[games_access] UA-Chess: An accessible Web-based chess game

[Dimitris Grammenos]

Hello everyone,

 

I am sending you this e-mail to inform you about an accessible game
(UA-Chess, www.ics.forth.gr/uachess) that is freely available on the web.

 

UA-Chess is a fully-functional 2-player chess game, developed by the Centre
for Universal Access & Assistive Technologies of ICS-FORTH. UA-Chess can be
played through a standard Web browser. Its distinctive characteristic is
that it is designed to be Universally Accessible, i.e., it can be
concurrently played by people with different abilities and preferences,
including people with disabilities (e.g., low-vision, blind and hand-motor
impaired).

 

This is achieved by supporting alternative input and output modalities and
interaction techniques that can co-exist and co-operate in the game's user
interface, combined with fully customizable player profiles. Every aspect of
the game's functionality is accessible through the mouse, the keyboard (or
any type of switches emulating keystrokes) and speech recognition. UA-Chess
has self-voicing capabilities, since it includes a built-in screen reader
that offers full auditory access to every part of it. Additionally, the game
can be sized according to user preference and zoomed in and out at different
levels. Finally, several alternative interaction techniques (the parameters
of which can be customized) are supported for each device. For example, the
keyboard can be used for direct positional input (e.g., to select the square
A7 by typing 'A7'), for 'tabbing' though all the alternative interaction
elements, or in combination with different types of scanning. The
interaction capabilities of UA-Chess allow it to provide access to people
with combinations of disabilities, as for example blind hand-motor impaired
persons. 

 

UA-Chess allows for two-player games over the Internet, as well as games
with two opponents sharing the same computer, where the game's user
interface (input and output) is adapted to the active player's profile. The
game follows the official Laws of Chess, as these are set by the World Chess
Federation.

 

UA-Chess was developed using Macromedia Flash MX Professional 7. Speech
recognition and synthesis is supported through the use of Speech Application
Language Tags (SALT) technology.

 

UA-Chess can be found on-line at: www.ics.forth.gr/uachess

 

On-line you will also find a detailed user manual in different formats
(html, pdf, txt).

 

 

We would greatly appreciate your feedback about the game.

 

 

For further information regarding UA-Chess, please contact:

 

Dimitris Grammenos

 

Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH)
Institute of Computer Science (ICS)
Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory
Centre for Universal Access and Assistive Technologies
Heraklion, Crete
GR - 70013 Greece

 

email:  <mailto:gramenos at ics.forth.gr> gramenos at ics.forth.gr
Tel: +30-2810-391755
Fax: +30-2810-391740 

 

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist7.pair.net/pipermail/games_access/attachments/20041216/8fe16615/attachment.htm>