be tomorrow, Wednesday Sept 13th 8am PST (LA)/10am CST (Chicago)/11am EST (NYC)/16:00 (London)/17:00 (Amsterdam) and 23:00 (Taipei) See this link for YOUR time zone if I didn't represent it above. :) http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=9&day=13&year=2006&hour=11&min=0&sec=0&p1=179 As is tradition, we'll meet on MSN Messenger. Add me (vrgrrl at hotmail.com) to your buddies/friends/whatever list and I'll look for you a few minutes before the meeting starts and add you to the meeting room. If you are late then just IM me and I'll add you mid-meeting. Hope to see many of you tomorrow! :) Michelle ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From richard at audiogames.net Fri Sep 15 04:36:33 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2006 10:36:33 +0200 Subject: [games_access] To Robert and everyone - Conference Thread References: <003201c6d684$7603b760$6401a8c0@RobertFlorio> Message-ID: <006801c6d8a2$0d0f0eb0$6402a8c0@Delletje> Hi Robert and everyone, I have added the Games For Health Conference on the Conference page over at Game-Accessibility.com since it was not yet up there. I would like to ask everyone that if you are going to a conference and you will be doing something there with game accessibility (either in name of the IGDA GA-SIG or your own foundation/company or person) to take 1 minute to write down the name, date and location of the conference, as well as a one line description of the activity going on there. Although this forum is entitled "IGDA Game Accessibility SIG Projects", I guess it's alright to post any game accessibility activity anywhere here... This way we all can keep track ourselves of who is doing what at what conference, since at this moment a lot of us are going "what conference is he/she talking about??". Everybody can participate since everybody is allowed to post on the forum. Another benifit is that other people who are not on this mailing list but who visit G-A.com also know that there is GA-Activity somewhere (which may draw some more crowd to your presentation). This makes these conferences and our activity also findable through Google. Next to this all, you could use the conference thread to discuss what materials you still need, discuss your presentation afterwards with possible visitors, etc. etc. Here's an example of what I mean: http://www.game-accessibility.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=135 Greets, Richard ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Florio" To: "'IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List'" Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 5:59 PM Subject: RE: [games_access] Game Accessibility article: "Games That Reach Out"-News Gazette Great article thanks for sharing this with us. It's a nice revitalizing message to give us to specifically at the time I'm going to write my speech for games for health conference September 28 something that inspiration to focus. Thanks. Robert AI online SGA President arthit73 at cablespeed.com www.RobertFlorio.com -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Barrie Ellis Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 9:14 AM To: IGDA GA mailing list Subject: [games_access] Game Accessibility article: "Games That Reach Out" -News Gazette There's a great article on Michelle's blog here: http://vrgrrl.blogspot.com/2006/09/btw-i-never-did-put-up-that-article.html I've pasted it below too - hope you don't mind, Michelle, but I thought it was too good a read not to. Games That Reach Out video games are a part of modern life for a lot of adults as well as kids, michelle hinn says. people talk about the latest games like they talk about the latest episode of the "sopranos" or the latest best-selling book. some online multiplayer games are, in fact, little societies in and of themselves. hinn, a university of illinois doctoral student, is doing her dissertation on social interactions and learning among college students in such games, which she became interested in during a stint working for microsoft. here's no law saying that games have to be accessible," hinn said. while a few game developers have begun to include accessibility features -- "half life 2" sported closed-captioning and the adventure game "terraformers" was designed to be played solely by sound as well as visuals -- hinn is working to make the practice widespread. she founded the international game developers association game accessibility special interest group, has chaired it the last two years and is running for a seat on the association's board [note: well...that didn't end up working out but, hey, it was my first effort in game politics]. at the 2006 game developer's conference in san jose, calif., last month, she was one of three people who received an MVP award from the association. she works internationally with other people promoting and developing accessible games and is co-writing a book on accessible game development for charles river media, a computer books publisher. she's also started a software company, donationcoder, with friend jesse reichler, a doctoral student in computer science at the UI, and is starting a consulting business centered on accessible game development. "i'm just trying to create my own job basically," hinn said jokingly. she does all this in between, among other things, teaching classes at the UI and serving as a counselor and instructor for the women in math, science and engineering section of the florida avenue residence halls, a classroom and residential program for women majoring in scientific and technical fields. hinn is the rare person older than 30 that college students think of as "cool," said piper hodson, who directs the women in math, science and engineering program. hodson thinks that's due in part to "street cred" from having worked for a big-name tech company like microsoft and also a result of hinn's research, which gives her a feel for youth culture. "energy" is a word that seems to come up when people talk about hinn, including UI professor bertram "chip" bruce, her dissertation adviser. bruce said he's excited about the insights that could come from hinn's research using games as a window into understanding how young people collaborate, learn from each other, interact and share information. "i think michelle is doing terrific work," he said. jason della rocca, executive director of the international game developers association, wouldn't disagree. "she's full of energy and excitement and really has a drive to advocate for building accessibility into video games,? he wrote in an e-mail. "she is an exemplary leader and has done so much to organize and coordinate the efforts of the IGDA's game accessibility SIG -- one of our most active groups." besides closed-captioning and audio games for the blind, hinn said games can be made more accessible in a variety of ways. for example, designing them so that the controls can be remapped by the user to allow game play to be conducted easier with a mouth stick or the feet. likewise, font sizes and colors could be adjustable for people with low vision. members of the game accessibility group hinn chairs created a game modification program, or mod, for doom III that allows not only closed-captioning for dialogue, but also for ambient sounds that tell a gamer an enemy is close. game consoles also could be made to more easily accommodate alternative controller hardware, hinn said, like a finger pad to allow someone in a wheelchair to play the popular footwork game "dance dance revolution" with friends. "each group is going to have their own different need," hinn said. she noted that accessibility can have advantages for game companies beyond the new customers with disabilities it may yield for them. for instance, "switch," or one-button, games easily usable by the disabled also work well on cellphones, a growing and potentially lucrative game market. hinn, who should finish her doctorate in august (note: well...there's been a bit of a delay with that...), earned bachelor's degrees in music performance and psychology and a master's in instructional systems design at virginia tech before coming to the UI's college of education for a national science foundation fellowship focused on educational technology. she got interested in web-based classes and simulation games for educational purposes and has worked on projects related to those topics at the UI, the national center for supercomputing applications and elsewhere. her own experience overcoming dyslexia and experiences with disabled friends and students working in programming and on computers got her interested in accessibility, first in educational software and online resources. hinn, who described herself as being into computers and social justice, was interested in games already, and accessibility in games gradually became a big interest. "we always had game consoles in the house (growing up)," she said. writer: greg kline _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From richard at audiogames.net Fri Sep 15 05:36:02 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2006 11:36:02 +0200 Subject: [games_access] To Robert and everyone - Conference Thread References: <003201c6d684$7603b760$6401a8c0@RobertFlorio> <006801c6d8a2$0d0f0eb0$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: <00ab01c6d8aa$5c297aa0$6402a8c0@Delletje> Hi, Just one more thing: A selection of people is able to post news on Game-Accessibility.com. This concerns: Sander Huiberts and I (Richard van Tol) - Accessibiliity foundation Michelle Hinn - University of Illinois/IGDA GA-SIG Reid Kimball - LucasArts/Games[CC] Robert Florio - http://www.robertflorio.com/ Barrie Ellis - OneSwitch If you have news you want to have posted on www.Game-Accessibility.com , please contact one of us. If anyone feels like he or she want to contribute news items regularly to this website, please contact me and I will set up a news account for you. Greets, Richard http://www.game-accessibility.com http://www.audiogames.net ----- Original Message ----- From: "AudioGames.net" To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 10:36 AM Subject: [games_access] To Robert and everyone - Conference Thread Hi Robert and everyone, I have added the Games For Health Conference on the Conference page over at Game-Accessibility.com since it was not yet up there. I would like to ask everyone that if you are going to a conference and you will be doing something there with game accessibility (either in name of the IGDA GA-SIG or your own foundation/company or person) to take 1 minute to write down the name, date and location of the conference, as well as a one line description of the activity going on there. Although this forum is entitled "IGDA Game Accessibility SIG Projects", I guess it's alright to post any game accessibility activity anywhere here... This way we all can keep track ourselves of who is doing what at what conference, since at this moment a lot of us are going "what conference is he/she talking about??". Everybody can participate since everybody is allowed to post on the forum. Another benifit is that other people who are not on this mailing list but who visit G-A.com also know that there is GA-Activity somewhere (which may draw some more crowd to your presentation). This makes these conferences and our activity also findable through Google. Next to this all, you could use the conference thread to discuss what materials you still need, discuss your presentation afterwards with possible visitors, etc. etc. Here's an example of what I mean: http://www.game-accessibility.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=135 Greets, Richard ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Florio" To: "'IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List'" Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 5:59 PM Subject: RE: [games_access] Game Accessibility article: "Games That Reach Out"-News Gazette Great article thanks for sharing this with us. It's a nice revitalizing message to give us to specifically at the time I'm going to write my speech for games for health conference September 28 something that inspiration to focus. Thanks. Robert AI online SGA President arthit73 at cablespeed.com www.RobertFlorio.com -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Barrie Ellis Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 9:14 AM To: IGDA GA mailing list Subject: [games_access] Game Accessibility article: "Games That Reach Out" -News Gazette There's a great article on Michelle's blog here: http://vrgrrl.blogspot.com/2006/09/btw-i-never-did-put-up-that-article.html I've pasted it below too - hope you don't mind, Michelle, but I thought it was too good a read not to. Games That Reach Out video games are a part of modern life for a lot of adults as well as kids, michelle hinn says. people talk about the latest games like they talk about the latest episode of the "sopranos" or the latest best-selling book. some online multiplayer games are, in fact, little societies in and of themselves. hinn, a university of illinois doctoral student, is doing her dissertation on social interactions and learning among college students in such games, which she became interested in during a stint working for microsoft. here's no law saying that games have to be accessible," hinn said. while a few game developers have begun to include accessibility features -- "half life 2" sported closed-captioning and the adventure game "terraformers" was designed to be played solely by sound as well as visuals -- hinn is working to make the practice widespread. she founded the international game developers association game accessibility special interest group, has chaired it the last two years and is running for a seat on the association's board [note: well...that didn't end up working out but, hey, it was my first effort in game politics]. at the 2006 game developer's conference in san jose, calif., last month, she was one of three people who received an MVP award from the association. she works internationally with other people promoting and developing accessible games and is co-writing a book on accessible game development for charles river media, a computer books publisher. she's also started a software company, donationcoder, with friend jesse reichler, a doctoral student in computer science at the UI, and is starting a consulting business centered on accessible game development. "i'm just trying to create my own job basically," hinn said jokingly. she does all this in between, among other things, teaching classes at the UI and serving as a counselor and instructor for the women in math, science and engineering section of the florida avenue residence halls, a classroom and residential program for women majoring in scientific and technical fields. hinn is the rare person older than 30 that college students think of as "cool," said piper hodson, who directs the women in math, science and engineering program. hodson thinks that's due in part to "street cred" from having worked for a big-name tech company like microsoft and also a result of hinn's research, which gives her a feel for youth culture. "energy" is a word that seems to come up when people talk about hinn, including UI professor bertram "chip" bruce, her dissertation adviser. bruce said he's excited about the insights that could come from hinn's research using games as a window into understanding how young people collaborate, learn from each other, interact and share information. "i think michelle is doing terrific work," he said. jason della rocca, executive director of the international game developers association, wouldn't disagree. "she's full of energy and excitement and really has a drive to advocate for building accessibility into video games,? he wrote in an e-mail. "she is an exemplary leader and has done so much to organize and coordinate the efforts of the IGDA's game accessibility SIG -- one of our most active groups." besides closed-captioning and audio games for the blind, hinn said games can be made more accessible in a variety of ways. for example, designing them so that the controls can be remapped by the user to allow game play to be conducted easier with a mouth stick or the feet. likewise, font sizes and colors could be adjustable for people with low vision. members of the game accessibility group hinn chairs created a game modification program, or mod, for doom III that allows not only closed-captioning for dialogue, but also for ambient sounds that tell a gamer an enemy is close. game consoles also could be made to more easily accommodate alternative controller hardware, hinn said, like a finger pad to allow someone in a wheelchair to play the popular footwork game "dance dance revolution" with friends. "each group is going to have their own different need," hinn said. she noted that accessibility can have advantages for game companies beyond the new customers with disabilities it may yield for them. for instance, "switch," or one-button, games easily usable by the disabled also work well on cellphones, a growing and potentially lucrative game market. hinn, who should finish her doctorate in august (note: well...there's been a bit of a delay with that...), earned bachelor's degrees in music performance and psychology and a master's in instructional systems design at virginia tech before coming to the UI's college of education for a national science foundation fellowship focused on educational technology. she got interested in web-based classes and simulation games for educational purposes and has worked on projects related to those topics at the UI, the national center for supercomputing applications and elsewhere. her own experience overcoming dyslexia and experiences with disabled friends and students working in programming and on computers got her interested in accessibility, first in educational software and online resources. hinn, who described herself as being into computers and social justice, was interested in games already, and accessibility in games gradually became a big interest. "we always had game consoles in the house (growing up)," she said. writer: greg kline _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From arthit73 at cablespeed.com Sat Sep 16 17:54:59 2006 From: arthit73 at cablespeed.com (Robert Florio) Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2006 17:54:59 -0400 Subject: [games_access] To Robert and everyone - Conference Thread In-Reply-To: AAAAADBf8GSYa4xDlD4sBa5lcIxkLiEA Message-ID: <008201c6d9da$c29f8550$6601a8c0@Inspiron> http://www.game-accessibility.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=423#p423 Sorry I missed the meeting everyone with the special interest group I caught a sickness huge huge headaches autonomic dysreflexia part of a spinal cord reaction. Laying in bed now back from Johns Hopkins have energy to do homework with the videogame icons is working on an try to catch up with all you from our group on what I might still need to work on for my speech. I pray I have the strength and still ability to do this I should be fined by the 28th but that is my goal. If anyone would like to still instant message me please do so below you can find me at both locations. This way we can talk more about what your goals might be and to helping put together a great package presentation mostly starting about my life how I got into accessibility game design that all of you and what's been going on with it. And I will record it for my presentation part of the documentary I started at GDC this year hoped to complete this year and bring to the next GDC. Once again richer thank you for notifying me in the group and setting up this web site and I guess this is the right place to post at the same message in our mailing list and under the sig projects forum. At the gameaccessibility.com site. Who knows how my head will feel triggering these headaches like this on pain medicine I have to wait now through the weekend Monday morning the doctor sent me on to early in the way. They just don't understand people with spinal cord injuries need different studies at my specialist told to that but of course they knew they would do this. Word for the wise spinal cord injury victims or patients do not check yourself and at the world-famous Johns Hopkins in Baltimore instead another Baltimore University Hospital University of Maryland is much better specifically on spinal cord knowledge. Coincidentally the same university I will be speaking for September 28. I will make this remark in my speech as well part of my motivation people need to go. Right now I am praying, trying to stay healthy, eat good food and watch good movies. And of course I play a video game never winter nights module my class project is working on that I am produced. Please e-mail me for my information if you're interested in instant messaging or catch me online. Robert Florio Art Institute online SGA President Quadriplegic Artist www.RobertFlorio.com arthit73 at cablespeed.com -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of AudioGames.net Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 5:36 AM To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Subject: Re: [games_access] To Robert and everyone - Conference Thread Hi, Just one more thing: A selection of people is able to post news on Game-Accessibility.com. This concerns: Sander Huiberts and I (Richard van Tol) - Accessibiliity foundation Michelle Hinn - University of Illinois/IGDA GA-SIG Reid Kimball - LucasArts/Games[CC] Robert Florio - http://www.robertflorio.com/ Barrie Ellis - OneSwitch If you have news you want to have posted on www.Game-Accessibility.com , please contact one of us. If anyone feels like he or she want to contribute news items regularly to this website, please contact me and I will set up a news account for you. Greets, Richard http://www.game-accessibility.com http://www.audiogames.net ----- Original Message ----- From: "AudioGames.net" To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 10:36 AM Subject: [games_access] To Robert and everyone - Conference Thread Hi Robert and everyone, I have added the Games For Health Conference on the Conference page over at Game-Accessibility.com since it was not yet up there. I would like to ask everyone that if you are going to a conference and you will be doing something there with game accessibility (either in name of the IGDA GA-SIG or your own foundation/company or person) to take 1 minute to write down the name, date and location of the conference, as well as a one line description of the activity going on there. Although this forum is entitled "IGDA Game Accessibility SIG Projects", I guess it's alright to post any game accessibility activity anywhere here... This way we all can keep track ourselves of who is doing what at what conference, since at this moment a lot of us are going "what conference is he/she talking about??". Everybody can participate since everybody is allowed to post on the forum. Another benifit is that other people who are not on this mailing list but who visit G-A.com also know that there is GA-Activity somewhere (which may draw some more crowd to your presentation). This makes these conferences and our activity also findable through Google. Next to this all, you could use the conference thread to discuss what materials you still need, discuss your presentation afterwards with possible visitors, etc. etc. Here's an example of what I mean: http://www.game-accessibility.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=135 Greets, Richard ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Florio" To: "'IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List'" Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 5:59 PM Subject: RE: [games_access] Game Accessibility article: "Games That Reach Out"-News Gazette Great article thanks for sharing this with us. It's a nice revitalizing message to give us to specifically at the time I'm going to write my speech for games for health conference September 28 something that inspiration to focus. Thanks. Robert AI online SGA President arthit73 at cablespeed.com www.RobertFlorio.com -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Barrie Ellis Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 9:14 AM To: IGDA GA mailing list Subject: [games_access] Game Accessibility article: "Games That Reach Out" -News Gazette There's a great article on Michelle's blog here: http://vrgrrl.blogspot.com/2006/09/btw-i-never-did-put-up-that-article.html I've pasted it below too - hope you don't mind, Michelle, but I thought it was too good a read not to. Games That Reach Out video games are a part of modern life for a lot of adults as well as kids, michelle hinn says. people talk about the latest games like they talk about the latest episode of the "sopranos" or the latest best-selling book. some online multiplayer games are, in fact, little societies in and of themselves. hinn, a university of illinois doctoral student, is doing her dissertation on social interactions and learning among college students in such games, which she became interested in during a stint working for microsoft. here's no law saying that games have to be accessible," hinn said. while a few game developers have begun to include accessibility features -- "half life 2" sported closed-captioning and the adventure game "terraformers" was designed to be played solely by sound as well as visuals -- hinn is working to make the practice widespread. she founded the international game developers association game accessibility special interest group, has chaired it the last two years and is running for a seat on the association's board [note: well...that didn't end up working out but, hey, it was my first effort in game politics]. at the 2006 game developer's conference in san jose, calif., last month, she was one of three people who received an MVP award from the association. she works internationally with other people promoting and developing accessible games and is co-writing a book on accessible game development for charles river media, a computer books publisher. she's also started a software company, donationcoder, with friend jesse reichler, a doctoral student in computer science at the UI, and is starting a consulting business centered on accessible game development. "i'm just trying to create my own job basically," hinn said jokingly. she does all this in between, among other things, teaching classes at the UI and serving as a counselor and instructor for the women in math, science and engineering section of the florida avenue residence halls, a classroom and residential program for women majoring in scientific and technical fields. hinn is the rare person older than 30 that college students think of as "cool," said piper hodson, who directs the women in math, science and engineering program. hodson thinks that's due in part to "street cred" from having worked for a big-name tech company like microsoft and also a result of hinn's research, which gives her a feel for youth culture. "energy" is a word that seems to come up when people talk about hinn, including UI professor bertram "chip" bruce, her dissertation adviser. bruce said he's excited about the insights that could come from hinn's research using games as a window into understanding how young people collaborate, learn from each other, interact and share information. "i think michelle is doing terrific work," he said. jason della rocca, executive director of the international game developers association, wouldn't disagree. "she's full of energy and excitement and really has a drive to advocate for building accessibility into video games,? he wrote in an e-mail. "she is an exemplary leader and has done so much to organize and coordinate the efforts of the IGDA's game accessibility SIG -- one of our most active groups." besides closed-captioning and audio games for the blind, hinn said games can be made more accessible in a variety of ways. for example, designing them so that the controls can be remapped by the user to allow game play to be conducted easier with a mouth stick or the feet. likewise, font sizes and colors could be adjustable for people with low vision. members of the game accessibility group hinn chairs created a game modification program, or mod, for doom III that allows not only closed-captioning for dialogue, but also for ambient sounds that tell a gamer an enemy is close. game consoles also could be made to more easily accommodate alternative controller hardware, hinn said, like a finger pad to allow someone in a wheelchair to play the popular footwork game "dance dance revolution" with friends. "each group is going to have their own different need," hinn said. she noted that accessibility can have advantages for game companies beyond the new customers with disabilities it may yield for them. for instance, "switch," or one-button, games easily usable by the disabled also work well on cellphones, a growing and potentially lucrative game market. hinn, who should finish her doctorate in august (note: well...there's been a bit of a delay with that...), earned bachelor's degrees in music performance and psychology and a master's in instructional systems design at virginia tech before coming to the UI's college of education for a national science foundation fellowship focused on educational technology. she got interested in web-based classes and simulation games for educational purposes and has worked on projects related to those topics at the UI, the national center for supercomputing applications and elsewhere. her own experience overcoming dyslexia and experiences with disabled friends and students working in programming and on computers got her interested in accessibility, first in educational software and online resources. hinn, who described herself as being into computers and social justice, was interested in games already, and accessibility in games gradually became a big interest. "we always had game consoles in the house (growing up)," she said. writer: greg kline _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From richard at audiogames.net Sat Sep 16 18:43:34 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2006 00:43:34 +0200 Subject: [games_access] To Robert and everyone - Conference Thread References: <008201c6d9da$c29f8550$6601a8c0@Inspiron> Message-ID: <003901c6d9e1$8b5350c0$6402a8c0@Delletje> Hi Robert, The best with your recoverment!!! If you need help with your presentation, please post of what you might need help with to either this list or http://www.game-accessibility.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=135 , and then we can help! Again, all the best! Greets, Richard ps: which movies? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Florio" To: "'IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List'" Sent: Saturday, September 16, 2006 11:54 PM Subject: [games_access] To Robert and everyone - Conference Thread http://www.game-accessibility.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=423#p423 Sorry I missed the meeting everyone with the special interest group I caught a sickness huge huge headaches autonomic dysreflexia part of a spinal cord reaction. Laying in bed now back from Johns Hopkins have energy to do homework with the videogame icons is working on an try to catch up with all you from our group on what I might still need to work on for my speech. I pray I have the strength and still ability to do this I should be fined by the 28th but that is my goal. If anyone would like to still instant message me please do so below you can find me at both locations. This way we can talk more about what your goals might be and to helping put together a great package presentation mostly starting about my life how I got into accessibility game design that all of you and what's been going on with it. And I will record it for my presentation part of the documentary I started at GDC this year hoped to complete this year and bring to the next GDC. Once again richer thank you for notifying me in the group and setting up this web site and I guess this is the right place to post at the same message in our mailing list and under the sig projects forum. At the gameaccessibility.com site. Who knows how my head will feel triggering these headaches like this on pain medicine I have to wait now through the weekend Monday morning the doctor sent me on to early in the way. They just don't understand people with spinal cord injuries need different studies at my specialist told to that but of course they knew they would do this. Word for the wise spinal cord injury victims or patients do not check yourself and at the world-famous Johns Hopkins in Baltimore instead another Baltimore University Hospital University of Maryland is much better specifically on spinal cord knowledge. Coincidentally the same university I will be speaking for September 28. I will make this remark in my speech as well part of my motivation people need to go. Right now I am praying, trying to stay healthy, eat good food and watch good movies. And of course I play a video game never winter nights module my class project is working on that I am produced. Please e-mail me for my information if you're interested in instant messaging or catch me online. Robert Florio Art Institute online SGA President Quadriplegic Artist www.RobertFlorio.com arthit73 at cablespeed.com -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of AudioGames.net Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 5:36 AM To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Subject: Re: [games_access] To Robert and everyone - Conference Thread Hi, Just one more thing: A selection of people is able to post news on Game-Accessibility.com. This concerns: Sander Huiberts and I (Richard van Tol) - Accessibiliity foundation Michelle Hinn - University of Illinois/IGDA GA-SIG Reid Kimball - LucasArts/Games[CC] Robert Florio - http://www.robertflorio.com/ Barrie Ellis - OneSwitch If you have news you want to have posted on www.Game-Accessibility.com , please contact one of us. If anyone feels like he or she want to contribute news items regularly to this website, please contact me and I will set up a news account for you. Greets, Richard http://www.game-accessibility.com http://www.audiogames.net ----- Original Message ----- From: "AudioGames.net" To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 10:36 AM Subject: [games_access] To Robert and everyone - Conference Thread Hi Robert and everyone, I have added the Games For Health Conference on the Conference page over at Game-Accessibility.com since it was not yet up there. I would like to ask everyone that if you are going to a conference and you will be doing something there with game accessibility (either in name of the IGDA GA-SIG or your own foundation/company or person) to take 1 minute to write down the name, date and location of the conference, as well as a one line description of the activity going on there. Although this forum is entitled "IGDA Game Accessibility SIG Projects", I guess it's alright to post any game accessibility activity anywhere here... This way we all can keep track ourselves of who is doing what at what conference, since at this moment a lot of us are going "what conference is he/she talking about??". Everybody can participate since everybody is allowed to post on the forum. Another benifit is that other people who are not on this mailing list but who visit G-A.com also know that there is GA-Activity somewhere (which may draw some more crowd to your presentation). This makes these conferences and our activity also findable through Google. Next to this all, you could use the conference thread to discuss what materials you still need, discuss your presentation afterwards with possible visitors, etc. etc. Here's an example of what I mean: http://www.game-accessibility.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=135 Greets, Richard ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Florio" To: "'IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List'" Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 5:59 PM Subject: RE: [games_access] Game Accessibility article: "Games That Reach Out"-News Gazette Great article thanks for sharing this with us. It's a nice revitalizing message to give us to specifically at the time I'm going to write my speech for games for health conference September 28 something that inspiration to focus. Thanks. Robert AI online SGA President arthit73 at cablespeed.com www.RobertFlorio.com -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Barrie Ellis Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 9:14 AM To: IGDA GA mailing list Subject: [games_access] Game Accessibility article: "Games That Reach Out" -News Gazette There's a great article on Michelle's blog here: http://vrgrrl.blogspot.com/2006/09/btw-i-never-did-put-up-that-article.html I've pasted it below too - hope you don't mind, Michelle, but I thought it was too good a read not to. Games That Reach Out video games are a part of modern life for a lot of adults as well as kids, michelle hinn says. people talk about the latest games like they talk about the latest episode of the "sopranos" or the latest best-selling book. some online multiplayer games are, in fact, little societies in and of themselves. hinn, a university of illinois doctoral student, is doing her dissertation on social interactions and learning among college students in such games, which she became interested in during a stint working for microsoft. here's no law saying that games have to be accessible," hinn said. while a few game developers have begun to include accessibility features -- "half life 2" sported closed-captioning and the adventure game "terraformers" was designed to be played solely by sound as well as visuals -- hinn is working to make the practice widespread. she founded the international game developers association game accessibility special interest group, has chaired it the last two years and is running for a seat on the association's board [note: well...that didn't end up working out but, hey, it was my first effort in game politics]. at the 2006 game developer's conference in san jose, calif., last month, she was one of three people who received an MVP award from the association. she works internationally with other people promoting and developing accessible games and is co-writing a book on accessible game development for charles river media, a computer books publisher. she's also started a software company, donationcoder, with friend jesse reichler, a doctoral student in computer science at the UI, and is starting a consulting business centered on accessible game development. "i'm just trying to create my own job basically," hinn said jokingly. she does all this in between, among other things, teaching classes at the UI and serving as a counselor and instructor for the women in math, science and engineering section of the florida avenue residence halls, a classroom and residential program for women majoring in scientific and technical fields. hinn is the rare person older than 30 that college students think of as "cool," said piper hodson, who directs the women in math, science and engineering program. hodson thinks that's due in part to "street cred" from having worked for a big-name tech company like microsoft and also a result of hinn's research, which gives her a feel for youth culture. "energy" is a word that seems to come up when people talk about hinn, including UI professor bertram "chip" bruce, her dissertation adviser. bruce said he's excited about the insights that could come from hinn's research using games as a window into understanding how young people collaborate, learn from each other, interact and share information. "i think michelle is doing terrific work," he said. jason della rocca, executive director of the international game developers association, wouldn't disagree. "she's full of energy and excitement and really has a drive to advocate for building accessibility into video games,? he wrote in an e-mail. "she is an exemplary leader and has done so much to organize and coordinate the efforts of the IGDA's game accessibility SIG -- one of our most active groups." besides closed-captioning and audio games for the blind, hinn said games can be made more accessible in a variety of ways. for example, designing them so that the controls can be remapped by the user to allow game play to be conducted easier with a mouth stick or the feet. likewise, font sizes and colors could be adjustable for people with low vision. members of the game accessibility group hinn chairs created a game modification program, or mod, for doom III that allows not only closed-captioning for dialogue, but also for ambient sounds that tell a gamer an enemy is close. game consoles also could be made to more easily accommodate alternative controller hardware, hinn said, like a finger pad to allow someone in a wheelchair to play the popular footwork game "dance dance revolution" with friends. "each group is going to have their own different need," hinn said. she noted that accessibility can have advantages for game companies beyond the new customers with disabilities it may yield for them. for instance, "switch," or one-button, games easily usable by the disabled also work well on cellphones, a growing and potentially lucrative game market. hinn, who should finish her doctorate in august (note: well...there's been a bit of a delay with that...), earned bachelor's degrees in music performance and psychology and a master's in instructional systems design at virginia tech before coming to the UI's college of education for a national science foundation fellowship focused on educational technology. she got interested in web-based classes and simulation games for educational purposes and has worked on projects related to those topics at the UI, the national center for supercomputing applications and elsewhere. her own experience overcoming dyslexia and experiences with disabled friends and students working in programming and on computers got her interested in accessibility, first in educational software and online resources. hinn, who described herself as being into computers and social justice, was interested in games already, and accessibility in games gradually became a big interest. "we always had game consoles in the house (growing up)," she said. writer: greg kline _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: gethealthy.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 50489 bytes Desc: not available URL: From hinn at uiuc.edu Sat Sep 16 19:24:05 2006 From: hinn at uiuc.edu (d. michelle hinn) Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2006 18:24:05 -0500 Subject: [games_access] To Robert and everyone - Conference Thread In-Reply-To: <008201c6d9da$c29f8550$6601a8c0@Inspiron> References: <008201c6d9da$c29f8550$6601a8c0@Inspiron> Message-ID: Hey Robert -- I'm so sorry to hear that you've gotten sick again so soon! My thoughts and prayers are with you. I am constantly amazed at how crazy the healthcare system can be sometimes... We'll, of course, help you as much as well can. I think that the games for health conference might be looking for some general information about the different types of "inaccessibilty" for people with different types of disabilities and how we want the mainstream industry to know this as well as the those building games for training and education -- so some of them, for instance, might want to make a rehab game but not know what the barriers are for making a game so that it is accessible. I think I sent you my powerpoint on that and you are, of course, welcome to copy/paste whatever you need from that and from what others are sending you. Are you on instant messanger now? If so, which one? Also, let me know if you think you won't be able to make it to the conference -- hopefully you'll be much more on the mend and you'll be able to go, no problem. But I can try and fly into BWI for the day (yeah not inexpensive...) to give the talk if you are still ill -- I don't want the stress of the conference to make you any more sick! So, anyway, we've got your backup if you need it! But I'm sure you'll be 100% better by the 28th, no problem! :) Michelle >http://www.game-accessibility.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=423#p423 > >Sorry I missed the meeting everyone with the special interest group I caught >a sickness huge huge headaches autonomic dysreflexia part of a spinal cord >reaction. Laying in bed now back from Johns Hopkins have energy to do >homework with the videogame icons is working on an try to catch up with all >you from our group on what I might still need to work on for my speech. I >pray I have the strength and still ability to do this I should be fined by >the 28th but that is my goal. If anyone would like to still instant message >me please do so below you can find me at both locations. This way we can >talk more about what your goals might be and to helping put together a great >package presentation mostly starting about my life how I got into >accessibility game design that all of you and what's been going on with it. >And I will record it for my presentation part of the documentary I started >at GDC this year hoped to complete this year and bring to the next GDC. > >Once again richer thank you for notifying me in the group and setting up >this web site and I guess this is the right place to post at the same >message in our mailing list and under the sig projects forum. At the >gameaccessibility.com site. Who knows how my head will feel triggering >these headaches like this on pain medicine I have to wait now through the >weekend Monday morning the doctor sent me on to early in the way. They just >don't understand people with spinal cord injuries need different studies at >my specialist told to that but of course they knew they would do this. Word >for the wise spinal cord injury victims or patients do not check yourself >and at the world-famous Johns Hopkins in Baltimore instead another Baltimore >University Hospital University of Maryland is much better specifically on >spinal cord knowledge. Coincidentally the same university I will be >speaking for September 28. I will make this remark in my speech as well >part of my motivation people need to go. Right now I am praying, trying to >stay healthy, eat good food and watch good movies. And of course I play a >video game never winter nights module my class project is working on that I >am produced. > >Please e-mail me for my information if you're interested in instant >messaging or catch me online. > > >Robert Florio >Art Institute online SGA President >Quadriplegic Artist >www.RobertFlorio.com >arthit73 at cablespeed.com > >-----Original Message----- >From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] >On Behalf Of AudioGames.net >Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 5:36 AM >To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List >Subject: Re: [games_access] To Robert and everyone - Conference Thread > >Hi, > >Just one more thing: > >A selection of people is able to post news on Game-Accessibility.com. This >concerns: > >Sander Huiberts and I (Richard van Tol) - Accessibiliity foundation >Michelle Hinn - University of Illinois/IGDA GA-SIG >Reid Kimball - LucasArts/Games[CC] >Robert Florio - http://www.robertflorio.com/ >Barrie Ellis - OneSwitch > >If you have news you want to have posted on www.Game-Accessibility.com , >please contact one of us. If anyone feels like he or she want to contribute >news items regularly to this website, please contact me and I will set up a >news account for you. > >Greets, > >Richard > >http://www.game-accessibility.com >http://www.audiogames.net > > > > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "AudioGames.net" >To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" >Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 10:36 AM >Subject: [games_access] To Robert and everyone - Conference Thread > > >Hi Robert and everyone, > >I have added the Games For Health Conference on the Conference page over at >Game-Accessibility.com since it was not yet up there. I would like to ask >everyone that if you are going to a conference and you will be doing >something there with game accessibility (either in name of the IGDA GA-SIG >or your own foundation/company or person) to take 1 minute to write down the >name, date and location of the conference, as well as a one line description >of the activity going on there. Although this forum is entitled "IGDA Game >Accessibility SIG Projects", I guess it's alright to post any game >accessibility activity anywhere here... > >This way we all can keep track ourselves of who is doing what at what >conference, since at this moment a lot of us are going "what conference is >he/she talking about??". Everybody can participate since everybody is >allowed to post on the forum. Another benifit is that other people who are >not on this mailing list but who visit G-A.com also know that there is >GA-Activity somewhere (which may draw some more crowd to your presentation). >This makes these conferences and our activity also findable through Google. >Next to this all, you could use the conference thread to discuss what >materials you still need, discuss your presentation afterwards with possible >visitors, etc. etc. > >Here's an example of what I mean: >http://www.game-accessibility.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=135 > >Greets, > >Richard > > > > > > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Robert Florio" >To: "'IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List'" >Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 5:59 PM >Subject: RE: [games_access] Game Accessibility article: "Games That Reach >Out"-News Gazette > > >Great article thanks for sharing this with us. It's a nice revitalizing >message to give us to specifically at the time I'm going to write my speech >for games for health conference September 28 something that inspiration to >focus. Thanks. > >Robert >AI online SGA President >arthit73 at cablespeed.com >www.RobertFlorio.com > >-----Original Message----- >From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] >On Behalf Of Barrie Ellis >Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 9:14 AM >To: IGDA GA mailing list >Subject: [games_access] Game Accessibility article: "Games That Reach Out" >-News Gazette > >There's a great article on Michelle's blog here: > >http://vrgrrl.blogspot.com/2006/09/btw-i-never-did-put-up-that-article.html > >I've pasted it below too - hope you don't mind, Michelle, but I thought it >was too good a read not to. > > > >Games That Reach Out > >video games are a part of modern life for a lot of adults as well as kids, >michelle hinn says. people talk about the latest games like they talk about >the latest episode of the "sopranos" or the latest best-selling book. some >online multiplayer games are, in fact, little societies in and of >themselves. > >hinn, a university of illinois doctoral student, is doing her dissertation >on social interactions and learning among college students in such games, >which she became interested in during a stint working for microsoft. here's >no law saying that games have to be accessible," hinn said. > >while a few game developers have begun to include accessibility features -- > >"half life 2" sported closed-captioning and the adventure game >"terraformers" was designed to be played solely by sound as well as >visuals -- hinn is working to make the practice widespread. > >she founded the international game developers association game accessibility > >special interest group, has chaired it the last two years and is running for > >a seat on the association's board [note: well...that didn't end up working >out but, hey, it was my first effort in game politics]. at the 2006 game >developer's conference in san jose, calif., last month, she was one of three > >people who received an MVP award from the association. she works >internationally with other people promoting and developing accessible games >and is co-writing a book on accessible game development for charles river >media, a computer books publisher. > >she's also started a software company, donationcoder, with friend jesse >reichler, a doctoral student in computer science at the UI, and is starting >a consulting business centered on accessible game development. > >"i'm just trying to create my own job basically," hinn said jokingly. > >she does all this in between, among other things, teaching classes at the UI > >and serving as a counselor and instructor for the women in math, science and > >engineering section of the florida avenue residence halls, a classroom and >residential program for women majoring in scientific and technical fields. > >hinn is the rare person older than 30 that college students think of as >"cool," said piper hodson, who directs the women in math, science and >engineering program. > >hodson thinks that's due in part to "street cred" from having worked for a >big-name tech company like microsoft and also a result of hinn's research, >which gives her a feel for youth culture. > >"energy" is a word that seems to come up when people talk about hinn, >including UI professor bertram "chip" bruce, her dissertation adviser. bruce > >said he's excited about the insights that could come from hinn's research >using games as a window into understanding how young people collaborate, >learn from each other, interact and share information. "i think michelle is >doing terrific work," he said. > >jason della rocca, executive director of the international game developers >association, wouldn't disagree. "she's full of energy and excitement and >really has a drive to advocate for building accessibility into video games,? > >he wrote in an e-mail. "she is an exemplary leader and has done so much to >organize and coordinate the efforts of the IGDA's game accessibility SIG -- > >one of our most active groups." > >besides closed-captioning and audio games for the blind, hinn said games can > >be made more accessible in a variety of ways. for example, designing them so > >that the controls can be remapped by the user to allow game play to be >conducted easier with a mouth stick or the feet. likewise, font sizes and >colors could be adjustable for people with low vision. > >members of the game accessibility group hinn chairs created a game >modification program, or mod, for doom III that allows not only >closed-captioning for dialogue, but also for ambient sounds that tell a >gamer an enemy is close. > >game consoles also could be made to more easily accommodate alternative >controller hardware, hinn said, like a finger pad to allow someone in a >wheelchair to play the popular footwork game "dance dance revolution" with >friends. > >"each group is going to have their own different need," hinn said. she noted > >that accessibility can have advantages for game companies beyond the new >customers with disabilities it may yield for them. for instance, "switch," >or one-button, games easily usable by the disabled also work well on >cellphones, a growing and potentially lucrative game market. > >hinn, who should finish her doctorate in august (note: well...there's been a > >bit of a delay with that...), earned bachelor's degrees in music performance > >and psychology and a master's in instructional systems design at virginia >tech before coming to the UI's college of education for a national science >foundation fellowship focused on educational technology. > >she got interested in web-based classes and simulation games for educational > >purposes and has worked on projects related to those topics at the UI, the >national center for supercomputing applications and elsewhere. > >her own experience overcoming dyslexia and experiences with disabled friends > >and students working in programming and on computers got her interested in >accessibility, first in educational software and online resources. > >hinn, who described herself as being into computers and social justice, was >interested in games already, and accessibility in games gradually became a >big interest. > >"we always had game consoles in the house (growing up)," she said. > >writer: greg kline > > > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From richard at audiogames.net Sun Sep 17 05:26:21 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2006 11:26:21 +0200 Subject: [games_access] To Robert and everyone - Conference Thread References: <008201c6d9da$c29f8550$6601a8c0@Inspiron> <003901c6d9e1$8b5350c0$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: <007a01c6da3b$56af6a20$6402a8c0@Delletje> Recoverment??! I mean of course recovery ;) ----- Original Message ----- From: AudioGames.net To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2006 12:43 AM Subject: Re: [games_access] To Robert and everyone - Conference Thread Hi Robert, The best with your recoverment!!! If you need help with your presentation, please post of what you might need help with to either this list or http://www.game-accessibility.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=135 , and then we can help! Again, all the best! Greets, Richard ps: which movies? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Florio" To: "'IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List'" Sent: Saturday, September 16, 2006 11:54 PM Subject: [games_access] To Robert and everyone - Conference Thread http://www.game-accessibility.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=423#p423 Sorry I missed the meeting everyone with the special interest group I caught a sickness huge huge headaches autonomic dysreflexia part of a spinal cord reaction. Laying in bed now back from Johns Hopkins have energy to do homework with the videogame icons is working on an try to catch up with all you from our group on what I might still need to work on for my speech. I pray I have the strength and still ability to do this I should be fined by the 28th but that is my goal. If anyone would like to still instant message me please do so below you can find me at both locations. This way we can talk more about what your goals might be and to helping put together a great package presentation mostly starting about my life how I got into accessibility game design that all of you and what's been going on with it. And I will record it for my presentation part of the documentary I started at GDC this year hoped to complete this year and bring to the next GDC. Once again richer thank you for notifying me in the group and setting up this web site and I guess this is the right place to post at the same message in our mailing list and under the sig projects forum. At the gameaccessibility.com site. Who knows how my head will feel triggering these headaches like this on pain medicine I have to wait now through the weekend Monday morning the doctor sent me on to early in the way. They just don't understand people with spinal cord injuries need different studies at my specialist told to that but of course they knew they would do this. Word for the wise spinal cord injury victims or patients do not check yourself and at the world-famous Johns Hopkins in Baltimore instead another Baltimore University Hospital University of Maryland is much better specifically on spinal cord knowledge. Coincidentally the same university I will be speaking for September 28. I will make this remark in my speech as well part of my motivation people need to go. Right now I am praying, trying to stay healthy, eat good food and watch good movies. And of course I play a video game never winter nights module my class project is working on that I am produced. Please e-mail me for my information if you're interested in instant messaging or catch me online. Robert Florio Art Institute online SGA President Quadriplegic Artist www.RobertFlorio.com arthit73 at cablespeed.com -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of AudioGames.net Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 5:36 AM To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Subject: Re: [games_access] To Robert and everyone - Conference Thread Hi, Just one more thing: A selection of people is able to post news on Game-Accessibility.com. This concerns: Sander Huiberts and I (Richard van Tol) - Accessibiliity foundation Michelle Hinn - University of Illinois/IGDA GA-SIG Reid Kimball - LucasArts/Games[CC] Robert Florio - http://www.robertflorio.com/ Barrie Ellis - OneSwitch If you have news you want to have posted on www.Game-Accessibility.com , please contact one of us. If anyone feels like he or she want to contribute news items regularly to this website, please contact me and I will set up a news account for you. Greets, Richard http://www.game-accessibility.com http://www.audiogames.net ----- Original Message ----- From: "AudioGames.net" To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 10:36 AM Subject: [games_access] To Robert and everyone - Conference Thread Hi Robert and everyone, I have added the Games For Health Conference on the Conference page over at Game-Accessibility.com since it was not yet up there. I would like to ask everyone that if you are going to a conference and you will be doing something there with game accessibility (either in name of the IGDA GA-SIG or your own foundation/company or person) to take 1 minute to write down the name, date and location of the conference, as well as a one line description of the activity going on there. Although this forum is entitled "IGDA Game Accessibility SIG Projects", I guess it's alright to post any game accessibility activity anywhere here... This way we all can keep track ourselves of who is doing what at what conference, since at this moment a lot of us are going "what conference is he/she talking about??". Everybody can participate since everybody is allowed to post on the forum. Another benifit is that other people who are not on this mailing list but who visit G-A.com also know that there is GA-Activity somewhere (which may draw some more crowd to your presentation). This makes these conferences and our activity also findable through Google. Next to this all, you could use the conference thread to discuss what materials you still need, discuss your presentation afterwards with possible visitors, etc. etc. Here's an example of what I mean: http://www.game-accessibility.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=135 Greets, Richard ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Florio" To: "'IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List'" Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 5:59 PM Subject: RE: [games_access] Game Accessibility article: "Games That Reach Out"-News Gazette Great article thanks for sharing this with us. It's a nice revitalizing message to give us to specifically at the time I'm going to write my speech for games for health conference September 28 something that inspiration to focus. Thanks. Robert AI online SGA President arthit73 at cablespeed.com www.RobertFlorio.com -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Barrie Ellis Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 9:14 AM To: IGDA GA mailing list Subject: [games_access] Game Accessibility article: "Games That Reach Out" -News Gazette There's a great article on Michelle's blog here: http://vrgrrl.blogspot.com/2006/09/btw-i-never-did-put-up-that-article.html I've pasted it below too - hope you don't mind, Michelle, but I thought it was too good a read not to. Games That Reach Out video games are a part of modern life for a lot of adults as well as kids, michelle hinn says. people talk about the latest games like they talk about the latest episode of the "sopranos" or the latest best-selling book. some online multiplayer games are, in fact, little societies in and of themselves. hinn, a university of illinois doctoral student, is doing her dissertation on social interactions and learning among college students in such games, which she became interested in during a stint working for microsoft. here's no law saying that games have to be accessible," hinn said. while a few game developers have begun to include accessibility features -- "half life 2" sported closed-captioning and the adventure game "terraformers" was designed to be played solely by sound as well as visuals -- hinn is working to make the practice widespread. she founded the international game developers association game accessibility special interest group, has chaired it the last two years and is running for a seat on the association's board [note: well...that didn't end up working out but, hey, it was my first effort in game politics]. at the 2006 game developer's conference in san jose, calif., last month, she was one of three people who received an MVP award from the association. she works internationally with other people promoting and developing accessible games and is co-writing a book on accessible game development for charles river media, a computer books publisher. she's also started a software company, donationcoder, with friend jesse reichler, a doctoral student in computer science at the UI, and is starting a consulting business centered on accessible game development. "i'm just trying to create my own job basically," hinn said jokingly. she does all this in between, among other things, teaching classes at the UI and serving as a counselor and instructor for the women in math, science and engineering section of the florida avenue residence halls, a classroom and residential program for women majoring in scientific and technical fields. hinn is the rare person older than 30 that college students think of as "cool," said piper hodson, who directs the women in math, science and engineering program. hodson thinks that's due in part to "street cred" from having worked for a big-name tech company like microsoft and also a result of hinn's research, which gives her a feel for youth culture. "energy" is a word that seems to come up when people talk about hinn, including UI professor bertram "chip" bruce, her dissertation adviser. bruce said he's excited about the insights that could come from hinn's research using games as a window into understanding how young people collaborate, learn from each other, interact and share information. "i think michelle is doing terrific work," he said. jason della rocca, executive director of the international game developers association, wouldn't disagree. "she's full of energy and excitement and really has a drive to advocate for building accessibility into video games,? he wrote in an e-mail. "she is an exemplary leader and has done so much to organize and coordinate the efforts of the IGDA's game accessibility SIG -- one of our most active groups." besides closed-captioning and audio games for the blind, hinn said games can be made more accessible in a variety of ways. for example, designing them so that the controls can be remapped by the user to allow game play to be conducted easier with a mouth stick or the feet. likewise, font sizes and colors could be adjustable for people with low vision. members of the game accessibility group hinn chairs created a game modification program, or mod, for doom III that allows not only closed-captioning for dialogue, but also for ambient sounds that tell a gamer an enemy is close. game consoles also could be made to more easily accommodate alternative controller hardware, hinn said, like a finger pad to allow someone in a wheelchair to play the popular footwork game "dance dance revolution" with friends. "each group is going to have their own different need," hinn said. she noted that accessibility can have advantages for game companies beyond the new customers with disabilities it may yield for them. for instance, "switch," or one-button, games easily usable by the disabled also work well on cellphones, a growing and potentially lucrative game market. hinn, who should finish her doctorate in august (note: well...there's been a bit of a delay with that...), earned bachelor's degrees in music performance and psychology and a master's in instructional systems design at virginia tech before coming to the UI's college of education for a national science foundation fellowship focused on educational technology. she got interested in web-based classes and simulation games for educational purposes and has worked on projects related to those topics at the UI, the national center for supercomputing applications and elsewhere. her own experience overcoming dyslexia and experiences with disabled friends and students working in programming and on computers got her interested in accessibility, first in educational software and online resources. hinn, who described herself as being into computers and social justice, was interested in games already, and accessibility in games gradually became a big interest. "we always had game consoles in the house (growing up)," she said. writer: greg kline _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From agdev at thechases.com Wed Sep 20 08:46:30 2006 From: agdev at thechases.com (Tim Chase) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 07:46:30 -0500 Subject: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility Message-ID: <45113826.1060200@thechases.com> This one crossed my RSS feed from Gamasutra this morning: http://gamasutra.com/features/20060920/zahand_01.shtml and thought folks might be interested if they haven't already read it. -tim From hinn at uiuc.edu Wed Sep 20 13:02:55 2006 From: hinn at uiuc.edu (d. michelle hinn) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 12:02:55 -0500 Subject: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility In-Reply-To: <45113826.1060200@thechases.com> References: <45113826.1060200@thechases.com> Message-ID: Ah, this is from Brannon's talk at GameFest -- nice job, Brannon! >This one crossed my RSS feed from Gamasutra this morning: > >http://gamasutra.com/features/20060920/zahand_01.shtml > >and thought folks might be interested if they haven't already read it. > >-tim > > > > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From rkimball at gmail.com Wed Sep 20 13:28:19 2006 From: rkimball at gmail.com (Reid Kimball) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 10:28:19 -0700 Subject: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility In-Reply-To: References: <45113826.1060200@thechases.com> Message-ID: Did Gamasutra leave out the link to Games[CC] (http://gamescc.rbkdesign.com/)? Not cool, :/ -Reid On 9/20/06, d. michelle hinn wrote: > Ah, this is from Brannon's talk at GameFest -- nice job, Brannon! > > >This one crossed my RSS feed from Gamasutra this morning: > > > >http://gamasutra.com/features/20060920/zahand_01.shtml > > > >and thought folks might be interested if they haven't already read it. > > > >-tim > > > > > > > > > >_______________________________________________ > >games_access mailing list > >games_access at igda.org > >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > From brannonz at microsoft.com Wed Sep 20 15:28:06 2006 From: brannonz at microsoft.com (Brannon Zahand) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 12:28:06 -0700 Subject: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Actually Reid, this is my bad. :( I didn't realize you had this site; I pulled most of the information from other sites and forums that talked about your work and didn't run across this link. However, I'll submit a request to add your site to the published white paper. I'm really sorry about that! -Brannon -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Reid Kimball Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 10:28 AM To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Subject: Re: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility Did Gamasutra leave out the link to Games[CC] (http://gamescc.rbkdesign.com/)? Not cool, :/ -Reid On 9/20/06, d. michelle hinn wrote: > Ah, this is from Brannon's talk at GameFest -- nice job, Brannon! > > >This one crossed my RSS feed from Gamasutra this morning: > > > >http://gamasutra.com/features/20060920/zahand_01.shtml > > > >and thought folks might be interested if they haven't already read it. > > > >-tim > > > > > > > > > >_______________________________________________ > >games_access mailing list > >games_access at igda.org > >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From brannonz at microsoft.com Wed Sep 20 15:28:06 2006 From: brannonz at microsoft.com (Brannon Zahand) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 12:28:06 -0700 Subject: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Wow! Didn't know they were doing this (apparently they got permission from someone else at MS). You can find a link to a modified version of presentation here along with a handout I developed for the talk. Not all the slides are the same as I didn't have permission from some places to distribute their images in the online version: http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/7/b/17b95a7b-968a-4a99-8e49-9bd1074acd6a/Producer%20and%20Business%20Development.zip -Brannon -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of d. michelle hinn Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 10:03 AM To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Subject: Re: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility Ah, this is from Brannon's talk at GameFest -- nice job, Brannon! >This one crossed my RSS feed from Gamasutra this morning: > >http://gamasutra.com/features/20060920/zahand_01.shtml > >and thought folks might be interested if they haven't already read it. > >-tim > > > > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From richard at audiogames.net Wed Sep 20 15:38:30 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 21:38:30 +0200 Subject: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility References: Message-ID: <00a001c6dcec$5a83d6a0$6402a8c0@Delletje> This is your presentation? Downloading it right now. By the way: you know I put a link to the same article on MS.com sometime ago on G-A.com in the resources section? http://www.game-accessibility.com/index.php?pagefile=papers http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/directx9_c/accessibility_best_practices.asp Or is this one different from the GamaSutra one? By the way, thanks again for mentioning GA.com :) Greets, Richard ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brannon Zahand" To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 9:28 PM Subject: RE: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility Wow! Didn't know they were doing this (apparently they got permission from someone else at MS). You can find a link to a modified version of presentation here along with a handout I developed for the talk. Not all the slides are the same as I didn't have permission from some places to distribute their images in the online version: http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/7/b/17b95a7b-968a-4a99-8e49-9bd1074acd6a/Producer%20and%20Business%20Development.zip -Brannon -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of d. michelle hinn Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 10:03 AM To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Subject: Re: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility Ah, this is from Brannon's talk at GameFest -- nice job, Brannon! >This one crossed my RSS feed from Gamasutra this morning: > >http://gamasutra.com/features/20060920/zahand_01.shtml > >and thought folks might be interested if they haven't already read it. > >-tim > > > > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From hinn at uiuc.edu Wed Sep 20 15:39:29 2006 From: hinn at uiuc.edu (d. michelle hinn) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 14:39:29 -0500 Subject: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: heh -- well, if you find out who that is it'd be nice to know to try and get them on the sig list too or at least give you someone to contact to lean a little on MS to make your suggestions a reality! Michelle >Wow! Didn't know they were doing this (apparently they got >permission from someone else at MS). > >You can find a link to a modified version of presentation here along >with a handout I developed for the talk. Not all the slides are the >same as I didn't have permission from some places to distribute >their images in the online version: > >http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/7/b/17b95a7b-968a-4a99-8e49-9bd1074acd6a/Producer%20and%20Business%20Development.zip > >-Brannon > >-----Original Message----- >From: games_access-bounces at igda.org >[mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of d. michelle hinn >Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 10:03 AM >To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List >Subject: Re: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility > >Ah, this is from Brannon's talk at GameFest -- nice job, Brannon! > >>This one crossed my RSS feed from Gamasutra this morning: >> >>http://gamasutra.com/features/20060920/zahand_01.shtml >> >>and thought folks might be interested if they haven't already read it. >> >>-tim >> >> >> >> >>_______________________________________________ >>games_access mailing list >>games_access at igda.org >>http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From richard at audiogames.net Wed Sep 20 15:45:01 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 21:45:01 +0200 Subject: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility References: Message-ID: <00c701c6dced$43587bb0$6402a8c0@Delletje> I guess there is no direct link on MS.com somewhere to the WMA that is included in the .zip, is there? I would very much like to link to it from GA.com. Or host it, but I guess that's out of the question... ? ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brannon Zahand" To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 9:28 PM Subject: RE: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility Wow! Didn't know they were doing this (apparently they got permission from someone else at MS). You can find a link to a modified version of presentation here along with a handout I developed for the talk. Not all the slides are the same as I didn't have permission from some places to distribute their images in the online version: http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/7/b/17b95a7b-968a-4a99-8e49-9bd1074acd6a/Producer%20and%20Business%20Development.zip -Brannon -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of d. michelle hinn Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 10:03 AM To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Subject: Re: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility Ah, this is from Brannon's talk at GameFest -- nice job, Brannon! >This one crossed my RSS feed from Gamasutra this morning: > >http://gamasutra.com/features/20060920/zahand_01.shtml > >and thought folks might be interested if they haven't already read it. > >-tim > > > > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From richard at audiogames.net Wed Sep 20 16:13:33 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 22:13:33 +0200 Subject: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility References: Message-ID: <00f201c6dcf1$3fbfc7c0$6402a8c0@Delletje> Hi Brannon and list, I like your presentation and slides. I noticed that the .zip also contains a footage from my interview with Reid Kimball which I recorded at GDC'05. I'm referring to the file in the .zip entitled "CCModMovie.wmv". You can see the original here: mms://www.accessibility.nl/games/video/reidkimball.wmv?SAMI=http://www.accessibility.nl/games/video/reidkimball.smi Although everyone is free to use the material from GA.com for promotional and informational activities, I do have a problem with the fact that the footage is altered. The Game-Accessibility project titles are removed, as well as the project sponsor information (NSGK) and copyright information. Or from another perspective: footage of the GA.com project is used in this movie without NSGK sponsor information. This is really a problem because we are bound by contract that everything we publish should contain the sponsor-information. So I regret that you (or who made the video) didn't ask me (and Reid?) if it was okay to use this footage, to which I would have replied "Sure, just include the sponsor info". Since this could get our foundation in trouble, could you either add this information to the movie, or perhaps add the original movie (as found in the link above) to the .zip? Other than that, nice article and presentation! I'll update the current MS link to GamaSutra.com. Greets, Richard http://www.accessibility.nl ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brannon Zahand" To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 9:28 PM Subject: RE: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility Wow! Didn't know they were doing this (apparently they got permission from someone else at MS). You can find a link to a modified version of presentation here along with a handout I developed for the talk. Not all the slides are the same as I didn't have permission from some places to distribute their images in the online version: http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/7/b/17b95a7b-968a-4a99-8e49-9bd1074acd6a/Producer%20and%20Business%20Development.zip -Brannon -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of d. michelle hinn Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 10:03 AM To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Subject: Re: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility Ah, this is from Brannon's talk at GameFest -- nice job, Brannon! >This one crossed my RSS feed from Gamasutra this morning: > >http://gamasutra.com/features/20060920/zahand_01.shtml > >and thought folks might be interested if they haven't already read it. > >-tim > > > > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From brannonz at microsoft.com Wed Sep 20 16:20:42 2006 From: brannonz at microsoft.com (Brannon Zahand) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 13:20:42 -0700 Subject: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility In-Reply-To: <00a001c6dcec$5a83d6a0$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: Nope! Didn't notice the link before... thanks Richard! This is the same white paper, just without the graphics and the slide deck. My presentation diverted a bit more from the white paper... so some of the slides might not seem to fit right in with the paper. -Brannon -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of AudioGames.net Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 12:39 PM To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Subject: Re: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility This is your presentation? Downloading it right now. By the way: you know I put a link to the same article on MS.com sometime ago on G-A.com in the resources section? http://www.game-accessibility.com/index.php?pagefile=papers http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/directx9_c/accessibility_best_practices.asp Or is this one different from the GamaSutra one? By the way, thanks again for mentioning GA.com :) Greets, Richard ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brannon Zahand" To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 9:28 PM Subject: RE: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility Wow! Didn't know they were doing this (apparently they got permission from someone else at MS). You can find a link to a modified version of presentation here along with a handout I developed for the talk. Not all the slides are the same as I didn't have permission from some places to distribute their images in the online version: http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/7/b/17b95a7b-968a-4a99-8e49-9bd1074acd6a/Producer%20and%20Business%20Development.zip -Brannon -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of d. michelle hinn Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 10:03 AM To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Subject: Re: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility Ah, this is from Brannon's talk at GameFest -- nice job, Brannon! >This one crossed my RSS feed from Gamasutra this morning: > >http://gamasutra.com/features/20060920/zahand_01.shtml > >and thought folks might be interested if they haven't already read it. > >-tim > > > > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From brannonz at microsoft.com Wed Sep 20 16:28:03 2006 From: brannonz at microsoft.com (Brannon Zahand) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 13:28:03 -0700 Subject: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility In-Reply-To: <00f201c6dcf1$3fbfc7c0$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: Hey Richard, I'm really sorry about this. I had asked Reid for permission to use and edit the video (see attached thread). Unfortunately, we had to change it because of references to Doom that MS didn't have publisher approval to use in the online presentation. The removing of the other information was an oversight that occurred during the editing process. If it is ok with you, I'll add back in the copyright, NSGK, and Game Accessibility logo into the movie and repost it. Again, my apologies. -Brannon -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of AudioGames.net Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 1:14 PM To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Subject: RE: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility Hi Brannon and list, I like your presentation and slides. I noticed that the .zip also contains a footage from my interview with Reid Kimball which I recorded at GDC'05. I'm referring to the file in the .zip entitled "CCModMovie.wmv". You can see the original here: mms://www.accessibility.nl/games/video/reidkimball.wmv?SAMI=http://www.accessibility.nl/games/video/reidkimball.smi Although everyone is free to use the material from GA.com for promotional and informational activities, I do have a problem with the fact that the footage is altered. The Game-Accessibility project titles are removed, as well as the project sponsor information (NSGK) and copyright information. Or from another perspective: footage of the GA.com project is used in this movie without NSGK sponsor information. This is really a problem because we are bound by contract that everything we publish should contain the sponsor-information. So I regret that you (or who made the video) didn't ask me (and Reid?) if it was okay to use this footage, to which I would have replied "Sure, just include the sponsor info". Since this could get our foundation in trouble, could you either add this information to the movie, or perhaps add the original movie (as found in the link above) to the .zip? Other than that, nice article and presentation! I'll update the current MS link to GamaSutra.com. Greets, Richard http://www.accessibility.nl ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brannon Zahand" To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 9:28 PM Subject: RE: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility Wow! Didn't know they were doing this (apparently they got permission from someone else at MS). You can find a link to a modified version of presentation here along with a handout I developed for the talk. Not all the slides are the same as I didn't have permission from some places to distribute their images in the online version: http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/7/b/17b95a7b-968a-4a99-8e49-9bd1074acd6a/Producer%20and%20Business%20Development.zip -Brannon -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of d. michelle hinn Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 10:03 AM To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Subject: Re: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility Ah, this is from Brannon's talk at GameFest -- nice job, Brannon! >This one crossed my RSS feed from Gamasutra this morning: > >http://gamasutra.com/features/20060920/zahand_01.shtml > >and thought folks might be interested if they haven't already read it. > >-tim > > > > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: Reid Kimball Subject: Re: Closed-Caption Mod Interview and Screenshots Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 22:06:24 -0700 Size: 3013 URL: From richard at audiogames.net Wed Sep 20 16:30:58 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 22:30:58 +0200 Subject: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility References: Message-ID: <013c01c6dcf3$af3927c0$6402a8c0@Delletje> Hi, If you could do that, that would be great! No hard feelings :) Greets, Richard ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brannon Zahand" To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 10:28 PM Subject: RE: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility Hey Richard, I'm really sorry about this. I had asked Reid for permission to use and edit the video (see attached thread). Unfortunately, we had to change it because of references to Doom that MS didn't have publisher approval to use in the online presentation. The removing of the other information was an oversight that occurred during the editing process. If it is ok with you, I'll add back in the copyright, NSGK, and Game Accessibility logo into the movie and repost it. Again, my apologies. -Brannon -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of AudioGames.net Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 1:14 PM To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Subject: RE: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility Hi Brannon and list, I like your presentation and slides. I noticed that the .zip also contains a footage from my interview with Reid Kimball which I recorded at GDC'05. I'm referring to the file in the .zip entitled "CCModMovie.wmv". You can see the original here: mms://www.accessibility.nl/games/video/reidkimball.wmv?SAMI=http://www.accessibility.nl/games/video/reidkimball.smi Although everyone is free to use the material from GA.com for promotional and informational activities, I do have a problem with the fact that the footage is altered. The Game-Accessibility project titles are removed, as well as the project sponsor information (NSGK) and copyright information. Or from another perspective: footage of the GA.com project is used in this movie without NSGK sponsor information. This is really a problem because we are bound by contract that everything we publish should contain the sponsor-information. So I regret that you (or who made the video) didn't ask me (and Reid?) if it was okay to use this footage, to which I would have replied "Sure, just include the sponsor info". Since this could get our foundation in trouble, could you either add this information to the movie, or perhaps add the original movie (as found in the link above) to the .zip? Other than that, nice article and presentation! I'll update the current MS link to GamaSutra.com. Greets, Richard http://www.accessibility.nl ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brannon Zahand" To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 9:28 PM Subject: RE: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility Wow! Didn't know they were doing this (apparently they got permission from someone else at MS). You can find a link to a modified version of presentation here along with a handout I developed for the talk. Not all the slides are the same as I didn't have permission from some places to distribute their images in the online version: http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/7/b/17b95a7b-968a-4a99-8e49-9bd1074acd6a/Producer%20and%20Business%20Development.zip -Brannon -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of d. michelle hinn Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 10:03 AM To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Subject: Re: [games_access] Another Gamasutra article on gaming accessibility Ah, this is from Brannon's talk at GameFest -- nice job, Brannon! >This one crossed my RSS feed from Gamasutra this morning: > >http://gamasutra.com/features/20060920/zahand_01.shtml > >and thought folks might be interested if they haven't already read it. > >-tim > > > > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > From hinn at uiuc.edu Fri Sep 22 03:18:15 2006 From: hinn at uiuc.edu (d. michelle hinn) Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 02:18:15 -0500 Subject: [games_access] influential women in games...the fallout In-Reply-To: <00f201c6dcf1$3fbfc7c0$6402a8c0@Delletje> References: <00f201c6dcf1$3fbfc7c0$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: Yeah...I had to share this with the list...so here's some fallout (and, yeah, I expected it) from Next Gen's list of influential women in games...I guess I got let off the hook pretty easily with only the "creepy pale skin" remark but wow... http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/showthread.php?t=507280 Michelle -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From agdev at thechases.com Fri Sep 22 10:29:43 2006 From: agdev at thechases.com (Tim Chase) Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 09:29:43 -0500 Subject: [games_access] influential women in games...the fallout In-Reply-To: References: <00f201c6dcf1$3fbfc7c0$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: <4513F357.5030309@thechases.com> > Yeah...I had to share this with the list...so here's some fallout > (and, yeah, I expected it) from Next Gen's list of influential women > in games...I guess I got let off the hook pretty easily with only the > "creepy pale skin" remark but wow... This thread on RT was so...um...does English have an apropos adjective? A couple observations... 1) you ended up in the top 5 "hottest influential women in gaming". Congrats? (two 8/10 and three 7/10 rankings, which could net you a "tied for second", if you wanted the bragging rights) 2) there's an odd level of irony, given your activism/interests in "women in gaming" and "women gamers" that they would choose to rank influential women in gaming on appearance. My wild guess would be that the author of the original post(s) wouldn't rank all that high on a list of "hottest posters-on-other-people's-forums". :) 3) nobody ranked over 8/10, though some of their movie selections did. Sounds like they're better off in a dark room with a TV & DVD player than they would be actually relating to women. people are so weird. and it's no wonder that so many women have self-image problems, no thanks to folks like this. Shalom, -tim From rkimball at gmail.com Fri Sep 22 11:12:25 2006 From: rkimball at gmail.com (Reid Kimball) Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 08:12:25 -0700 Subject: [games_access] influential women in games...the fallout In-Reply-To: <4513F357.5030309@thechases.com> References: <00f201c6dcf1$3fbfc7c0$6402a8c0@Delletje> <4513F357.5030309@thechases.com> Message-ID: Sorry Michelle, I couldn't stand to read the forum posts. On 9/22/06, Tim Chase wrote: > > Yeah...I had to share this with the list...so here's some fallout > > (and, yeah, I expected it) from Next Gen's list of influential women > > in games...I guess I got let off the hook pretty easily with only the > > "creepy pale skin" remark but wow... > > This thread on RT was so...um...does English have an apropos > adjective? > > A couple observations... > > 1) you ended up in the top 5 "hottest influential women in > gaming". Congrats? (two 8/10 and three 7/10 rankings, which > could net you a "tied for second", if you wanted the bragging rights) > > 2) there's an odd level of irony, given your activism/interests > in "women in gaming" and "women gamers" that they would choose to > rank influential women in gaming on appearance. My wild guess > would be that the author of the original post(s) wouldn't rank > all that high on a list of "hottest > posters-on-other-people's-forums". :) > > 3) nobody ranked over 8/10, though some of their movie > selections did. Sounds like they're better off in a dark room > with a TV & DVD player than they would be actually relating to women. > > people are so weird. and it's no wonder that so many women have > self-image problems, no thanks to folks like this. > > Shalom, > > -tim > > > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > From richard at audiogames.net Fri Sep 22 17:55:51 2006 From: richard at audiogames.net (AudioGames.net) Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 23:55:51 +0200 Subject: [games_access] influential women in games...the fallout References: <00f201c6dcf1$3fbfc7c0$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: <008e01c6de91$df3f9c70$6402a8c0@Delletje> influential women in games...the falloutYeah, they could have called you "bleak" ;) ----- Original Message ----- From: d. michelle hinn To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 9:18 AM Subject: [games_access] influential women in games...the fallout Yeah...I had to share this with the list...so here's some fallout (and, yeah, I expected it) from Next Gen's list of influential women in games...I guess I got let off the hook pretty easily with only the "creepy pale skin" remark but wow... http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/showthread.php?t=507280 Michelle ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From hinn at uiuc.edu Fri Sep 22 19:27:31 2006 From: hinn at uiuc.edu (d. michelle hinn) Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 18:27:31 -0500 Subject: [games_access] influential women in games...the fallout In-Reply-To: <008e01c6de91$df3f9c70$6402a8c0@Delletje> References: <00f201c6dcf1$3fbfc7c0$6402a8c0@Delletje> <008e01c6de91$df3f9c70$6402a8c0@Delletje> Message-ID: lol. inside dutch joke! bleak = pale in dutch and that's what richard called me at GDC06. when i picked my jaw back up from the floor we realized that languages are FUN! we'll it seems that they removed *most* of the photos after some of the PMS group joined their forum and challenged them to some xbox live duels. It was one of my students who saw it -- she's writing a story for a campus paper and googled me and there it was. then she asked for some extra chapters so she could learn more about flash for her game. anger put to good use. :) >Yeah, they could have called you "bleak" ;) > > >----- Original Message ----- >From: d. michelle hinn >To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List >Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 9:18 AM >Subject: [games_access] influential women in games...the fallout > >Yeah...I had to share this with the list...so here's some fallout >(and, yeah, I expected it) from Next Gen's list of influential women >in games...I guess I got let off the hook pretty easily with only >the "creepy pale skin" remark but wow... > >http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/showthread.php?t=507280 > >Michelle > > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From arthit73 at cablespeed.com Fri Sep 29 22:52:52 2006 From: arthit73 at cablespeed.com (Robert Florio) Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2006 22:52:52 -0400 Subject: [games_access] from RobertFlorio speech thank you. Recovery. In-Reply-To: AAAAADBf8GSYa4xDlD4sBa5lcIxkLiEA Message-ID: <000001c6e43b$878a77c0$6601a8c0@Inspiron> Thank you everyone so much with the sig. I had autonomic dysreflexia after my spinal cord injury things like building pressure in my bladder and in my colon was so severe killer headaches lethal blood pressure. Diagnosed with FOS (full of S...). It was such a terrible pain I was happy to be at the hospital from September 20 got out the 28th discharge just-in-time wealthy enough because I told my doctor I wouldn't do that speech at Baltimore University of Maryland games for health conference which I've made. It was amazing I have it recorded so sorry Michele couldn't make it go to have numbers but I left her messages I hope she's doing well look forward to hearing from you so much. I'll have to give you a report but it was amazing the response from everyone even people from England three people asking great questions on my video let me know the best way I can let you all see it? Of course it will be in my documentary. I wish I could talk to you more but I'm resting up as much as I can have found a new rejuvenated more than I already had again from my first injury 10 years ago strengthening my faith in Christ and my passion for game design accessible gameplay. I came out of four walls and went into another room with four walls to give this speech but I felt so liberated their everyone was listening to what I had to say and never had that experience like that before and I wrote my speech two days before hospital visit and showed my video news clipping and basically all the knowledge I learned so far about accessible gameplay and our sig, about our book and much more. Actually the symptoms of my dysreflexia started almost immediately September 13 the pain just wouldn't go away without painkillers now I cleaned out my trying to recover my brain from the pain that still triggers sometimes. Not intense but uncomfortable. Thank you everyone so much for your friendship allowing me to be a part of something great I know it's going to come together soon. Our goals will be realized and achieved and beyond. I'm actually going to ask Ben Sawyer since the few people in my session truly one of my speech to the part of larger speech keynote speakers they felt everyone in here and was very eager to get everyone involved to make these things come true. One quote from the audience was, "this is absolutely fascinating and loves what [I'm] doing (we are doing)." Robert Robert Florio Art Institute online SGA President Quadriplegic Artist www.RobertFlorio.com arthit73 at cablespeed.com From hinn at uiuc.edu Sat Sep 30 14:30:01 2006 From: hinn at uiuc.edu (d. michelle hinn) Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2006 13:30:01 -0500 Subject: [games_access] from RobertFlorio speech thank you. Recovery. In-Reply-To: <000001c6e43b$878a77c0$6601a8c0@Inspiron> References: <000001c6e43b$878a77c0$6601a8c0@Inspiron> Message-ID: Hi Robert! Sounds like everything went GREAT and I'm glad that you are out of the hospital -- what a scare! I hope you got my message about being stuck at the Atlanta airport all day Thursday -- I finally ended up just turning around and flying back to Illinois at the end of the day because I just could not get out of airline limbo. My cell phone wasn't working either so I had no one's number and you left messages on my home phone -- which is fine since the cell wasn't working but I didn't know you had that number so I didn't call to check messages to see if you'd left your number. Ah well! It's just airline madness. Frustrating, yes, but what can you do? REST UP!!!!! And I'm so proud of you for the great job you did at Games for Health! Michelle >Thank you everyone so much with the sig. I had autonomic dysreflexia after >my spinal cord injury things like building pressure in my bladder and in my >colon was so severe killer headaches lethal blood pressure. Diagnosed with >FOS (full of S...). > >It was such a terrible pain I was happy to be at the hospital from September >20 got out the 28th discharge just-in-time wealthy enough because I told my >doctor I wouldn't do that speech at Baltimore University of Maryland games >for health conference which I've made. It was amazing I have it recorded so >sorry Michele couldn't make it go to have numbers but I left her messages I >hope she's doing well look forward to hearing from you so much. > >I'll have to give you a report but it was amazing the response from everyone >even people from England three people asking great questions on my video let >me know the best way I can let you all see it? Of course it will be in my >documentary. > >I wish I could talk to you more but I'm resting up as much as I can have >found a new rejuvenated more than I already had again from my first injury >10 years ago strengthening my faith in Christ and my passion for game design >accessible gameplay. I came out of four walls and went into another room >with four walls to give this speech but I felt so liberated their everyone >was listening to what I had to say and never had that experience like that >before and I wrote my speech two days before hospital visit and showed my >video news clipping and basically all the knowledge I learned so far about >accessible gameplay and our sig, about our book and much more. > >Actually the symptoms of my dysreflexia started almost immediately September >13 the pain just wouldn't go away without painkillers now I cleaned out my >trying to recover my brain from the pain that still triggers sometimes. Not >intense but uncomfortable. Thank you everyone so much for your friendship >allowing me to be a part of something great I know it's going to come >together soon. Our goals will be realized and achieved and beyond. > >I'm actually going to ask Ben Sawyer since the few people in my session >truly one of my speech to the part of larger speech keynote speakers they >felt everyone in here and was very eager to get everyone involved to make >these things come true. One quote from the audience was, "this is >absolutely fascinating and loves what [I'm] doing (we are doing)." > >Robert >Robert Florio >Art Institute online SGA President >Quadriplegic Artist >www.RobertFlorio.com >arthit73 at cablespeed.com > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access From arthit73 at cablespeed.com Sat Sep 30 20:01:03 2006 From: arthit73 at cablespeed.com (Robert Florio) Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2006 20:01:03 -0400 Subject: [games_access] from RobertFlorio speech thank you. Recovery. In-Reply-To: AAAAADBf8GSYa4xDlD4sBa5lcIykNSEA Message-ID: <000801c6e4ec$b137d980$6601a8c0@Inspiron> Thank you so much Michelle that means a lot that sounds like crazy airport madness. I still have to catch on some school work buying my book classes start again the end of the quarter October 2. What an experience I think I did a really good job considering I wrote that speech today's before going to the hospital didn't have anything else or you'll have taught me and my own passion I got great responses and really inspired me even more to get an initiative started. Maybe get to speak at their next conference as a keynote speaker. I got your e-mail when I got home. I'm debating whether or not to contents of video a smaller file to play on my web site because I don't know if I can do that or not and if I want everyone to be able to have access to something like that I'm not sure I know what do you think someone needs to see it more than just myself. I thought you had my cell phone number I think you called me on it but don't worry about it I'm very anxious go to work in that vote I think that will help to get out our message so much got very much good response positive from that remark. The book. Robert -----Original Message----- From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of d. michelle hinn Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2006 2:30 PM To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Subject: Re: [games_access] from RobertFlorio speech thank you. Recovery. Hi Robert! Sounds like everything went GREAT and I'm glad that you are out of the hospital -- what a scare! I hope you got my message about being stuck at the Atlanta airport all day Thursday -- I finally ended up just turning around and flying back to Illinois at the end of the day because I just could not get out of airline limbo. My cell phone wasn't working either so I had no one's number and you left messages on my home phone -- which is fine since the cell wasn't working but I didn't know you had that number so I didn't call to check messages to see if you'd left your number. Ah well! It's just airline madness. Frustrating, yes, but what can you do? REST UP!!!!! And I'm so proud of you for the great job you did at Games for Health! Michelle >Thank you everyone so much with the sig. I had autonomic dysreflexia after >my spinal cord injury things like building pressure in my bladder and in my >colon was so severe killer headaches lethal blood pressure. Diagnosed with >FOS (full of S...). > >It was such a terrible pain I was happy to be at the hospital from September >20 got out the 28th discharge just-in-time wealthy enough because I told my >doctor I wouldn't do that speech at Baltimore University of Maryland games >for health conference which I've made. It was amazing I have it recorded so >sorry Michele couldn't make it go to have numbers but I left her messages I >hope she's doing well look forward to hearing from you so much. > >I'll have to give you a report but it was amazing the response from everyone >even people from England three people asking great questions on my video let >me know the best way I can let you all see it? Of course it will be in my >documentary. > >I wish I could talk to you more but I'm resting up as much as I can have >found a new rejuvenated more than I already had again from my first injury >10 years ago strengthening my faith in Christ and my passion for game design >accessible gameplay. I came out of four walls and went into another room >with four walls to give this speech but I felt so liberated their everyone >was listening to what I had to say and never had that experience like that >before and I wrote my speech two days before hospital visit and showed my >video news clipping and basically all the knowledge I learned so far about >accessible gameplay and our sig, about our book and much more. > >Actually the symptoms of my dysreflexia started almost immediately September >13 the pain just wouldn't go away without painkillers now I cleaned out my >trying to recover my brain from the pain that still triggers sometimes. Not >intense but uncomfortable. Thank you everyone so much for your friendship >allowing me to be a part of something great I know it's going to come >together soon. Our goals will be realized and achieved and beyond. > >I'm actually going to ask Ben Sawyer since the few people in my session >truly one of my speech to the part of larger speech keynote speakers they >felt everyone in here and was very eager to get everyone involved to make >these things come true. One quote from the audience was, "this is >absolutely fascinating and loves what [I'm] doing (we are doing)." > >Robert >Robert Florio >Art Institute online SGA President >Quadriplegic Artist >www.RobertFlorio.com >arthit73 at cablespeed.com > >_______________________________________________ >games_access mailing list >games_access at igda.org >http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access