[games_access] The ALERT Project is Finally Out

[d. michelle hinn]

John -- this is great! I know a lot of teachers in Illinois who will 
benefit from this and I am about to speak to an audience of special 
education teachers in the state next week about gaming and special 
education so this is fantastic timing!

Also, the American Educational Research Association meeting is coming 
up soon and I will see if some colleagues will add this to their 
talks on technology and education. We should talk about putting in a 
proposal for that conference for next year. There are also a few 
other education conferences I know about who would be very interested 
in this. I've spoken at these conferences before -- they are very 
different than gaming conferences but this is exactly the audience 
for this.

I also know a lot of folks who are involved with special education at 
the US national level -- would you be interested in a co 7-128/SIG 
press release that went to those folks in particular? I have a whole 
database full of state contacts for the US as well as the UK. If so, 
let me know and we'll work out the details. I'm always happy to help 
out the education folks -- they have had budget hit after budget hit 
and a free resource like ALERT will be GREATLY appreciated. So they 
need to hear about this! I'd be glad to help out in this way.

I'm sure that Lynn (on this list) will be thrilled when she reads 
your announcement as well!

Michelle

>Folks,
>
>Our company just released the Accessible Learning through 
>Entertainment and Recreation Tools (ALERT) project.
>
>It's a free on-line service for people searching for free or 
>low-cost accessible computer games suitable for learning or 
>rehabilitative environments.
>
>It provides the following:
>
>1. Where to get those accessible games
>2. What to look for in selecting those games
>3.How to apply those games to learning objectives
>4. Who to go to for help
>
>The accessibility accommodations include blindness, low vision, 
>color blindness, deafness, motion impairment, and cognitive 
>impairment.
>
>The ALERT project is being publicized to school psychologists, 
>special education teachers, geriatric care managers, the early stage 
>Alzheimer's community, and the brain training market.  Hopefully 
>it'll get some accessible games into the hands of people who can use 
>them.
>
>And yes, the free ALERT Game Book that is part of the project is 
>indeed very similar to the one I sent to Thomas for the GDC DVD. 
>However, the text in this ALERT Game Book is focused on educators 
>and caregivers rather than developers.
>
>BTW. Some of you may know that it was a school psychologist's 
>request for information on this site that prompted the ALERT project.
>
>If anyone here knows an educator or caregiver who might want to use 
>accessible computer games for their work, its a good resource, 
>totally free, and doesn't ask for an email address or require 
>registration.
>
>The ALERT project is at www.7128.com
>
>(And I am soooo glad that's finally done. So I can get back to 
>actually coding.)
>
>John Bannick
>CTO
>7-128 Software
>
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