Game changer

Johnson, Gabriella M.; Kane, Shaun K.

doi:10.1145/3371300.3383347

Cited by 17 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…All these cognitive tasks intensify the game's complexity and tend to hinder playability, especially for players who are BLV. This was also discussed in Johnson et al's study [62] where novice participants experienced difficulties in learning and remembering the rules of a game they were playing for the first time.…”

Section: Inaccessibility Of Boardgame Rulebooksmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…Hence, some researchers adapted existing games and included interactivity to make tangible games more accessible. For example, Game Changer [62] is a system that combined tactile markers on game elements and audio feedback to make games accessible for BLV players. The system consisted of an overhead camera to track the game pieces and an attached keypad that could be used to query the game state, which is conveyed through audio via headphones to the BLV player.…”

Section: Inaccessibility Of Boardgame Componentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although results show these adaptation techniques to have been advantageous in removing accessibility barriers for a given tangible game, most tangible games still remain inaccessible [62]. Moreover, these efforts are only limited to game components and do not address the barriers associated with game rule learning for players who are BLV.…”

Section: Inaccessibility Of Boardgame Componentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even with more technological advancements in the digital domain, traditional boardgames have survived and served as a popular social activity for all, including people with disabilities [47,62]. Boardgames, also referred to as tangible games or tabletop games, include a wide variety of games that are played on a flat surface using physical components including, but not limited to, dice, cards, tokens, paper, and pencils.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Accessibility refers to the design of products, services, or environments for all intended audiences, including people with and without disabilities [78]. Inaccessible boardgames mean individual game elements (e.g., a physical board, game pieces, and cards) along the dimensions of text, color, sound, and touch cannot be processed by players who are blind or low vision (hereafter, BLV) [37,62]. For instance, players who are BLV have a difficult time reading Dungeons and Dragons game cards because these cards use a decorative font style designed to highlight the game's fantasy theme.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring Accessibility and Companionship in Boardgames via Alexa

Karim¹

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The inaccessibility of rulebooks hinders the rule learning experience of boardgame players who are blind or low vision (BLV). We explore the design of conversational agents (CAs) to support players' learning needs and provide companionship by conducting two qualitative studies. In study 1, 14 boardgame players who are BLV first identified their rule learning challenges and co-designed desired social and functional characteristics of CAs to combat these challenges. Based on these findings, we developed a CA using Amazon Alexa and 9 players who are BLV evaluated our CA in study 2. Our findings generated five design principles for CAs to support boardgame rule learning: conciseness, ease of navigation, customization, supplementary features, and social characteristics. These principles guide designers and researchers in exploring the novel design space. Our research also demonstrates the feasibility of our method for conducting accessible remote co-design and evaluation with participants who are BLV.First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Audrey Girouard, who took me under her guidance, taught me to trust my abilities, and gave me an opportunity to work on something I feel strongly passionate about. Without your guidance and trust, I would not be able to come this far.I would also like to thank everyone at the Creative Interactions Lab. I could not have asked for a better team who is always eager to help and contribute. In particular, I would like to thank Dr. Jin Kang for always having my back and supporting me in every way possible. Thank you for guiding me throughout this journey, cheering me up with your words of encouragement, and spoiling me with those cookies. I am grateful for your extensive hard work and support. I would also offer my thanks to Dr. Karen Cochrane for her thoughtful guidance and problem-solving skills. My special thanks to Leon Lu and Adrian Bolesnikov, for sharing their experiences and ideas at different stages in my journey.I am also thankful for the support that I received from NSERC through the READi program, where I learned in depth about accessibility research, and got a chance to apply it in practice with my wonderful READi ATP team.My eternal thanks to my family and friends for their immense support through and through. To my mother, for inspiring me to follow my dreams and for her unconditional love. To my niece Zoey, the light of my life, for her big smiles and virtual hugs. To my brother and sister-in-law for their support while I navigate my way into a new country. To my friends, who make Ottawa feel like home. And finally, to my partner Ali, for being the biggest source of strength and support in difficult times. Thank you for sticking by my side and celebrating all the big and small wins along.Finally, I am immensely grateful to my participants for sharing their time, insights, and experiences with me.

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Section: Inaccessibility Of Boardgame Rulebooksmentioning

confidence: 90%

Section: Inaccessibility Of Boardgame Componentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Inaccessibility Of Boardgame Componentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring Accessibility and Companionship in Boardgames via Alexa

Karim¹

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Games, Business, and Gamers: How to Facilitate a Game Accessibility Transition across the Gaming Ecosystem?

Hassan,

Buttler,

Vesa

2024

Palgrave Studies in Business, Arts and Humanities

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Game accessibility for visually impaired people: a review

Agrimi,

Battaglini,

Bottari

et al. 2024

Soft Comput

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Playing games is an important way to promote the integration, inclusion, and socialization of participants. This is especially the case of persons with disabilities, such as visually impaired people. Unfortunately, very few games are accessible to such persons. Hopefully, in many digital games, this accessibility can be enabled in principle by assistive technologies, such as screen readers. The aim of this work consists in reviewing the recent literature on game accessibility for people with visual impairment and discussing benefits, limitations, and possible improvements of currently available accessibility solutions. After providing a definition of visual impairment and describing its relationship with gaming, the work reviews general techniques for designing more accessible games. Subsequently, it focuses on specific techniques based on replacing visual stimuli with auditory stimuli (e.g., sonification and sound-source simulation), also presenting some recently proposed sonification-mapping strategies. Then, the application of machine-learning techniques to the development of accessible interfaces for online versions of board games is illustrated by a recent case study. Finally, a discussion and some conclusions are provided, with a particular focus on policy implications of improvements in game accessibility for visually impaired people.

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Game changer

Cited by 17 publications

References 19 publications

Exploring Accessibility and Companionship in Boardgames via Alexa

Exploring Accessibility and Companionship in Boardgames via Alexa

Games, Business, and Gamers: How to Facilitate a Game Accessibility Transition across the Gaming Ecosystem?

Game accessibility for visually impaired people: a review

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