Taking ownership of gaming and disability

Who Gets to Play? Disability, Open Literacy, Gaming

“…The difficulty with this focus on players with disabilities and games that are primarily educational or therapeutic is that they tend to frame players with disabilities as "treatment-receiving objects" (Wästerfors & Hansson, 2017, p. 1143. They also reinforce the notion of what Robert McRuer describes as compulsory ablebodiedness (McRuer, 2006).…”

“…The participants are predefined as in need of training, and no consideration is given to any personal interest in these games or meaningconstructing practice around them. (Wästerfors & Hansson, 2017, p. 1144 This consequently provides a rather limited understanding of how players with disabilities form a part of the wider gaming demographic. Heron argues that such limited views run the risk of pigeonholing players with disabilities into "gaming ghettos" where they are closed off from the wider gaming market and culture (2012, p. 30).…”

“…For example, players with visual impairments compensate by relying on audio cues from the game itself, signals from teammates using a voice-based chat program, or employ in-game options to adjust the colour and size of visual cues to make them more clearly visible (Lim & Nardi, 2011). Depending on the nature of the game and the needs of the player, some of these work arounds can be as simple as using an extra bench or large ball for stability (Wästerfors, 2011, p. 343), while other players remap the controls or reconfigure their gaming setups to enable them to play with their feet (Wästerfors & Hansson, 2017, p. 1154. Many also rely on the use of third party extensions, accessories or equipment to facilitate their play.…”

“…Players with severe motor impairments, for example, can employ the use of gaze-based interfaces which, although limited in some ways, still offer the ability for such players to engage in gaming as a social activity without the need to disclose their disability (Istance, Vickers, & Hyrskykari, 2009). Some of the workarounds described by Wästerfors and Hansson (2017) indicate a complex literacy, wherein the player not only exhibits a detailed knowledge of their own capabilities and needs, but also a high level of technical proficiency and gaming knowledge. These are also examples of how players manage what Wästerfors and Hansson term "disability stickiness", that is "disability as something that is socially constructed in ways that makes it difficult to disengage from" (Wästerfors & Hansson, 2017, p. 1156.…”

“…Some of the workarounds described by Wästerfors and Hansson (2017) indicate a complex literacy, wherein the player not only exhibits a detailed knowledge of their own capabilities and needs, but also a high level of technical proficiency and gaming knowledge. These are also examples of how players manage what Wästerfors and Hansson term "disability stickiness", that is "disability as something that is socially constructed in ways that makes it difficult to disengage from" (Wästerfors & Hansson, 2017, p. 1156. In addition to being selective about the games they play, players with disabilities also need to negotiate and manage assumptions made by non-disabled people in regards to their abilities:…”