[games_access] Game control question...

[Michael Ellison]

On Jan 20, 2008 7:36 PM, d. michelle hinn <hinn at uiuc.edu> wrote:
> But to shrug it off as completely frivolous? That's not the
> right answer either. Art, music, games, literature, comics,
> television...these are the things that help make life interesting and
> worth wanting to stick around another day.

Very, very true.

Another tactic that would at least work when talking to people within
the technology industry is to point out how much games push the
envelope of technology and technology acceptance within the general
tech industry and consumer markets. If we can ride their coat-tails
the end result should be that game accessibility pushes the broader
accessibility industry forward at a faster pace.

I'm already looking at retargeting some of the code I'm working on for
a simple input/speech response for a more general accessibility app.

Not trying be depressing, but if anyone has any ideas on available
products or techniques that would help this person communicate, let me
know or post 'em there ( blind, unable to speak, shoulder movement and
weak neck/facial movement, but fully coherent and responsive ):

http://www.apparelyzed.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5734.

Hasn't responded to me yet, so she might have found something or just
hasn't checked her email.  Seems like a basic communication app would
be simple enough modeled after the whitepaper I posted, but I didn't
see any available products that provided the functionality when I did
a quick search.

At anyrate, anything we do for games is directly applicable to general
accessibility as technology moves forward.

> Those of us on this list? We all understand this. But there are a lot
> of weirdness out there. I've heard from doctors, parents, etc more
> than once "but isn't it good that games are inaccessible so that we
> can help *protect* them from this?" Huh, what? Note, that these
> responses have almost always been from people who are not disabled
> and/or do not have a child, spouse, parent, sibling, friend, etc who
> is disabled. I could go on and on for a few hundred pages about the
> word "protect."

*whimper*

<rant>Yeah. I hate that mindset.  Please *don't* protect me from
myself, thanks.  It's amazing how much of that we get even in a
country supposedly founded on personal liberty. </rant>

-Mike