[games_access] Need officially support from the SIG

Wed Mar 9 12:19:50 EST 2011

I think the problems with the WCAG  (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) - (http://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/) is that it's not particularly accessible in itself. Its very wordy, and leaves a lot of people scratching their heads. How does this list of things to develop sound to people, I wonder....?:

1. Top 10 Accessibility Features list. A simple intro to some of the most commonly wished for list. We need to look at this again though.
2. A ratings system for game accessibility, tied closely to "reasonably practicable" accessible design requests. Working on just such a thing with the Accessible GameBase and hope to share soon - will talk to SpecialEffect about this tonight/tomorrow. Would be great to develop further with people in GASIG and beyond, and get them to adopt a BETA standard (to basically - see how it goes). In short, something that will hopefully not scare off AAA developers, nor people new to this field.
3. Supplementary information to further illuminate related barriers/features, and how people may implement those features (potential link with WCAG guidance - or create our own, of course linking to vast resources of existing info, e.g. http://gameaccessibility.blogspot.com/search/label/Design%20Tips).
4. Deeper accessibility information, for those wishing to go the extra mile - heading towards the very difficult territory of universal access and parallel universe theory.

We want an easy way in for people, and WCAG is not that. But, it could be a fantastic resource for stages 3 and 4. If we could put things in a more easy to digest format, I can easily foresee us linking up together. Imagine a good detailed breakdown of colour-blindness requirements in a game. I think a potentially excellent link up.

Cheers,

Barrie

From: Kwasi Mensah 
Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2011 3:46 PM
To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List 
Cc: Sandra Uhling 
Subject: Re: [games_access] Need officially support from the SIG

So I used the WCAG in my Gamasutra post because they were the closest thing to TCR/TRCs I could find for accessibility. All of the other reading I could find on accessibility guidelines didn't have their requirements organized as an easily verifiable list of things to do which is what a professional QA team needs. I don't think we'll see a major adoption of a unified set of guidelines unless they're broken down that way.

The set of guidelines Eleanor posted at http://blindcomputergames.com/guidelines/guidelines.html were published after I wrote my post. They're broken down into easily verifiable steps and are game specific which seems to be closer to what you're looking for. But in an effort to consolidate the number of different places people have to look to to make sure their game is accessible, could gaming specific guidelines be an addendum to the WCAG? The WCAG is more established and there is a fair amount of overlap with what's needed in games.

-Kwasi

On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 9:29 AM, Jonathan Chetwynd <j.chetwynd at btinternet.com> wrote:

  Sandra,

  the WCAG2.0 standard is one of a number designed within W3C for web documents,
  it predates HTML5 and the technologies that enable open-web browser based games.
  ARIA & RDF provide potential means to help make such web games more accessible.

  The open-web Go game application at http://www.peepo.com follows W3C accessibility guidelines,
  and is accessible to a wide variety of input devices including mouse, keyboard, touchscreen & hands-free.

  I have been lobbying for some years, within W3C for a web games group, to help inform development of such  new technologies, including accessibility,
  and in reality professional game developers need to fund and help inform such development.

  This is a huge task, and relies on production companies wishing to engage the public in their games through web interfaces,
  much of this promotion is currently proprietary, and may use for instance Adobe Flash.

  A more in-depth analysis is covered in my  chapter: Browser-native games that use real-world xml data,
  from the book:  Business, Technological and Social Dimensions of Computer Games,
  and just about to be published: http://www.igi-global.com/bookstore/TitleDetails.aspx?TitleId=46177

  regards

  Jonathan Chetwynd
  http://www.peepo.com 

  On 8 Mar 2011, at 20:49, Sandra Uhling wrote:

    Hello,

    I need the officially support from this SIG.

    In Germany we have experts for web and software
    accessibiity that want to recommend the WCAG2.0 for games.

    Can we write an officially statement that we do not recommend the WCAG2.0 for games?
    Games are not Software, games need their own recommention.

    I know that some parts can be used and some can be used with little changes.
    But the problem is that you need Game Accessibility knowledge for this.

    I learnt that experts for web and software accessibility do not understand game accessibility.
    They do not understand the special needs and just adapt the rules of the WCAG for games.
    Also this would be very bad and can bring trouble to game designers and game developers.

    Best regards,
    Sandra

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