Playing Blind

Abstract

Previous research on games for people with visual impairment (PVI) has focused on co-designing or evaluating specific games-mostly under controlled conditions. In this research, we follow a game-agnostic, "in-the-wild" approach, investigating the habits, opinions and concerns of PVI regarding digital games. To explore these issues, we conducted an online survey and follow-up interviews with gamers with VI (GVI). Dominant themes from our analysis include the particular appeal of digital games to GVI, the importance of social trajectories and histories of gameplay, the need to balance complexity and accessibility in both games targeted to PVI and mainstream games, opinions about the state of the gaming industry, and accessibility concerns around new and emerging technologies such as VR and AR. Our study gives voice to an underrepresented group in the gaming community. Understanding the practices, experiences and motivations of GVI provides a valuable foundation for informing development of more inclusive games. CCS CONCEPTS • Social and professional topics → People with disabilities; • Applied computing → Computer games;

Exploring Asymmetric Roles in Mixed-Ability Gaming

“…People with disabilities are used to playing games that are exclusively designed for them [1,3,62]. Similar to mainstream games, the specifc targeting does not consider the interplay between abilities and/or preferences.…”

“…The lack of intersection leads to isolated communities based on abilities [16]. For example, audio games 1 are almost exclusively played by people with visual impairments. These games are typically designed disregarding the stereotypical needs of sighted people (i.e.…”

“…Despite the availability of a wide variety of accessible games, mixed-ability gaming contexts remain a challenge. Either games cannot be independently played by people with disabilities [45,62], or games that account for their abilities do not generate enough interest from others with diferent sets of abilities [1,16]. In gaming, we are at a point where it is important to fnd ways to ensure inclusive experiences, ways that envision mixed-ability interaction as an opportunity, rather than a limitation [12].…”

“…We focused on mixed-visualability scenarios, thus one role did not require vision and was designed around demanding auditory challenges, while the other focused on visual tasks. Past research has found how often games that strive to be accessible, do so by simplifying games, leading players to quickly lose interest [1]. Furthermore, the feeling of unfairness is typically a barrier in mixed-visual-ability gaming experiences [16].…”

Making Mobile Augmented Reality Applications Accessible

“…For instance, screen readers have been developed to make graphical user interfaces and windowing systems accessible [6,44]. We believe we are now at a critical time in the development of AR, where we can think ahead about how to make sure that AR applications are accessible to everyone as they are emerging [2,42].…”