[games_access] I need some help

[Kevin J. Bierre]

Tom,

The only place I've ever heard the term redundant interface used was with networking. If your boss is looking for multiple interfaces into the same game, you could look at the article by Dimitris Grammenos in Gamasutra on parallel game universes:
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20060817/grammenos_01.shtml .

As far the laws in Europe and Asia go, there are people on this list who are knowledgable in that area at least for Europe. 

You could look at some of the recent statistics on the percentage of people with disabilities in countries to get an idea of the potential market. As far as I know, there has been no marketing study on how many people with disabilities are gamers. From
my experience with the deaf students here at RIT, I would estimate at least as large of a percentage as you would find in the non-disabled population. We had some statistics in our earlier paper: http://www.igda.org/accessibility/HCII2005_GAC.pdf

As far as accessibility courses go, I believe Michelle Hinn teaches one and I think there's one at Georgia Tech. I'm in the early stages of working on one here at RIT, but since most of our undergraduate students are currently freshmen, it won't be run
for about 2 - 3 years. We do teach an course called "Access and Accessibility", but it's a more general course, with the focus on general accessibility to not just computing, but also to the physical environment. If you're interested in that one I can
send you a syllabus.

                        Kevin Bierre

IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List <games_access at igda.org> writes:
>For those who don't know me, I am Tom Roome a graduate student that is trying to develop a different game accessibility web site for my department.  My boss wanted me to find information on Redundant Interface in game accessibility, but I cannot find an
>article on this topic.  I have cover the principle of universal access for all in detail.  Should I just give information about different switches and CC in games?  However, in these articles still don't explain how to program the interface to accept
>the commands for switches, so have I miss something.  I am the first one to say I am a computer programmer, so I read everything that I can but maybe I over looking a article.  
>Another section of the site covers the law, I have information for the US, but the only law in Europe is "access for all plan" that seems to cover access to new technology, but not sure if video games would fall into this category?  In Asia, I am not
>sure if any country have any rules or laws for accessibility and I try to goggle and could not find any information?  
>Another section that my boss wanted is the market for game accessibility in USA and Europe and of course Asia, and I am not sure if there are studies on this topic?  I know that there is a market because if there was not, then this group would not be
>together, so where can I find this information?
> 
>For anyone that have teach a class on Game Accessibility, then I would like a copy of the Syllabus and any assignments examples, because I want to develop a class.       
> 
>----------------------------------------------------------------
>Thank You, 
>Tom Roome
>ATEC Teacher Assistant
>The University of Texas at Dallas
>E-mail: thomas.roome at student.utdallas.edu

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