[games_access] To Robert and everyone - Conference Thread

[d. michelle hinn]

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 <http://www.RobertFlorio.com>
>arthit73 at cablespeed.com <mailto: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" <richard at audiogames.net>
>To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" <games_access at igda.org>
>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" <arthit73 at cablespeed.com>
>To: "'IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List'" <games_access at igda.org>
>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
>
>
>
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