[games_access] games_access Digest, Vol 163, Issue 23

Ian Hamilton i_h at hotmail.com
Thu Mar 23 12:13:19 EDT 2017 

First step is for SIG actions is for someone who 1. is really passionate about the idea and 2. has enough spare time to manage/coordinate other volunteers to put their hand up to lead it. Any takers?

If there's someone who wants to lead they can then pull together a group of people who want to work on it (the mailing list being an ideal place to find people to work with), and choose a means of communication that best suits the needs that group.

The general day to day chat about details of initiatives/actions is usually kept off the mailing list, to save the groaning inboxes of folk not working on it.

Quick summary -

As Chad said, at the round table there was some chat about EA's email / twitter mechanism for gathering feedback on accessibility issues across all of their games, which then go into a database for dissemination to the various EA studios (all set up and managed by Karen Stevens). Microsoft also do something similar, for accessibility feedback about the console itself.

Some of the people at the round table were discussing the idea of applying that concept at a broader level, in a similar way to fixtheweb: https://youtu.be/_g991EZE4bI. So a straightforward simple form to send feedback to, and some way for studios/publishers to either access the data themselves or have the data sent to them.

The problems it is trying to solve are:

- Most studios/publishers not having a dedicated route for accessibility feedback
- Due to both this and lack of knowledge of platform/publisher/studio setup, gamers often not knowing where to send feedback to
- When gamers do provide feedback, it often not being well structured or actionable (e.g. "your game doesn't work for people with disabilities" "can you make it work for people who are blind please")

Again the various SIG actions/initiatives are all self initiated and mostly self managed, so just need someone to lead it.

Ian



On Thu, Mar 23, 2017 at 3:21 PM +0000, "Selwyn Lloyd" <selwyn at audazzle.com<mailto:selwyn at audazzle.com>> wrote:

Hello games access group,

I haven't tried slack, but from what I just read, its more for realtime conversations / team / group activity. I didn't attend GDC which is where I guess the conversation began. I can see how you'd use it to get a steady conversation going.

The reason I still suggest a "stack overflow" site was it develops over time and its more open, seems better for initiatives that need a crowd to evolve from a group.  Provides an industry focus for pertinent Questions and Answers, (smiling :- with a sprinkle of opinion and a dash of competitive ego).

The other reason I felt something like stack shapes up well is that mailing lists are very "hidden web" by nature and of course I mean private from those not on the list. By the way, I have no idea how to access our conversations and find the email format hard to follow.

If stack is not accessible then I'd thought of a second suggestion to the group here... being to set up a mediawiki where contributors need to be registered.

Audazzle find mediawiki really accessible with good search tools and an active development community. Its a little terse to start with, i.e. you need to learn how to interpret the documentation but quite simple once you've got going.

While it seems we'd have to jump through hoops to set up an instance of stack overflow dedicated to the games accessibility industry... I could set up and host the media wiki this afternoon if enough in the group say YES.

So if I get 5 YES's for trying out a mediawiki I will do it and send each person who gives a YES a username and password, we can give it a shot and start sharing problems, questions, results etc.

Cheers

Selwyn









Mobile: 07979240124
skype: selwyn_lloyd

www.audazzle.com<http://www.audazzle.com/>

Audazzle are developing inclusive and accessible multi-player games. We hope to impact social isolation. Our aim is to make video game technologies that meet diverse accessibility needs. Nobody should get left out because of technology, all friends and family members should be able to play games together.



On Wed, Mar 22, 2017 at 4:25 PM, <games_access-request at igda.org<mailto:games_access-request at igda.org>> wrote:
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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: Accessibility Feedback Tool (Chad Philip Johnson)
   2. Re: Accessibility Feedback Tool (Chad Elstad)


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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2017 08:01:40 -0700
From: Chad Philip Johnson <chad at anacronist.com<mailto:chad at anacronist.com>>
To: <games_access at igda.org<mailto:games_access at igda.org>>
Subject: Re: [games_access] Accessibility Feedback Tool
Message-ID: <cc1aafdd-da8f-2ee8-07d5-6a2938dff518 at anacronist.com<mailto:cc1aafdd-da8f-2ee8-07d5-6a2938dff518 at anacronist.com>>
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It was just an idea that came up at the accessibility roundtable that a
lot of people liked.  The core idea is that players have a single place
where they can provide accessibility feedback to publishers and
developers (and maybe academia too) for the games that they play.
Beyond that, we're still working out how it should work, hence the need
for a Slack channel or some equivalent service.

Chad Philip Johnson
Anacronist Software

On 03/21/2017 07:14 PM, Chad Elstad wrote:
> What is an Accessibility Feedback tool? I did not make it to GDC,
> however, I am very interested in accessibility in gaming as well as
> the web.
>
> On Mar 21, 2017 12:34 PM, "Kari Hattner (Hangar 13 Games)"
> <Kari.Hattner at hangar13games.com<mailto:Kari.Hattner at hangar13games.com>> wrote:
>
>     Not sure about others, but most of those types of communication
>     tools are blocked in my organization (e.g. Google docs, Slack,
>     online storage like Dropbox, Box, etc.), so for the accessibility
>     tool itself, I think we would need an actual database/website that
>     could be logged into.
>
>     For the collaboration of the development of the tool itself, I
>     think Slack or Google Hangouts/Docs would be useful.
>
>     *From:* games_access [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org<mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org>] *On
>     Behalf Of *Chad Philip Johnson
>     *Sent:* Monday, March 20, 2017 6:57 PM
>     *To:* games_access at igda.org<mailto:games_access at igda.org>
>     *Subject:* Re: [games_access] Accessibility Feedback Tool
>
>     I was poking around the net tonight looking for a collaboration
>     tool that we could use to start putting some ideas together for
>     the accessibility feedback tool, but couldn't really find much.
>
>     A Slack channel would be ideal, but we're going to lose people who
>     prefer to use different services, or who need to sign up for a new
>     service (even if it's free).  Google Docs is the only service I
>     know of where people can participate in a shared workspace without
>     needing a special account.
>
>     So we could create a document or spreadsheet serving as a
>     transcript of sorts, share it with the world, and then let people
>     contribute their ideas, but that's going to be clunky and may not
>     go very far.
>
>     I do have a special folder in my email where I'm keeping track of
>     everybody's ideas, so it may just be best to post them to the
>     mailing list and go from there.
>
>     Chad Philip Johnson
>
>     Anacronist Software
>
>
>
>     On 03/09/2017 07:13 AM, Gemma Thomson wrote:
>
>         Hello all,
>
>         Further to the SIG roundtable at GDC (and in the sincere hopes
>         I?m not jumping any guns here), I?d like to follow up in
>         regard to the notion of an accessibility feedback tool. For
>         those who weren?t present: a few of us got to talking about a
>         feedback form and/or database of accessibility feedback,
>         flowing from game players to game developers and publishers. A
>         few ideas flew around, such as:
>
>         ?having said database hosted by this SIG, in the interest of
>         sharing knowledge amongst industry;
>
>         ?keeping the tool open for indies and large studios alike by
>         way of an easy deployment tool (examples might include
>         presskit() <http://dopresskit.com/> or distribute()
>         <https://dodistribute.com/>, primarily from Vlambeer)
>
>         ?having this start as a relatively small-scale project, not
>         least to ascertain how much work it would actually take to
>         maintain.
>
>         As a relative newcomer to the SIG and this mailing list I?m
>         not entirely sure how these things are usually done, but if
>         there?s a project team to be made then I?d like to help where
>         I can, and lend some ?indie? input! Perhaps a bunch of us
>         could get together in a Slack channel or something?
>
>         Also as I say, I apologise if I?ve jumped a gun and there are
>         perhaps minutes from the roundtable yet to come.
>
>         Thanks!
>
>         ~ Gemma
>
>
>
>
>         _______________________________________________
>
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>
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>
>         https://pairlist7.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access
>
>         The main SIG website page ishttp://igda-gasig.org<http://igda-gasig.org>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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Message: 2
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2017 11:25:27 -0500
From: Chad Elstad <chad at smartmarbles.com<mailto:chad at smartmarbles.com>>
To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List <games_access at igda.org<mailto:games_access at igda.org>>
Subject: Re: [games_access] Accessibility Feedback Tool
Message-ID: <6152ff0c-0002-4bbc-a0b1-feb4797be5b4 at email.android.com<mailto:6152ff0c-0002-4bbc-a0b1-feb4797be5b4 at email.android.com>>
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