From KSleep at microsoft.com Tue Jan 6 06:08:18 2015 From: KSleep at microsoft.com (Kiernan Sleep) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2015 11:08:18 +0000 Subject: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? Message-ID: <8D19B5471C60C749847C579E53434AAE1152D994@AMSPRD3003MB053.064d.mgd.msft.net> In my experience, if you want to influence change on a corporate-cultural level and get people thinking and building games, in this case, with accessibility firmly in mind, upfront and early in the design process, by far the most efficient and long-term impactful way to do it is to focus on money and build a compelling business case for companies to care about tapping into all those un-enfranchised people out there. It's a question of quantifying cost vs. potential benefits. Money is the language CEOs speak and my background of having worked extensively in both convinces me that it's the leadership teams of the big publishing houses and development studios that invariably set the company vision and the tone as regards the inclusiveness and accessibility of their products. Nail the business case before anything else and the development teams will fall into line - resulting in a trickle-down effect through the first and third-party studios. Given the small and increasingly homogenous nature of the industry there are probably only a dozen or so people we need to focus on influencing, and this could (and is) probably best achieved via a small summit where we pitch our case, state our desired outcomes and seek long-term buy-in. So, to summarise - 1. Build a compelling business case 2. Approach leaders and arrange a summit 3. State desired outcomes and seek buy-in Short-to-medium term, that would be my approach. Longer-term goals should be centred on formalising a commitment to accessibility throughout industry via universal 'Accessibility Ratings' on all games in the same way we age-rate titles before release to market. Thoughts? Kiernan Sleep | EMEA Test Lead | GTE Europe [MSFT_logo_Gray DE sized SIG1.png] Microsoft Limited (company number 01624297), a company registered in England and Wales whose registered office is at Microsoft Campus, Thames Valley Park, Reading, RG6 1WG -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 1399 bytes Desc: image001.jpg URL: From i_h at hotmail.com Tue Jan 6 09:04:21 2015 From: i_h at hotmail.com (Ian Hamilton) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2015 14:04:21 +0000 Subject: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? In-Reply-To: <8D19B5471C60C749847C579E53434AAE1152D994@AMSPRD3003MB053.064d.mgd.msft.net> References: <8D19B5471C60C749847C579E53434AAE1152D994@AMSPRD3003MB053.064d.mgd.msft.net> Message-ID: It depends on the scale of organisation, individuals and indies are far more likely to be interested without having to have the business case laid out for them, sometimes just prevalence data is enough, or sometimes because it's the right thing to do, sometimes because they don't like the idea of their creative vision reaching less people, etc. And even in corporate land although business case is often a requirement it also isn't enough on its own, I've seen several examples of management being fully bought in and accessibility still failing, either because the people tasked with implementing it didn't have the knowledge or interest needed (even rigid publisher accessibility requirements being routinely flouted because the developers didn't understand the point of it), or because the manager was a lone champion, so as soon as they left it crumbled. When I've seen lasting cultural change it has been due to sustained pressure from multiple directions; top-down from management, bottom-up from designers and developers, and also continual external pressure from customers. All of that aside, I do completely agree about how important it is, particularly once you get into exec / management / publisher territory. And it's something that separates gaming from other industries too, there aren't really other industries where it's so easy to gather real data and form the business cases. I've been working on getting decent data gathered and shared, there are a few nice examples now that I regularly talk about in conference talks etc. but they're all from indie-land, what we really need is some data gathered and made public from a big name AAA... if, for example, Destiny was to publish data on how many of their players played with subtitles turned on, I doubt you'd see many games ever released without subtitles afterwards (esp. given the CNET survey on it, which came out at 79% of gamers playing with subs turned on). Sometimes the data can be nailed down to a specific group, such as tracking VoiceOver usage (really easy to do, with one single line of code), as VO is used almost exclusively by people who are legally blind. So for example 13% of MUDRammer's players being blind Vs the couple of days taken to make the game VO accessible, or the two weeks spent making Solara blind-accessible resulting in 1% of their players being blind (in line with demographics), but those 1% being by far the most loyal and highest spenders on IAPs. Sometimes it can't be nailed down to disability, like the subtitles example, where people would be turning them on for all kinds of reasons. I don't think that's really an issue though, because if you can demonstrate that a particular feature has a good return on investment, then in business terms it's worth including, regardless of who the audience is. Out of all of the many different angles there are to pursue it's the business case one that most excites me, because of what I mentioned earlier about data being hard to come by in other industries. So hard business case data from games will be used as an example by those other industries. / I've seen similar happen with data from DVD sales (with subs Vs without subs) being used as a business case example for web accessibility despite really how unrelated it is, so it's not hard to picture, for example, that Destiny example above being used as an example of business case for subtitles in VOD set top boxes. Accessibility ratings is something that conversation keeps coming back to. It's too broad a field to cover everything individually, and the other end of the spectrum, a windows store style 'accessible' tickbox doesn't work either, not even for apps let alone games. Personally I like Steam and IndieCity's approaches.. Steam allowing filtering of listings by accessibility feature (although just for captions at the moment), and IndieCity just picking a few of the most commonly needed considerations to flag up, such as whether a game is colourblind friendly, has remappable controls, or has subtitles. Combining the two things would be great, so developers able to tick a few boxes for which common things apply to them, and then also some free optional text to mention any additional considerations. If, for example, iTunes or Steam was to include something that like, it would make an astronomical difference, not just for the gamers who need the features but also for developers, being able to get an extra bit of discoverability in crowded marketplaces. Ian From: KSleep at microsoft.com To: games_access at igda.org Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2015 11:08:18 +0000 Subject: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? In my experience, if you want to influence change on a corporate-cultural level and get people thinking and building games, in this case, with accessibility firmly in mind, upfront and early in the design process, by far the most efficient and long-term impactful way to do it is to focus on money and build a compelling business case for companies to care about tapping into all those un-enfranchised people out there. It?s a question of quantifying cost vs. potential benefits. Money is the language CEOs speak and my background of having worked extensively in both convinces me that it?s the leadership teams of the big publishing houses and development studios that invariably set the company vision and the tone as regards the inclusiveness and accessibility of their products. Nail the business case before anything else and the development teams will fall into line ? resulting in a trickle-down effect through the first and third-party studios. Given the small and increasingly homogenous nature of the industry there are probably only a dozen or so people we need to focus on influencing, and this could (and is) probably best achieved via a small summit where we pitch our case, state our desired outcomes and seek long-term buy-in. So, to summarise ? 1. Build a compelling business case 2. Approach leaders and arrange a summit 3. State desired outcomes and seek buy-in Short-to-medium term, that would be my approach. Longer-term goals should be centred on formalising a commitment to accessibility throughout industry via universal ?Accessibility Ratings? on all games in the same way we age-rate titles before release to market. Thoughts? Kiernan Sleep | EMEA Test Lead | GTE Europe Microsoft Limited (company number 01624297), a company registered in England and Wales whose registered office is at Microsoft Campus, Thames Valley Park, Reading, RG6 1WG _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access The main SIG website page is http://igda-gasig.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 1399 bytes Desc: not available URL: From sandra_uhling at web.de Tue Jan 6 12:54:16 2015 From: sandra_uhling at web.de (Sandra_Uhling) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2015 18:54:16 +0100 Subject: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <000d01d029d9$cb41e600$61c5b200$@de> Hello, here is mine: Meta aim: Gamers (with/without a disability) can play more games, because games are more accessible. Best regards, Sandra -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sandra_uhling at web.de Tue Jan 6 15:02:16 2015 From: sandra_uhling at web.de (Sandra_Uhling) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2015 21:02:16 +0100 Subject: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? In-Reply-To: <8D19B5471C60C749847C579E53434AAE1152D994@AMSPRD3003MB053.064d.mgd.msft.net> References: <8D19B5471C60C749847C579E53434AAE1152D994@AMSPRD3003MB053.064d.mgd.msft.net> Message-ID: <002001d029eb$ac9fc6b0$05df5410$@de> like Von: games_access [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] Im Auftrag von Kiernan Sleep Gesendet: Dienstag, 6. Januar 2015 12:08 An: games_access at igda.org Betreff: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? In my experience, if you want to influence change on a corporate-cultural level and get people thinking and building games, in this case, with accessibility firmly in mind, upfront and early in the design process, by far the most efficient and long-term impactful way to do it is to focus on money and build a compelling business case for companies to care about tapping into all those un-enfranchised people out there. It's a question of quantifying cost vs. potential benefits. Money is the language CEOs speak and my background of having worked extensively in both convinces me that it's the leadership teams of the big publishing houses and development studios that invariably set the company vision and the tone as regards the inclusiveness and accessibility of their products. Nail the business case before anything else and the development teams will fall into line - resulting in a trickle-down effect through the first and third-party studios. Given the small and increasingly homogenous nature of the industry there are probably only a dozen or so people we need to focus on influencing, and this could (and is) probably best achieved via a small summit where we pitch our case, state our desired outcomes and seek long-term buy-in. So, to summarise - 1. Build a compelling business case 2. Approach leaders and arrange a summit 3. State desired outcomes and seek buy-in Short-to-medium term, that would be my approach. Longer-term goals should be centred on formalising a commitment to accessibility throughout industry via universal 'Accessibility Ratings' on all games in the same way we age-rate titles before release to market. Thoughts? Kiernan Sleep | EMEA Test Lead | GTE Europe MSFT_logo_Gray DE sized SIG1.png Microsoft Limited (company number 01624297), a company registered in England and Wales whose registered office is at Microsoft Campus, Thames Valley Park, Reading, RG6 1WG -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 1399 bytes Desc: not available URL: From thomas at westin.nu Wed Jan 7 04:09:10 2015 From: thomas at westin.nu (Thomas Westin) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2015 10:09:10 +0100 Subject: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? In-Reply-To: References: <8D19B5471C60C749847C579E53434AAE1152D994@AMSPRD3003MB053.064d.mgd.msft.net> Message-ID: <83BC9130-F92C-4791-A184-2C771E91D419@westin.nu> I agree with both of you, companies with share-holders are from what I?ve learned not even allowed (by their share-holders) to do anything that doesn?t bring return on investment. However, larger companies should have a larger responsibility in making their games more accessible, but as long as there is a lack of laws it can only be a recommendation. Dan recently volunteered to find out more about this situation in the US (as I am based in Sweden), and we will hopefully be able to share some results of that soon. Regarding business cases: As has been shown in research by e.g. Yuan, Folmer & Harris (2011) there are several aspects to consider in making a business case. For instance, what type of games affect accessibility for which impairments, and what age groups have various impairments and how many of people in these age groups with disabilities wants to play games in the first place, today and in the future. Best regards, Thomas Yuan, B., E. Folmer, and F. Harris, Game accessibility: a survey. Universal Access in the Information Society, 2011. 10(1): p. 81-100. 6Jan 2015 kl. 15:04 skrev Ian Hamilton : > It depends on the scale of organisation, individuals and indies are far more likely to be interested without having to have the business case laid out for them, sometimes just prevalence data is enough, or sometimes because it's the right thing to do, sometimes because they don't like the idea of their creative vision reaching less people, etc. > > And even in corporate land although business case is often a requirement it also isn't enough on its own, I've seen several examples of management being fully bought in and accessibility still failing, either because the people tasked with implementing it didn't have the knowledge or interest needed (even rigid publisher accessibility requirements being routinely flouted because the developers didn't understand the point of it), or because the manager was a lone champion, so as soon as they left it crumbled. > > When I've seen lasting cultural change it has been due to sustained pressure from multiple directions; top-down from management, bottom-up from designers and developers, and also continual external pressure from customers. > > All of that aside, I do completely agree about how important it is, particularly once you get into exec / management / publisher territory. And it's something that separates gaming from other industries too, there aren't really other industries where it's so easy to gather real data and form the business cases. > > I've been working on getting decent data gathered and shared, there are a few nice examples now that I regularly talk about in conference talks etc. but they're all from indie-land, what we really need is some data gathered and made public from a big name AAA... if, for example, Destiny was to publish data on how many of their players played with subtitles turned on, I doubt you'd see many games ever released without subtitles afterwards (esp. given the CNET survey on it, which came out at 79% of gamers playing with subs turned on). > > Sometimes the data can be nailed down to a specific group, such as tracking VoiceOver usage (really easy to do, with one single line of code), as VO is used almost exclusively by people who are legally blind. So for example 13% of MUDRammer's players being blind Vs the couple of days taken to make the game VO accessible, or the two weeks spent making Solara blind-accessible resulting in 1% of their players being blind (in line with demographics), but those 1% being by far the most loyal and highest spenders on IAPs. > > Sometimes it can't be nailed down to disability, like the subtitles example, where people would be turning them on for all kinds of reasons. I don't think that's really an issue though, because if you can demonstrate that a particular feature has a good return on investment, then in business terms it's worth including, regardless of who the audience is. > > Out of all of the many different angles there are to pursue it's the business case one that most excites me, because of what I mentioned earlier about data being hard to come by in other industries. So hard business case data from games will be used as an example by those other industries. / > > I've seen similar happen with data from DVD sales (with subs Vs without subs) being used as a business case example for web accessibility despite really how unrelated it is, so it's not hard to picture, for example, that Destiny example above being used as an example of business case for subtitles in VOD set top boxes. > > Accessibility ratings is something that conversation keeps coming back to. It's too broad a field to cover everything individually, and the other end of the spectrum, a windows store style 'accessible' tickbox doesn't work either, not even for apps let alone games. > > Personally I like Steam and IndieCity's approaches.. Steam allowing filtering of listings by accessibility feature (although just for captions at the moment), and IndieCity just picking a few of the most commonly needed considerations to flag up, such as whether a game is colourblind friendly, has remappable controls, or has subtitles. > > Combining the two things would be great, so developers able to tick a few boxes for which common things apply to them, and then also some free optional text to mention any additional considerations. > > If, for example, iTunes or Steam was to include something that like, it would make an astronomical difference, not just for the gamers who need the features but also for developers, being able to get an extra bit of discoverability in crowded marketplaces. > > Ian > > > From: KSleep at microsoft.com > To: games_access at igda.org > Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2015 11:08:18 +0000 > Subject: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? > > > In my experience, if you want to influence change on a corporate-cultural level and get people thinking and building games, in this case, with accessibility firmly in mind, upfront and early in the design process, by far the most efficient and long-term impactful way to do it is to focus on money and build a compelling business case for companies to care about tapping into all those un-enfranchised people out there. > > It?s a question of quantifying cost vs. potential benefits. Money is the language CEOs speak and my background of having worked extensively in both convinces me that it?s the leadership teams of the big publishing houses and development studios that invariably set the company vision and the tone as regards the inclusiveness and accessibility of their products. > > Nail the business case before anything else and the development teams will fall into line ? resulting in a trickle-down effect through the first and third-party studios. > > Given the small and increasingly homogenous nature of the industry there are probably only a dozen or so people we need to focus on influencing, and this could (and is) probably best achieved via a small summit where we pitch our case, state our desired outcomes and seek long-term buy-in. > > So, to summarise ? > > 1. Build a compelling business case > 2. Approach leaders and arrange a summit > 3. State desired outcomes and seek buy-in > > Short-to-medium term, that would be my approach. Longer-term goals should be centred on formalising a commitment to accessibility throughout industry via universal ?Accessibility Ratings? on all games in the same way we age-rate titles before release to market. > > Thoughts? > > > Kiernan Sleep | EMEA Test Lead | GTE Europe > > > Microsoft Limited (company number 01624297), a company registered in England and Wales whose registered office is at Microsoft Campus, Thames Valley Park, Reading, RG6 1WG > > > _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access The main SIG website page is http://igda-gasig.org > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > The main SIG website page is http://igda-gasig.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From thomas at westin.nu Wed Jan 7 08:55:30 2015 From: thomas at westin.nu (Thomas Westin) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:55:30 +0100 Subject: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? In-Reply-To: <83BC9130-F92C-4791-A184-2C771E91D419@westin.nu> References: <8D19B5471C60C749847C579E53434AAE1152D994@AMSPRD3003MB053.064d.mgd.msft.net> <83BC9130-F92C-4791-A184-2C771E91D419@westin.nu> Message-ID: Hi all, Here is some interesting stuff from NAD via Dan; - I knew about the communication services part (I think it was brought up on this list by someone in 2010 or so), but I wasn?t aware of a waiver with a deadline. This will be interesting to follow-up in October/November: > Dear Mr. Fischbach, > > Thank you for contacting the NAD. We fully support making games accessible for people with disabilities. We're not aware of any efforts in Congress or at the Department of Justice addressing video games accessibility. > > However, under the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010, advanced communications services are required to be accessible to people with disabilities. We have made arguments before the FCC that many online games are primarily used for advanced communications services and thus should be made accessible. However, the FCC is still working on the ACS rules and actually granted a temporary waiver until October 2015 for games where ACS is a primary or co-primary purpose to the Entertainment Software Association. > > Please let us know of any efforts to make games more accessible. > > Sincerely, > Andrew Phillips Best regards, Thomas 7Jan 2015 kl. 10:09 skrev Thomas Westin : > Dan recently volunteered to find out more about this situation in the US (as I am based in Sweden), and we will hopefully be able to share some results of that soon. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sandra_uhling at web.de Wed Jan 7 09:11:50 2015 From: sandra_uhling at web.de (Sandra_Uhling) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2015 15:11:50 +0100 Subject: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? In-Reply-To: References: <8D19B5471C60C749847C579E53434AAE1152D994@AMSPRD3003MB053.064d.mgd.msft.net> <83BC9130-F92C-4791-A184-2C771E91D419@westin.nu> Message-ID: <000601d02a83$e22f08c0$a68d1a40$@de> Hi, sorry I do not understand NAD, FCC, ACS ....? Regards, Sandra Von: games_access [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] Im Auftrag von Thomas Westin Gesendet: Mittwoch, 7. Januar 2015 14:56 An: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Betreff: Re: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? Hi all, Here is some interesting stuff from NAD via Dan; - I knew about the communication services part (I think it was brought up on this list by someone in 2010 or so), but I wasn't aware of a waiver with a deadline. This will be interesting to follow-up in October/November: Dear Mr. Fischbach, Thank you for contacting the NAD. We fully support making games accessible for people with disabilities. We're not aware of any efforts in Congress or at the Department of Justice addressing video games accessibility. However, under the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010, advanced communications services are required to be accessible to people with disabilities. We have made arguments before the FCC that many online games are primarily used for advanced communications services and thus should be made accessible. However, the FCC is still working on the ACS rules and actually granted a temporary waiver until October 2015 for games where ACS is a primary or co-primary purpose to the Entertainment Software Association. Please let us know of any efforts to make games more accessible. Sincerely, Andrew Phillips Best regards, Thomas 7Jan 2015 kl. 10:09 skrev Thomas Westin : Dan recently volunteered to find out more about this situation in the US (as I am based in Sweden), and we will hopefully be able to share some results of that soon. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From i_h at hotmail.com Wed Jan 7 09:33:24 2015 From: i_h at hotmail.com (Ian Hamilton) Date: 7 Jan 2015 06:33:24 -0800 Subject: [games_access] =?utf-8?q?Important_Question=3A_What_is_our_meta_a?= =?utf-8?b?aW0/?= Message-ID: It's USA specific. FFC = federal communications commission, ACS = advanced communications services, and I assume NAD = national association of the deaf. >From what I remember the reason for the waiver was to do with console lifecycles and game development time. There's something similar in UK law, an area where general accessibility legislation technically applies to games. In the UK accessibility law applies to the supply of goods and services, and not to the goods themselves. So games generally don't fall under it, but if you're offering in app purchases then technically you do. Not that a case has ever been brought under it, and I don't think it would be wise to either. ----- Reply message ----- From: "Sandra_Uhling" To: "'IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List'" Subject: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? Date: Wed, Jan 7, 2015 14:11 Hi, sorry I do not understand NAD, FCC, ACS ....? Regards, Sandra Von: games_access [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] Im Auftrag von Thomas Westin Gesendet: Mittwoch, 7. Januar 2015 14:56 An: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Betreff: Re: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? Hi all, Here is some interesting stuff from NAD via Dan; - I knew about the communication services part (I think it was brought up on this list by someone in 2010 or so), but I wasn't aware of a waiver with a deadline. This will be interesting to follow-up in October/November: Dear Mr. Fischbach, Thank you for contacting the NAD. We fully support making games accessible for people with disabilities. We're not aware of any efforts in Congress or at the Department of Justice addressing video games accessibility. However, under the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010, advanced communications services are required to be accessible to people with disabilities. We have made arguments before the FCC that many online games are primarily used for advanced communications services and thus should be made accessible. However, the FCC is still working on the ACS rules and actually granted a temporary waiver until October 2015 for games where ACS is a primary or co-primary purpose to the Entertainment Software Association. Please let us know of any efforts to make games more accessible. Sincerely, Andrew Phillips Best regards, Thomas 7Jan 2015 kl. 10:09 skrev Thomas Westin : Dan recently volunteered to find out more about this situation in the US (as I am based in Sweden), and we will hopefully be able to share some results of that soon. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access The main SIG website page is http://igda-gasig.org From thomas at westin.nu Wed Jan 7 10:00:25 2015 From: thomas at westin.nu (Thomas Westin) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2015 16:00:25 +0100 Subject: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: yes, http://nad.org/ /Thomas 7Jan 2015 kl. 15:33 skrev Ian Hamilton : > I assume NAD = national association of the deaf. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From KSleep at microsoft.com Wed Jan 7 09:54:02 2015 From: KSleep at microsoft.com (Kiernan Sleep) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:54:02 +0000 Subject: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? Message-ID: <8D19B5471C60C749847C579E53434AAE1152F3E0@AMSPRD3003MB053.064d.mgd.msft.net> Great article, Thomas - thanks for highlighting it! For anyone who's interested in reading the whole thing from start to finish, I managed to find it here - http://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10209-010-0189-5/fulltext.html My thoughts - I 100% agree with you as regards figuring out all the angles when it comes to defining *who* is impacted by accessibility, or lack of it, based on their unique disabilities and impairments. This richness and context is essential for building a compelling case; it may be that a phased approach to tackling accessibility issues (i.e. championing one demographic at a time rather than pushing a broad agenda from the outset) is the best way to tackle this. I'd be really interested to find out how Dan (I'm sorry, we've not yet been introduced) gets on. Does anyone know when we can expect these findings to filter through? :) Cheers, Kiernan. Kiernan Sleep | EMEA Test Lead | GTE Europe Microsoft Limited (company number 01624297), a company registered in England and Wales whose registered office is at Microsoft Campus, Thames Valley Park, Reading, RG6 1WG Message: 1 Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2015 10:09:10 +0100 From: Thomas Westin To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Subject: Re: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? Message-ID: <83BC9130-F92C-4791-A184-2C771E91D419 at westin.nu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" I agree with both of you, companies with share-holders are from what I?ve learned not even allowed (by their share-holders) to do anything that doesn?t bring return on investment. However, larger companies should have a larger responsibility in making their games more accessible, but as long as there is a lack of laws it can only be a recommendation. Dan recently volunteered to find out more about this situation in the US (as I am based in Sweden), and we will hopefully be able to share some results of that soon. Regarding business cases: As has been shown in research by e.g. Yuan, Folmer & Harris (2011) there are several aspects to consider in making a business case. For instance, what type of games affect accessibility for which impairments, and what age groups have various impairments and how many of people in these age groups with disabilities wants to play games in the first place, today and in the future. Best regards, Thomas Yuan, B., E. Folmer, and F. Harris, Game accessibility: a survey. Universal Access in the Information Society, 2011. 10(1): p. 81-100. 6Jan 2015 kl. 15:04 skrev Ian Hamilton : > It depends on the scale of organisation, individuals and indies are far more likely to be interested without having to have the business case laid out for them, sometimes just prevalence data is enough, or sometimes because it's the right thing to do, sometimes because they don't like the idea of their creative vision reaching less people, etc. > > And even in corporate land although business case is often a requirement it also isn't enough on its own, I've seen several examples of management being fully bought in and accessibility still failing, either because the people tasked with implementing it didn't have the knowledge or interest needed (even rigid publisher accessibility requirements being routinely flouted because the developers didn't understand the point of it), or because the manager was a lone champion, so as soon as they left it crumbled. > > When I've seen lasting cultural change it has been due to sustained pressure from multiple directions; top-down from management, bottom-up from designers and developers, and also continual external pressure from customers. > > All of that aside, I do completely agree about how important it is, particularly once you get into exec / management / publisher territory. And it's something that separates gaming from other industries too, there aren't really other industries where it's so easy to gather real data and form the business cases. > > I've been working on getting decent data gathered and shared, there are a few nice examples now that I regularly talk about in conference talks etc. but they're all from indie-land, what we really need is some data gathered and made public from a big name AAA... if, for example, Destiny was to publish data on how many of their players played with subtitles turned on, I doubt you'd see many games ever released without subtitles afterwards (esp. given the CNET survey on it, which came out at 79% of gamers playing with subs turned on). > > Sometimes the data can be nailed down to a specific group, such as tracking VoiceOver usage (really easy to do, with one single line of code), as VO is used almost exclusively by people who are legally blind. So for example 13% of MUDRammer's players being blind Vs the couple of days taken to make the game VO accessible, or the two weeks spent making Solara blind-accessible resulting in 1% of their players being blind (in line with demographics), but those 1% being by far the most loyal and highest spenders on IAPs. > > Sometimes it can't be nailed down to disability, like the subtitles example, where people would be turning them on for all kinds of reasons. I don't think that's really an issue though, because if you can demonstrate that a particular feature has a good return on investment, then in business terms it's worth including, regardless of who the audience is. > > Out of all of the many different angles there are to pursue it's the > business case one that most excites me, because of what I mentioned > earlier about data being hard to come by in other industries. So hard > business case data from games will be used as an example by those > other industries. / > > I've seen similar happen with data from DVD sales (with subs Vs without subs) being used as a business case example for web accessibility despite really how unrelated it is, so it's not hard to picture, for example, that Destiny example above being used as an example of business case for subtitles in VOD set top boxes. > > Accessibility ratings is something that conversation keeps coming back to. It's too broad a field to cover everything individually, and the other end of the spectrum, a windows store style 'accessible' tickbox doesn't work either, not even for apps let alone games. > > Personally I like Steam and IndieCity's approaches.. Steam allowing filtering of listings by accessibility feature (although just for captions at the moment), and IndieCity just picking a few of the most commonly needed considerations to flag up, such as whether a game is colourblind friendly, has remappable controls, or has subtitles. > > Combining the two things would be great, so developers able to tick a few boxes for which common things apply to them, and then also some free optional text to mention any additional considerations. > > If, for example, iTunes or Steam was to include something that like, it would make an astronomical difference, not just for the gamers who need the features but also for developers, being able to get an extra bit of discoverability in crowded marketplaces. > > Ian > > > From: KSleep at microsoft.com > To: games_access at igda.org > Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2015 11:08:18 +0000 > Subject: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? > > > In my experience, if you want to influence change on a corporate-cultural level and get people thinking and building games, in this case, with accessibility firmly in mind, upfront and early in the design process, by far the most efficient and long-term impactful way to do it is to focus on money and build a compelling business case for companies to care about tapping into all those un-enfranchised people out there. > > It?s a question of quantifying cost vs. potential benefits. Money is the language CEOs speak and my background of having worked extensively in both convinces me that it?s the leadership teams of the big publishing houses and development studios that invariably set the company vision and the tone as regards the inclusiveness and accessibility of their products. > > Nail the business case before anything else and the development teams will fall into line ? resulting in a trickle-down effect through the first and third-party studios. > > Given the small and increasingly homogenous nature of the industry there are probably only a dozen or so people we need to focus on influencing, and this could (and is) probably best achieved via a small summit where we pitch our case, state our desired outcomes and seek long-term buy-in. > > So, to summarise ? > > 1. Build a compelling business case > 2. Approach leaders and arrange a summit > 3. State desired outcomes and seek buy-in > > Short-to-medium term, that would be my approach. Longer-term goals should be centred on formalising a commitment to accessibility throughout industry via universal ?Accessibility Ratings? on all games in the same way we age-rate titles before release to market. > > Thoughts? > > > Kiernan Sleep | EMEA Test Lead | GTE Europe > > > Microsoft Limited (company number 01624297), a company registered in > England and Wales whose registered office is at Microsoft Campus, > Thames Valley Park, Reading, RG6 1WG > > > _______________________________________________ games_access mailing > list games_access at igda.org > https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access The main SIG > website page is http://igda-gasig.org > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > The main SIG website page is http://igda-gasig.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:55:30 +0100 From: Thomas Westin To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List Subject: Re: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" Hi all, Here is some interesting stuff from NAD via Dan; - I knew about the communication services part (I think it was brought up on this list by someone in 2010 or so), but I wasn?t aware of a waiver with a deadline. This will be interesting to follow-up in October/November: > Dear Mr. Fischbach, > > Thank you for contacting the NAD. We fully support making games accessible for people with disabilities. We're not aware of any efforts in Congress or at the Department of Justice addressing video games accessibility. > > However, under the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010, advanced communications services are required to be accessible to people with disabilities. We have made arguments before the FCC that many online games are primarily used for advanced communications services and thus should be made accessible. However, the FCC is still working on the ACS rules and actually granted a temporary waiver until October 2015 for games where ACS is a primary or co-primary purpose to the Entertainment Software Association. > > Please let us know of any efforts to make games more accessible. > > Sincerely, > Andrew Phillips Best regards, Thomas 7Jan 2015 kl. 10:09 skrev Thomas Westin : > Dan recently volunteered to find out more about this situation in the US (as I am based in Sweden), and we will hopefully be able to share some results of that soon. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: ------------------------------ Subject: Digest Footer _______________________________________________ games_access mailing list games_access at igda.org https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access The main SIG website page is http://igda-gasig.org ------------------------------ End of games_access Digest, Vol 135, Issue 3 ******************************************** From bvi at thechases.com Wed Jan 7 14:07:44 2015 From: bvi at thechases.com (Tim Chase) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2015 13:07:44 -0600 Subject: [games_access] AbleGamers awards on Gamasutra Message-ID: <20150107130744.63ca8f12@bigbox.christie.dr> Just in case it hasn't yet come across this mailing list, Gamasutra posted an article about AbleGamers' awards for accessible mainstream games: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/233706/AbleGamers_announces_its_awards_for_Accessible_Games_of_the_Year.php -tim From thomas at westin.nu Wed Jan 7 15:51:17 2015 From: thomas at westin.nu (Thomas Westin) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2015 21:51:17 +0100 Subject: [games_access] AbleGamers awards on Gamasutra In-Reply-To: <20150107130744.63ca8f12@bigbox.christie.dr> References: <20150107130744.63ca8f12@bigbox.christie.dr> Message-ID: <11D44C57-CF16-4534-B49B-7659F907101F@westin.nu> Great, thanks for sharing Tim /Thomas 7Jan 2015 kl. 20:07 skrev Tim Chase : > Just in case it hasn't yet come across this mailing list, Gamasutra > posted an article about AbleGamers' awards for accessible mainstream > games: > > http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/233706/AbleGamers_announces_its_awards_for_Accessible_Games_of_the_Year.php > > -tim > > > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > The main SIG website page is http://igda-gasig.org From blindwolf8 at gmail.com Wed Jan 7 22:30:29 2015 From: blindwolf8 at gmail.com (Dan Fischbach) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2015 22:30:29 -0500 Subject: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? In-Reply-To: <8D19B5471C60C749847C579E53434AAE1152F3E0@AMSPRD3003MB053.064d.mgd.msft.net> References: <8D19B5471C60C749847C579E53434AAE1152F3E0@AMSPRD3003MB053.064d.mgd.msft.net> Message-ID: Hi Kiernan, (and everyone else) At the request of Thomas, I contacted the following groups around the holidays: Alexander Graham Bell Association (AG Bell) Emilio Alonso-Mendoza, Chief Executive Officer http://listeningandspokenlanguage.org/Contact_Us/ ealonsomendoza at agbell.org Association of Late Deafened Adults (ALDA) info at alda.org http://www.alda.org/contact-us/ Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) Anna Gilmore Hall, Executive Director http://hlaa.convio.net/site/Survey?ACTION_REQUIRED=URI_ACTION_USER_REQUESTS&SURVEY_ID=2500 http://www.hearingloss.org/content/contact-us National Association of the Deaf (NAD) http://nad.org/forms/contact-nad American Council of the Blind (ACB) info at acb.org http://acb.org/node/6 American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) http://www.afb.org/sendMail.asp I used the following email: ---------- Subject: Help with Game Accessibility for the Deaf and Blind Body: Hello, My name is Dan Fischbach. I am a gamer and game developer with a lifelong, permanent disability. (legally blind) I am a Lifetime Member of the International Game Developers Association. (IGDA) If you're unfamiliar with the IGDA, the IGDA is the largest non-profit membership organization in the world serving all individuals who create games. Within the IGDA are Special Interest Groups, or SIGs. I am a member of the Game Accessibility (GA) SIG. The GA SIG has a passion for game accessibility. We mean to make video games playable for everyone and take special considerations for gamers with disabilities of any sort. I am emailing you today looking for the best person to contact regarding your recent talks with the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) and other groups to file recommendation jointly with the US Department of Justice regarding the improvement of accessibility to movies theaters and projection systems with such technologies as closed captioning for the deaf or hard of hearing and audio descriptions for the blind or visually impaired. Our goal is to make these tools apply to games as well since they are an art form just like movies and TV, however there are no strict laws in place for games regarding accessibility. We are looking to your organization for someone who can help with this so that gamers and game developers around the world - no matter the disability - can enjoy games. Thank you very much for your time today, ---------- Here's the current response status: Alexander Graham Bell Association (AG Bell): Got a response from Susan Boswell (sboswell at agbell.org) on Dec 24 2014 as she handles policies. She's supposed to be investigating this matter further for us before a real response can be given. Association of Late Deafened Adults (ALDA): No response yet. Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA): No response yet. National Association of the Deaf (NAD): Response from Andrew Phillips ( andrew.phillips at nad.org) on Jan 7 2015 posted on this mailing list. American Council of the Blind (ACB): No response yet. American Foundation for the Blind (AFB): Got the following response from Tara Annis (tannis at afb.net) on Jan 2 2015: ---------- Hello, My colleague Mark Richert, mrichert at afb.net, is the best point-of-contact because he works in our Public Policy Center in Washington D.C; he should be able to advise possible solutions for gaming accessibility. ---------- I just now sent a variation of that above email to Mark Richert. I'll let you all know if I get a response. That's all I know folks. I hope all of this helps. The more info everybody knows the faster progress can be made. I figured sharing email addresses and such of the people that contacted me would only help our cause here. It's their job, after all. ;-) We all have to stick together and push if we want things to change. If you have a sight or hearing impairment yourself or know someone who does, I would say that reaching out to one or more of the above groups with your game-related stories with a similar version of the above email would only amplify our voices. rallyMode = 0; ;-) I hope to see some of you at GDC in March! Dan Fischbach, Net+, MCP W: danfischbach.com P: 609-458-7920 Proud NJIT (BS) and UCF/FIEA (MS) graduate Please consider the environment before printing this email On Wed, Jan 7, 2015 at 9:54 AM, Kiernan Sleep wrote: > > Great article, Thomas - thanks for highlighting it! > > For anyone who's interested in reading the whole thing from start to > finish, I managed to find it here - > http://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10209-010-0189-5/fulltext.html > > My thoughts - > > I 100% agree with you as regards figuring out all the angles when it comes > to defining *who* is impacted by accessibility, or lack of it, based on > their unique disabilities and impairments. This richness and context is > essential for building a compelling case; it may be that a phased approach > to tackling accessibility issues (i.e. championing one demographic at a > time rather than pushing a broad agenda from the outset) is the best way to > tackle this. > > I'd be really interested to find out how Dan (I'm sorry, we've not yet > been introduced) gets on. Does anyone know when we can expect these > findings to filter through? :) > > > Cheers, > > Kiernan. > > Kiernan Sleep | EMEA Test Lead | GTE Europe > > Microsoft Limited (company number 01624297), a company registered in > England and Wales whose registered office is at Microsoft Campus, Thames > Valley Park, Reading, RG6 1WG > > > > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2015 10:09:10 +0100 > From: Thomas Westin > To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List > Subject: Re: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? > Message-ID: <83BC9130-F92C-4791-A184-2C771E91D419 at westin.nu> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" > > I agree with both of you, companies with share-holders are from what I?ve > learned not even allowed (by their share-holders) to do anything that > doesn?t bring return on investment. However, larger companies should have a > larger responsibility in making their games more accessible, but as long as > there is a lack of laws it can only be a recommendation. > > Dan recently volunteered to find out more about this situation in the US > (as I am based in Sweden), and we will hopefully be able to share some > results of that soon. Regarding business cases: As has been shown in > research by e.g. Yuan, Folmer & Harris (2011) there are several aspects to > consider in making a business case. For instance, what type of games affect > accessibility for which impairments, and what age groups have various > impairments and how many of people in these age groups with disabilities > wants to play games in the first place, today and in the future. > > Best regards, > Thomas > > Yuan, B., E. Folmer, and F. Harris, Game accessibility: a survey. > Universal Access in the Information Society, 2011. 10(1): p. 81-100. > > > 6Jan 2015 kl. 15:04 skrev Ian Hamilton : > > > It depends on the scale of organisation, individuals and indies are far > more likely to be interested without having to have the business case laid > out for them, sometimes just prevalence data is enough, or sometimes > because it's the right thing to do, sometimes because they don't like the > idea of their creative vision reaching less people, etc. > > > > And even in corporate land although business case is often a requirement > it also isn't enough on its own, I've seen several examples of management > being fully bought in and accessibility still failing, either because the > people tasked with implementing it didn't have the knowledge or interest > needed (even rigid publisher accessibility requirements being routinely > flouted because the developers didn't understand the point of it), or > because the manager was a lone champion, so as soon as they left it > crumbled. > > > > When I've seen lasting cultural change it has been due to sustained > pressure from multiple directions; top-down from management, bottom-up from > designers and developers, and also continual external pressure from > customers. > > > > All of that aside, I do completely agree about how important it is, > particularly once you get into exec / management / publisher territory. And > it's something that separates gaming from other industries too, there > aren't really other industries where it's so easy to gather real data and > form the business cases. > > > > I've been working on getting decent data gathered and shared, there are > a few nice examples now that I regularly talk about in conference talks > etc. but they're all from indie-land, what we really need is some data > gathered and made public from a big name AAA... if, for example, Destiny > was to publish data on how many of their players played with subtitles > turned on, I doubt you'd see many games ever released without subtitles > afterwards (esp. given the CNET survey on it, which came out at 79% of > gamers playing with subs turned on). > > > > Sometimes the data can be nailed down to a specific group, such as > tracking VoiceOver usage (really easy to do, with one single line of code), > as VO is used almost exclusively by people who are legally blind. So for > example 13% of MUDRammer's players being blind Vs the couple of days taken > to make the game VO accessible, or the two weeks spent making Solara > blind-accessible resulting in 1% of their players being blind (in line with > demographics), but those 1% being by far the most loyal and highest > spenders on IAPs. > > > > Sometimes it can't be nailed down to disability, like the subtitles > example, where people would be turning them on for all kinds of reasons. I > don't think that's really an issue though, because if you can demonstrate > that a particular feature has a good return on investment, then in business > terms it's worth including, regardless of who the audience is. > > > > Out of all of the many different angles there are to pursue it's the > > business case one that most excites me, because of what I mentioned > > earlier about data being hard to come by in other industries. So hard > > business case data from games will be used as an example by those > > other industries. / > > > > I've seen similar happen with data from DVD sales (with subs Vs without > subs) being used as a business case example for web accessibility despite > really how unrelated it is, so it's not hard to picture, for example, that > Destiny example above being used as an example of business case for > subtitles in VOD set top boxes. > > > > Accessibility ratings is something that conversation keeps coming back > to. It's too broad a field to cover everything individually, and the other > end of the spectrum, a windows store style 'accessible' tickbox doesn't > work either, not even for apps let alone games. > > > > Personally I like Steam and IndieCity's approaches.. Steam allowing > filtering of listings by accessibility feature (although just for captions > at the moment), and IndieCity just picking a few of the most commonly > needed considerations to flag up, such as whether a game is colourblind > friendly, has remappable controls, or has subtitles. > > > > Combining the two things would be great, so developers able to tick a > few boxes for which common things apply to them, and then also some free > optional text to mention any additional considerations. > > > > If, for example, iTunes or Steam was to include something that like, it > would make an astronomical difference, not just for the gamers who need the > features but also for developers, being able to get an extra bit of > discoverability in crowded marketplaces. > > > > Ian > > > > > > From: KSleep at microsoft.com > > To: games_access at igda.org > > Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2015 11:08:18 +0000 > > Subject: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? > > > > > > In my experience, if you want to influence change on a > corporate-cultural level and get people thinking and building games, in > this case, with accessibility firmly in mind, upfront and early in the > design process, by far the most efficient and long-term impactful way to do > it is to focus on money and build a compelling business case for companies > to care about tapping into all those un-enfranchised people out there. > > > > It?s a question of quantifying cost vs. potential benefits. Money is > the language CEOs speak and my background of having worked extensively in > both convinces me that it?s the leadership teams of the big publishing > houses and development studios that invariably set the company vision and > the tone as regards the inclusiveness and accessibility of their products. > > > > Nail the business case before anything else and the development teams > will fall into line ? resulting in a trickle-down effect through the first > and third-party studios. > > > > Given the small and increasingly homogenous nature of the industry there > are probably only a dozen or so people we need to focus on influencing, and > this could (and is) probably best achieved via a small summit where we > pitch our case, state our desired outcomes and seek long-term buy-in. > > > > So, to summarise ? > > > > 1. Build a compelling business case > > 2. Approach leaders and arrange a summit > > 3. State desired outcomes and seek buy-in > > > > Short-to-medium term, that would be my approach. Longer-term goals > should be centred on formalising a commitment to accessibility throughout > industry via universal ?Accessibility Ratings? on all games in the same way > we age-rate titles before release to market. > > > > Thoughts? > > > > > > Kiernan Sleep | EMEA Test Lead | GTE Europe > > > > > > Microsoft Limited (company number 01624297), a company registered in > > England and Wales whose registered office is at Microsoft Campus, > > Thames Valley Park, Reading, RG6 1WG > > > > > > _______________________________________________ games_access mailing > > list games_access at igda.org > > https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access The main SIG > > website page is http://igda-gasig.org > > _______________________________________________ > > games_access mailing list > > games_access at igda.org > > https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > > The main SIG website page is http://igda-gasig.org > > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: < > https://pairlist7.pair.net/pipermail/games_access/attachments/20150107/e5fc3ac7/attachment-0001.html > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:55:30 +0100 > From: Thomas Westin > To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List > Subject: Re: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? > Message-ID: > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" > > Hi all, > > Here is some interesting stuff from NAD via Dan; > - I knew about the communication services part (I think it was brought up > on this list by someone in 2010 or so), but I wasn?t aware of a waiver with > a deadline. This will be interesting to follow-up in October/November: > > > Dear Mr. Fischbach, > > > > Thank you for contacting the NAD. We fully support making games > accessible for people with disabilities. We're not aware of any efforts in > Congress or at the Department of Justice addressing video games > accessibility. > > > > However, under the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video > Accessibility Act of 2010, advanced communications services are required to > be accessible to people with disabilities. We have made arguments before > the FCC that many online games are primarily used for advanced > communications services and thus should be made accessible. However, the > FCC is still working on the ACS rules and actually granted a temporary > waiver until October 2015 for games where ACS is a primary or co-primary > purpose to the Entertainment Software Association. > > > > Please let us know of any efforts to make games more accessible. > > > > Sincerely, > > Andrew Phillips > > > Best regards, > Thomas > > 7Jan 2015 kl. 10:09 skrev Thomas Westin : > > > Dan recently volunteered to find out more about this situation in the US > (as I am based in Sweden), and we will hopefully be able to share some > results of that soon. > > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: < > https://pairlist7.pair.net/pipermail/games_access/attachments/20150107/0598c0eb/attachment.html > > > > ------------------------------ > > Subject: Digest Footer > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > The main SIG website page is http://igda-gasig.org > > ------------------------------ > > End of games_access Digest, Vol 135, Issue 3 > ******************************************** > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > The main SIG website page is http://igda-gasig.org > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From thomas at westin.nu Thu Jan 8 02:16:13 2015 From: thomas at westin.nu (Thomas Westin) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2015 08:16:13 +0100 Subject: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? In-Reply-To: <8D19B5471C60C749847C579E53434AAE1152F3E0@AMSPRD3003MB053.064d.mgd.msft.net> References: <8D19B5471C60C749847C579E53434AAE1152F3E0@AMSPRD3003MB053.064d.mgd.msft.net> Message-ID: You?re most welcome Kiernan Regarding Dan: see my previous e-mail regarding what he found out via the NAD, and I/we will follow-up during the autumn. /Thomas 7Jan 2015 kl. 15:54 skrev Kiernan Sleep : > > Great article, Thomas - thanks for highlighting it! > > For anyone who's interested in reading the whole thing from start to finish, I managed to find it here - http://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10209-010-0189-5/fulltext.html > > My thoughts - > > I 100% agree with you as regards figuring out all the angles when it comes to defining *who* is impacted by accessibility, or lack of it, based on their unique disabilities and impairments. This richness and context is essential for building a compelling case; it may be that a phased approach to tackling accessibility issues (i.e. championing one demographic at a time rather than pushing a broad agenda from the outset) is the best way to tackle this. > > I'd be really interested to find out how Dan (I'm sorry, we've not yet been introduced) gets on. Does anyone know when we can expect these findings to filter through? :) > > > Cheers, > > Kiernan. > > Kiernan Sleep | EMEA Test Lead | GTE Europe > > Microsoft Limited (company number 01624297), a company registered in England and Wales whose registered office is at Microsoft Campus, Thames Valley Park, Reading, RG6 1WG > > > > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2015 10:09:10 +0100 > From: Thomas Westin > To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List > Subject: Re: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? > Message-ID: <83BC9130-F92C-4791-A184-2C771E91D419 at westin.nu> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" > > I agree with both of you, companies with share-holders are from what I?ve learned not even allowed (by their share-holders) to do anything that doesn?t bring return on investment. However, larger companies should have a larger responsibility in making their games more accessible, but as long as there is a lack of laws it can only be a recommendation. > > Dan recently volunteered to find out more about this situation in the US (as I am based in Sweden), and we will hopefully be able to share some results of that soon. Regarding business cases: As has been shown in research by e.g. Yuan, Folmer & Harris (2011) there are several aspects to consider in making a business case. For instance, what type of games affect accessibility for which impairments, and what age groups have various impairments and how many of people in these age groups with disabilities wants to play games in the first place, today and in the future. > > Best regards, > Thomas > > Yuan, B., E. Folmer, and F. Harris, Game accessibility: a survey. Universal Access in the Information Society, 2011. 10(1): p. 81-100. > > > 6Jan 2015 kl. 15:04 skrev Ian Hamilton : > >> It depends on the scale of organisation, individuals and indies are far more likely to be interested without having to have the business case laid out for them, sometimes just prevalence data is enough, or sometimes because it's the right thing to do, sometimes because they don't like the idea of their creative vision reaching less people, etc. >> >> And even in corporate land although business case is often a requirement it also isn't enough on its own, I've seen several examples of management being fully bought in and accessibility still failing, either because the people tasked with implementing it didn't have the knowledge or interest needed (even rigid publisher accessibility requirements being routinely flouted because the developers didn't understand the point of it), or because the manager was a lone champion, so as soon as they left it crumbled. >> >> When I've seen lasting cultural change it has been due to sustained pressure from multiple directions; top-down from management, bottom-up from designers and developers, and also continual external pressure from customers. >> >> All of that aside, I do completely agree about how important it is, particularly once you get into exec / management / publisher territory. And it's something that separates gaming from other industries too, there aren't really other industries where it's so easy to gather real data and form the business cases. >> >> I've been working on getting decent data gathered and shared, there are a few nice examples now that I regularly talk about in conference talks etc. but they're all from indie-land, what we really need is some data gathered and made public from a big name AAA... if, for example, Destiny was to publish data on how many of their players played with subtitles turned on, I doubt you'd see many games ever released without subtitles afterwards (esp. given the CNET survey on it, which came out at 79% of gamers playing with subs turned on). >> >> Sometimes the data can be nailed down to a specific group, such as tracking VoiceOver usage (really easy to do, with one single line of code), as VO is used almost exclusively by people who are legally blind. So for example 13% of MUDRammer's players being blind Vs the couple of days taken to make the game VO accessible, or the two weeks spent making Solara blind-accessible resulting in 1% of their players being blind (in line with demographics), but those 1% being by far the most loyal and highest spenders on IAPs. >> >> Sometimes it can't be nailed down to disability, like the subtitles example, where people would be turning them on for all kinds of reasons. I don't think that's really an issue though, because if you can demonstrate that a particular feature has a good return on investment, then in business terms it's worth including, regardless of who the audience is. >> >> Out of all of the many different angles there are to pursue it's the >> business case one that most excites me, because of what I mentioned >> earlier about data being hard to come by in other industries. So hard >> business case data from games will be used as an example by those >> other industries. / >> >> I've seen similar happen with data from DVD sales (with subs Vs without subs) being used as a business case example for web accessibility despite really how unrelated it is, so it's not hard to picture, for example, that Destiny example above being used as an example of business case for subtitles in VOD set top boxes. >> >> Accessibility ratings is something that conversation keeps coming back to. It's too broad a field to cover everything individually, and the other end of the spectrum, a windows store style 'accessible' tickbox doesn't work either, not even for apps let alone games. >> >> Personally I like Steam and IndieCity's approaches.. Steam allowing filtering of listings by accessibility feature (although just for captions at the moment), and IndieCity just picking a few of the most commonly needed considerations to flag up, such as whether a game is colourblind friendly, has remappable controls, or has subtitles. >> >> Combining the two things would be great, so developers able to tick a few boxes for which common things apply to them, and then also some free optional text to mention any additional considerations. >> >> If, for example, iTunes or Steam was to include something that like, it would make an astronomical difference, not just for the gamers who need the features but also for developers, being able to get an extra bit of discoverability in crowded marketplaces. >> >> Ian >> >> >> From: KSleep at microsoft.com >> To: games_access at igda.org >> Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2015 11:08:18 +0000 >> Subject: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? >> >> >> In my experience, if you want to influence change on a corporate-cultural level and get people thinking and building games, in this case, with accessibility firmly in mind, upfront and early in the design process, by far the most efficient and long-term impactful way to do it is to focus on money and build a compelling business case for companies to care about tapping into all those un-enfranchised people out there. >> >> It?s a question of quantifying cost vs. potential benefits. Money is the language CEOs speak and my background of having worked extensively in both convinces me that it?s the leadership teams of the big publishing houses and development studios that invariably set the company vision and the tone as regards the inclusiveness and accessibility of their products. >> >> Nail the business case before anything else and the development teams will fall into line ? resulting in a trickle-down effect through the first and third-party studios. >> >> Given the small and increasingly homogenous nature of the industry there are probably only a dozen or so people we need to focus on influencing, and this could (and is) probably best achieved via a small summit where we pitch our case, state our desired outcomes and seek long-term buy-in. >> >> So, to summarise ? >> >> 1. Build a compelling business case >> 2. Approach leaders and arrange a summit >> 3. State desired outcomes and seek buy-in >> >> Short-to-medium term, that would be my approach. Longer-term goals should be centred on formalising a commitment to accessibility throughout industry via universal ?Accessibility Ratings? on all games in the same way we age-rate titles before release to market. >> >> Thoughts? >> >> >> Kiernan Sleep | EMEA Test Lead | GTE Europe >> >> >> Microsoft Limited (company number 01624297), a company registered in >> England and Wales whose registered office is at Microsoft Campus, >> Thames Valley Park, Reading, RG6 1WG >> >> >> _______________________________________________ games_access mailing >> list games_access at igda.org >> https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access The main SIG >> website page is http://igda-gasig.org >> _______________________________________________ >> games_access mailing list >> games_access at igda.org >> https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access >> The main SIG website page is http://igda-gasig.org > > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2015 14:55:30 +0100 > From: Thomas Westin > To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List > Subject: Re: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? > Message-ID: > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" > > Hi all, > > Here is some interesting stuff from NAD via Dan; > - I knew about the communication services part (I think it was brought up on this list by someone in 2010 or so), but I wasn?t aware of a waiver with a deadline. This will be interesting to follow-up in October/November: > >> Dear Mr. Fischbach, >> >> Thank you for contacting the NAD. We fully support making games accessible for people with disabilities. We're not aware of any efforts in Congress or at the Department of Justice addressing video games accessibility. >> >> However, under the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010, advanced communications services are required to be accessible to people with disabilities. We have made arguments before the FCC that many online games are primarily used for advanced communications services and thus should be made accessible. However, the FCC is still working on the ACS rules and actually granted a temporary waiver until October 2015 for games where ACS is a primary or co-primary purpose to the Entertainment Software Association. >> >> Please let us know of any efforts to make games more accessible. >> >> Sincerely, >> Andrew Phillips > > > Best regards, > Thomas > > 7Jan 2015 kl. 10:09 skrev Thomas Westin : > >> Dan recently volunteered to find out more about this situation in the US (as I am based in Sweden), and we will hopefully be able to share some results of that soon. > > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > > ------------------------------ > > Subject: Digest Footer > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > The main SIG website page is http://igda-gasig.org > > ------------------------------ > > End of games_access Digest, Vol 135, Issue 3 > ******************************************** > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > The main SIG website page is http://igda-gasig.org From eleanor at 7128.com Sat Jan 10 14:14:40 2015 From: eleanor at 7128.com (Eleanor) Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 14:14:40 -0500 Subject: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim? Message-ID: <54B17A20.4020207@7128.com> When you are talking about getting statistics to make a case that building in certain accessibility accommodations will result in greater sales, one of the things we need to include is the issue of the aging population. In the US, census figures set the percent of persons over 65 with one or more disabilities at 40%. The over 65 demographic is increasing world wide. Computer and console gaming have been around for around 35 years. Many people who are entering that age bracket are gamers and want to continue to play. They can't hear as well, they can't see as well, they may have arthritis and other impairments and quick physical movements may not be possible for them. Making it easier for them to play is certainly going to make money for the game companies. I agree that it is important to convince the leadership of the larger game companies to include accessibility accommodations from the beginning of game development. I also agree that we need to continue to reach out to the Indie developers. With mobile games becoming more and more ubiquitous, we need to look at the accommodations that would make them more accessible. We need to continue to be a resource and educator for game developers everywhere. Eleanor Robinson 7-128 Software From i_h at hotmail.com Tue Jan 13 19:39:52 2015 From: i_h at hotmail.com (Ian Hamilton) Date: 13 Jan 2015 16:39:52 -0800 Subject: [games_access] =?utf-8?q?Disabledgamers_reddit_group?= Message-ID: Currently trending on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/disabledgamers/ Ian -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brannonz at microsoft.com Fri Jan 16 15:01:24 2015 From: brannonz at microsoft.com (Brannon Zahand) Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 20:01:24 +0000 Subject: [games_access] Disabledgamers reddit group In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Would be great to get a FAQ out there to address the GamerGaters. Things like: - We don?t want to dumb down your games. - We don?t expect every game to be playable by 100% of people. - We don?t want to limit creativity or artistic vision. - We don?t want to change how you play your games. - Etc. Brannon Zahand | DSC Business Operations | brannonz at microsoft.com | Gamertag: Tenchi (o) 425.704.0166 | (c) 206.755.1188 From: games_access [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Ian Hamilton Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2015 4:40 PM To: games_access at igda.org Subject: [games_access] Disabledgamers reddit group Currently trending on reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/disabledgamers/ Ian -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From sandra_uhling at web.de Fri Jan 16 16:21:35 2015 From: sandra_uhling at web.de (Sandra Uhling) Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 22:21:35 +0100 Subject: [games_access] Disabledgamers reddit group In-Reply-To: References: , Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From i_h at hotmail.com Fri Jan 16 19:29:14 2015 From: i_h at hotmail.com (Ian Hamilton) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 00:29:14 +0000 Subject: [games_access] 'Journeys of the mind' talk series Message-ID: Nice series of talks on blind gaming by Michael Feir (founder of Audyssey): https://audioboom.com/boos/2805045-journeys-of-the-mind-lecture-part-onehttps://audioboom.com/boos/2805227-journeys-of-the-mind-part-twohttps://audioboom.com/boos/2805374-journeys-of-the-mind-part-three And on a semi-related note, haptic effects library for Android: http://www2.immersion.com/developers/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=119&Itemid=592 Ian -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk Sat Jan 17 06:29:09 2015 From: barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk (Barrie Ellis) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 11:29:09 +0000 Subject: [games_access] Eye Gaze and One-Switch access now possible on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3 and PS4 Message-ID: It's a lot of hoops to jump through, considering the Xbox One Kinect and PS4 camera's could do this out of the box with willing, but I found a way yesterday to get eye-gaze control over modern main-stream game consoles (apart from Wii U and mobile). http://switchgaming.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/eye-gaze-and-more-on-xbox-360-xbox-one.html Ultimately, I think it would cost about $160 / ?160 to replicate eye-gaze, $60 / ?60 for head-tracking (using the free CameraMouse) and $90 / ?90 plus switches for one/two switch access. Sitting on the shoulders of many to be able to post this, but looking hopeful. Fascinated in gaming redux methods like this: http://switchgaming.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/custom-controller.html Just so massively time consuming when you only have a little time. Lots to do. Best wishes all, and although just lurking, good to see some life on the lists, Barrie -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From thomas at westin.nu Mon Jan 19 06:48:45 2015 From: thomas at westin.nu (Thomas Westin) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 12:48:45 +0100 Subject: [games_access] Eye Gaze and One-Switch access now possible on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3 and PS4 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Awesome Barrie, very interested in a more detailed description later, especially the config file Best regards Thomas 17Jan 2015 kl. 12:29 skrev Barrie Ellis : > It's a lot of hoops to jump through, considering the Xbox One Kinect and PS4 camera's could do this out of the box with willing, but I found a way yesterday to get eye-gaze control over modern main-stream game consoles (apart from Wii U and mobile). > > http://switchgaming.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/eye-gaze-and-more-on-xbox-360-xbox-one.html > > Ultimately, I think it would cost about $160 / ?160 to replicate eye-gaze, $60 / ?60 for head-tracking (using the free CameraMouse) and $90 / ?90 plus switches for one/two switch access. > > Sitting on the shoulders of many to be able to post this, but looking hopeful. Fascinated in gaming redux methods like this: http://switchgaming.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/custom-controller.html > > Just so massively time consuming when you only have a little time. Lots to do. > > Best wishes all, and although just lurking, good to see some life on the lists, > > Barrie > > > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > The main SIG website page is http://igda-gasig.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk Mon Jan 19 13:05:16 2015 From: barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk (Barrie Ellis) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 18:05:16 +0000 Subject: [games_access] Eye Gaze and One-Switch access now possible on Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3 and PS4 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Cheers, Thomas and will do. I was talking rubbish maybe about the price of eye-tracking though. We've got a $99 EyeTribe eye tracker, but that's a developer version not a consumer one. Maybe the most affordable is Gazepoint.... One day this tech will be far more affordable. Barrie On 19 January 2015 at 11:48, Thomas Westin wrote: > Awesome Barrie, very interested in a more detailed description later, > especially the config file > > Best regards > Thomas > > 17Jan 2015 kl. 12:29 skrev Barrie Ellis : > > It's a lot of hoops to jump through, considering the Xbox One Kinect and > PS4 camera's could do this out of the box with willing, but I found a way > yesterday to get eye-gaze control over modern main-stream game consoles > (apart from Wii U and mobile). > > > http://switchgaming.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/eye-gaze-and-more-on-xbox-360-xbox-one.html > > Ultimately, I think it would cost about $160 / ?160 to replicate eye-gaze, > $60 / ?60 for head-tracking (using the free CameraMouse) and $90 / ?90 plus > switches for one/two switch access. > > Sitting on the shoulders of many to be able to post this, but looking > hopeful. Fascinated in gaming redux methods like this: > http://switchgaming.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/custom-controller.html > > Just so massively time consuming when you only have a little time. Lots to > do. > > Best wishes all, and although just lurking, good to see some life on the > lists, > > Barrie > > > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > The main SIG website page is http://igda-gasig.org > > > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > The main SIG website page is http://igda-gasig.org > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mathias.nordvall at liu.se Mon Jan 19 22:42:44 2015 From: mathias.nordvall at liu.se (Mathias Nordvall) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 04:42:44 +0100 Subject: [games_access] Article on haptics and deafblind accessibility Message-ID: Hi, Sorry for being slightly self-serving now since I'm partly featured in the article but Richard Moss wrote an article about haptics and accessibility in computer games last week and and I figure that there might be people here that could be interested. http://www.gizmag.com/haptic-tech-vr-wearables-games-sightlence/35616/ Cheers, Mathias Nordvall From barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk Thu Jan 22 02:38:58 2015 From: barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk (Barrie Ellis) Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 07:38:58 +0000 Subject: [games_access] Tweet from Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) re streaming from Xbox to PC Message-ID: Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) tweeted at 10:53 pm on Wed, Jan 21, 2015: @ianhamilton_ @OneSwitch It's a good question, API set should allow someone to build special controller for accessible PC input. (https://twitter.com/XboxP3/status/558034592146657280?s=03) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From thomas at westin.nu Thu Jan 22 04:42:56 2015 From: thomas at westin.nu (Thomas Westin) Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 10:42:56 +0100 Subject: [games_access] GA-SIG @ GDC 2015 Message-ID: <77C9972D-0A70-47A2-A89F-5DF58B7EEF69@westin.nu> Hi all, In partnership with GDC, the IGDA and IGDA Game Accessibility SIG are pleased to share that we will have a roundtable at GDC 2015: Date: Friday, 6 March Time: 1:30 - 2:20 pm More info on this will follow. In addition we have a panel presentation and also Tara will also have a session (from what I?ve heard). GDC 2015 will be a great event for the SIG! Hope to see you there! Best regards, Thomas -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From i_h at hotmail.com Wed Jan 28 04:21:28 2015 From: i_h at hotmail.com (Ian Hamilton) Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2015 09:21:28 +0000 Subject: [games_access] Attending GDC Message-ID: Just checking who on the list is going to be at GDC this year? I know so far that Michelle, Richard, Tara and Thomas will be there, and that Matthias can't make it this time. Ian -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From dh.coyle at ulster.ac.uk Wed Jan 28 05:14:06 2015 From: dh.coyle at ulster.ac.uk (Coyle, Damien) Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2015 10:14:06 +0000 Subject: [games_access] Attending GDC In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi Ian, unfortunately I cannot attend this year. Damien [Ulster University] Dr Damien Coyle Reader School of Computing and Intelligent Systems, Faculty of Computing and Engineering, Magee Campus T: +44 (0)28 7167 5170 E: dh.coyle at ulster.ac.uk W: http://isrc.ulster.ac.uk/dcoyle/contact.html From: games_access [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of Ian Hamilton Sent: 28 January 2015 09:21 To: games_access at igda.org Subject: [games_access] Attending GDC Just checking who on the list is going to be at GDC this year? I know so far that Michelle, Richard, Tara and Thomas will be there, and that Matthias can't make it this time. Ian ________________________________ This email and any attachments are confidential and intended solely for the use of the addressee and may contain information which is covered by legal, professional or other privilege. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager at postmaster at ulster.ac.uk and delete this email immediately. Any views or opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Ulster University. The University's computer systems may be monitored and communications carried out on them may be recorded to secure the effective operation of the system and for other lawful purposes. Ulster University does not guarantee that this email or any attachments are free from viruses or 100% secure. Unless expressly stated in the body of a separate attachment, the text of email is not intended to form a binding contract. Correspondence to and from the University may be subject to requests for disclosure by 3rd parties under relevant legislation. The University of Ulster was founded by Royal Charter in 1984 and is registered with company number RC000726 and VAT registered number GB672390524.The primary contact address for Ulster University in Northern Ireland is Cromore Road, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry BT52 1SA -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 2962 bytes Desc: image001.jpg URL: From blindwolf8 at gmail.com Wed Jan 28 06:21:24 2015 From: blindwolf8 at gmail.com (Dan Fischbach) Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2015 06:21:24 -0500 Subject: [games_access] Attending GDC In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I'll be there. ***This message was sent from my cell phone so it may be more terse than usual.*** Dan Fischbach, Net+, MCP W: danfischbach.com P: 609-458-7920 Proud NJIT (BS) and UCF/FIEA (MS) graduate Please consider the environment before printing this email On Jan 28, 2015 6:00 AM, "Coyle, Damien" wrote: > Hi Ian, unfortunately I cannot attend this year. > > Damien > > > > > > [image: Ulster University] > > *Dr Damien Coyle* > > Reader > > School of Computing and Intelligent Systems, > > Faculty of Computing and Engineering, Magee Campus > > *T:* +44 (0)28 7167 5170 > > *E:* dh.coyle at ulster.ac.uk *W:* > http://isrc.ulster.ac.uk/dcoyle/contact.html > > > > > > > > > > *From:* games_access [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] *On Behalf Of > *Ian Hamilton > *Sent:* 28 January 2015 09:21 > *To:* games_access at igda.org > *Subject:* [games_access] Attending GDC > > > > Just checking who on the list is going to be at GDC this year? > > > > I know so far that Michelle, Richard, Tara and Thomas will be there, and > that Matthias can't make it this time. > > > > Ian > > ------------------------------ > > This email and any attachments are confidential and intended solely for > the use of the addressee and may contain information which is covered by > legal, professional or other privilege. If you have received this email in > error please notify the system manager at postmaster at ulster.ac.uk and > delete this email immediately. Any views or opinions expressed are solely > those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Ulster > University. The University's computer systems may be monitored and > communications carried out on them may be recorded to secure the effective > operation of the system and for other lawful purposes. Ulster University > does not guarantee that this email or any attachments are free from viruses > or 100% secure. Unless expressly stated in the body of a separate > attachment, the text of email is not intended to form a binding contract. > Correspondence to and from the University may be subject to requests for > disclosure by 3rd parties under relevant legislation. The University of > Ulster was founded by Royal Charter in 1984 and is registered with company > number RC000726 and VAT registered number GB672390524.The primary contact > address for Ulster University in Northern Ireland is Cromore Road, > Coleraine, Co. Londonderry BT52 1SA > > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > The main SIG website page is http://igda-gasig.org > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image001.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 2962 bytes Desc: not available URL: From i_h at hotmail.com Thu Jan 29 11:36:28 2015 From: i_h at hotmail.com (Ian Hamilton) Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2015 16:36:28 +0000 Subject: [games_access] Accessibility criteria in EU funding Message-ID: For those who don't know about it, the EU runs a creative industries funding programme called Creative Europe. They've just put out their 2015 call for their "Support for the Development of European Video Games" sub-programme, which is an annual fund of ?2.5million available to developers in any EU countries, and as of this year they now use accessibility as one of the assessment criteria they use to decide which studios get the money. So when applying for the funding, studios are now asked to supply details of how they're considering accessibility for people with disabilities. https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/sites/eacea-site/files/guidelines-vg-2015.pdf It's a direct follow on from the Film Victoria and Screen Australia's criteria, both of those were used as case studies. It took a long time and lots of different people to get to this point (as I'm sure anyone who's had any EU involvement can relate to), but if FV and SA are anything to go by it should be worth it, they have both been incredibly successful awareness raisers. And one thing that's particularly nice about this Creative Europe sub-programme is that it defines 'development' as being from conception to first prototype, so it will be encouraging developers to consider accessibility at the very start of the process. Ian -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From thomas at westin.nu Thu Jan 29 13:08:46 2015 From: thomas at westin.nu (Thomas Westin) Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2015 19:08:46 +0100 Subject: [games_access] Accessibility criteria in EU funding In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <5661AD73-EC8B-4D7D-ABA5-2497831EAAB2@westin.nu> This is awesome news, and yes EU bureaucracy can be pretty crazy so I?m really impressed. Best regards, Thomas 29Jan 2015 kl. 17:36 skrev Ian Hamilton : > For those who don't know about it, the EU runs a creative industries funding programme called Creative Europe. > > They've just put out their 2015 call for their "Support for the Development of European Video Games" sub-programme, which is an annual fund of ?2.5million available to developers in any EU countries, and as of this year they now use accessibility as one of the assessment criteria they use to decide which studios get the money. > > So when applying for the funding, studios are now asked to supply details of how they're considering accessibility for people with disabilities. > > https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/sites/eacea-site/files/guidelines-vg-2015.pdf > > It's a direct follow on from the Film Victoria and Screen Australia's criteria, both of those were used as case studies. It took a long time and lots of different people to get to this point (as I'm sure anyone who's had any EU involvement can relate to), but if FV and SA are anything to go by it should be worth it, they have both been incredibly successful awareness raisers. > > And one thing that's particularly nice about this Creative Europe sub-programme is that it defines 'development' as being from conception to first prototype, so it will be encouraging developers to consider accessibility at the very start of the process. > > Ian > _______________________________________________ > games_access mailing list > games_access at igda.org > https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access > The main SIG website page is http://igda-gasig.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: