[games_access] Game Accessibility; the numbers

[Matthias Troup]

Hi Eelke,
 
I didn't see an intended goal or purpose of the study.  Is there one?  As far as motivating developers to take accessible approaches I fear taking a broad stroke would scare developers away from taking on the problem as the numbers are so large and context specific (Dyslexia: Text heavy Adventure/RPGs and Scrabble) it may be too hard or irrelevant to calculate (disabled people that can't play games vs. disabled people that can't collect stamps), though I admire the amount of effort you put into data collecting.> Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:06:21 -0700> From: eelke.folmer at gmail.com> To: games_access at igda.org> Subject: [games_access] Game Accessibility; the numbers> > Hi,> > A remember a discussion a while ago (I guess it was before E for All> or GDC) when we were making flyers that we couldn't specify how many> people are unable to play games because of a disability. Anyway i'm> hoping to shed some more light on these numbers.> > For an upcoming survey paper on Game Accessibility I sat down and> analyzed several statistics to come up with a more precise estimate> for the total number of people in the USA who's game playing abilities> are affected by a disability. I based these estimates primarily on> data from the American Community Survey (2002) which provides a> breakdown of each disability category into more specific categories> allowing us to more precisely identify whether that particular> disability affects someone's ability to play games. Unable to walk> does not have the same effect on being able to play games as arthritis> while both are considered a physical disability. Another problem with> trying to define estimates is that elderly are overly represented in> the total number of people with disabilities while at the same time it> is known that elderly don't play games as much as the younger> generations. The number of people in the baby boom generation is also> very large. I tried to pull this data apart based on estimates based> on some data I found on average number of people that play games and> console ownership broken down into different age categories.> Inevitably some extrapolations were made, I wish more accurate data> was available. I corresponded with the US census office briefly and> for future community surveys they told me they are considering> including ability to use computer in their questionnaires. This data> is currently not available in the 2002 survey.> > The statistics can be found here: http://www.eelke.com/files/ga_stats.pdf> > Let me know if you have any feedback or suggestions, any feedback is> appreciated.> > Cheers Eelke> > -- > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------> Eelke Folmer Assistant Professor> Department of CS&E/171> University of Nevada Reno, Nevada 89557> Game interaction design www.eelke.com> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------> _______________________________________________> games_access mailing list> games_access at igda.org> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access
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