An Approach to Accessible Serious Games for People with Dyslexia

Abstract

Dyslexia is a cognitive disorder that affects the evolutionary ability to read, write, and speak in people, affecting the correct learning of a large percentage of the population worldwide. In fact, incorrect learning is caused because the educational system does not take into consideration the accessibility parameters that people with dyslexia need to maintain a sustainable educational level equal to others. Moreover, the use of mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, has been deployed in education programs, offering many benefits; however, the lack of accessibility of those devices creates new barriers to students with dyslexia that hinder their education. With the aim of reducing these barriers, this paper presents an approach to the development of accessible serious games games for children with dyslexia. As a case study, a serious game based on a previously proposed serious game development method and a new set of accessibility guidelines for people with dyslexia is presented. The main purpose of the serious video game is to improve the treatment of dyslexia, through the collection of data obtained from two puzzles designed to train certain cognitive areas that affect this disability. This article has a double contribution: on the one hand, the guidelines and the method that can help video game developers and therapists to develop accessible serious games for people with dyslexia and, on the other hand, the two specific serious games that can be used by therapists, family members and people with dyslexia themselves.

«Let’s Go Deep into the Game to Save Our Planet!» How an Immersive and Educational Video Game Reduces Psychological Distance and Raises Awareness

“…Additionally, as mentioned earlier, an immersive experience seems to have a real utility in reducing the psychological distance perceived by an individual. Despite the lack of descriptive studies on this subject, the use of serious games whose design "serves to improve skills, adapt to an environment, understand a phenomenon or better adhere to a message" [59] while maintaining the codes of video games, offers this possibility and is a mean of learning [60][61][62][63][64]. Serious games are distinguished into two categories: educational games where "the learning objective is implicit" and pedagogical games where "the learning objective is explicit" [65].…”

Visualization and Interaction Technologies in Serious and Exergames for Cognitive Assessment and Training: A Survey on Available Solutions and Their Validation

“…In the first case, the user is required to handle a device and apply a physical pressure to a surface to trigger events. Whereas, in the second case, [2], [4], [5], [7], [10], [11], [18], [22], [24], [25], [28], [30], [34], [45], [51], [53], [60]- [121] 79 Mobile devices [13], [16], [19], [26], [31], [36], [37], [39], [41], [43], [44], [59],…”

“…Immediate feedback after actions can also be useful, as it could help the users knowing when they succeeded or failed and why, recognizing their errors, recovering strategies, reducing their frustration and increasing their motivation. To this purpose, multimodal feedback are often provided, through congratulation messages, hints or events, like objects disappearing if correctly selected or sounds of clapping hands to highlight the correctness of a given answer [4]- [6], [13], [20], [41], [43], [50], [57], [59], [106], [112], [125], [133], [162], [208], [210]- [212]. Finally, since the benefits of cognitive training might only be noticed in the long term, healthy competition is greatly appreciated as it can positively affect patients psychological well-being and promote social networking.…”

Reading Acquisition Software for Portuguese: Preliminary Results

“…It can be used as a tool to reinforce the teaching process and provide enriching learning contexts for its users [26]. Most children with learning disabilities can be successful in reading acquisition with the help of a tutor or a specialized teaching program [33]. Emotional support also plays an important role for these children while dealing with learning disabilities [33].…”

“…Most children with learning disabilities can be successful in reading acquisition with the help of a tutor or a specialized teaching program [33]. Emotional support also plays an important role for these children while dealing with learning disabilities [33]. Several studies have shown that children prefer playing a "fun" computer game than performing a "boring" exercise [34].…”