[games_access] Fwd: Re Canadian Press article

[d. michelle hinn]

And making progress for the current and next gen system is what 
really counts at this stage, without a doubt!

Thanks for your internal efforts, Brannon! One day we'll fully 
realize this accessible games dream!

Michelle

>No worries Michelle. J It's true that Microsoft doesn't currently 
>have much of an accessibility story for the Xbox 360. However, we 
>are making progress!
>
>For those who haven't seen these, here are some links to 
>gaming-related accessibility info from Microsoft:
>
><http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/directx9_c/accessibility_best_practices.asp>http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/directx9_c/accessibility_best_practices.asp
>
><http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/7/b/17b95a7b-968a-4a99-8e49-9bd1074acd6a/Producer%20and%20Business%20Development.zip>http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/7/b/17b95a7b-968a-4a99-8e49-9bd1074acd6a/Producer%20and%20Business%20Development.zip 
>(There is an included PPT presentation in this zip.)
>
>I'm continuing to work with the Xbox division to think more and more 
>about accessibility. In the interim, if anyone you know has 
>questions about Xbox accessibility, please send them to 
><mailto:xaccess at microsoft.com>xaccess at microsoft.com
>
>Thanks,
>Brannon
>
>
>From: games_access-bounces at igda.org 
>[mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf Of d. michelle hinn
>Sent: Tuesday, November 21, 2006 9:53 AM
>To: games_access at igda.org
>Subject: [games_access] Fwd: Re Canadian Press article
>
>Hi all,
>
>Ok...I didn't know that this article was going to be so focused on 
>me. And Reid...I'm sorry games [cc] wasn't on the links. And Robert, 
>I'm sorry that your site wasn't on the list either. And Barrie, and 
>etc, etc, etc. The author found a few overall links. But he's a very 
>nice guy and when we have major updates in the future, we should 
>definitely include him in our PR stuff. He's a good guy to be in 
>touch with for all of us!
>
>And Microsoft is gonna hate me. But I think Brannon (on this list) 
>would also agree that accessibility is a hard sell within gaming, 
>although it was great that he was able to talk about accessibility 
>at Game Fest.
>
>Oh...you know, it's really not easy for me to point out articles 
>that I'm included in. I'm trying to get over it but it took me a 
>while for me to feel ok about forwarding it...
>
><blush>
>
>Michelle
>Your press shy chairperson...
>
>
>To: "'d. michelle hinn'" <hinn at uiuc.edu>
>Subject: Re Canadian Press article
>Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2006 12:27:52 -0500
>
>Hi Michelle
>Our story moved yesterday. I have attached a link showing it on the 
>Sun newspaper chain website up here. Also a copy of the story is 
>below.
>
>Thanks for taking the time to speak to me and for helping with the 
>pictures. I wish you well and hope you will keep me updated on your 
>group. I would be interested in following up.
>
>Regards
>
>Neil Davidson
>
><http://wham.canoe.ca/news/2006/11/20/2430839-cp.html>http://wham.canoe.ca/news/2006/11/20/2430839-cp.html
>
>Michelle Hinn campaigns for more accessibility for disabled gamers 
>(GAMES-Disabled)
>Nov 20, 2006 11:51
>By Neil Davidson
>The Canadian Press
>Game developers take Michelle Hinn's phone calls these days. But 
>they may not always like what she has to say.
>Hinn is chair of a special interest group in game accessibility 
>that's part of the International Game Developers Association. The 
>adjunct professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 
>is passionate about her cause, opening up video gaming to the 
>disabled.
>
>``This is a social justice issue, this is not just a gaming issue,'' 
>Hinn told a seminar at the recent Montreal International Game Summit.
>
>So Hinn campaigns for developers to think about captioning games, 
>allowing controllers to be remapped, offering easier modes of play, 
>better manuals _ and to rethink the kind of titles they make.
>
>The payoff can be rewarding.
>``We have one member who also has mobility impairment and said he 
>was able to dance for the first time in an online role-playing game 
>and that was amazing to him,'' Hinn said in an interview.
>
>Access to gaming can also promote a sense of inclusion, said Hinn, 
>citing the case of a blind gamer who just wanted to be able to say 
>to a friend ```Yeah, I got such and such score on that, what did you 
>get?'''
>
>``So we're no longer talking about `oh, this is my friend who has a 
>disability.' It's `this is my friend that just kicked my butt in 
>this game,''' said Hinn. ``It's a very interesting and very powerful 
>social tool, I think.''
>
>Part of her group's job is also to share information and tips _ and 
>to correct false assumptions.
>Hinn's group has been active as a fully fledged special interest 
>group for about four years now. She speaks to major gaming 
>conferences and works behind the scenes with console manufacturers 
>and game developers.
>
>While there is much more work to be done, the developers now know who she is.
>``Yes, I'm getting e-mails back from people, like Will Wright who 
>created The Sims,'' Hinn said, with a slight sense of disbelief.
>
>And there have been success stories. Hinn points to such enlightened 
>developers as Namco and Valve, which after getting complaints 
>offered full captioning on the hit game Half-Life 2.
>
>In some cases, it's a matter of convincing developers that thinking 
>of the disabled does not have to mean not including game features 
>but rather new ways to access these features. And to have them think 
>out of the box.
>
>Hinn cites the game DEMOR for the vision-impaired _ imagine a 
>sophisticated pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey game that uses GPS. She 
>also notes that games that only call for one button, currently 
>popular in cellphone games, have been used by quadriplegic gamers 
>``forever.''
>
>
>
>Hinn's group is also trying new ways to get developers involved. One 
>of the current projects is dubbed Accessibility Idol and involves 
>inviting some big-name developers to show up at the Game Developers 
>Conference with an idea for a game for the mobility-impaired.
>
>``We're thinking of an avid gamer who was in an accident and is now 
>quadriplegic and loves to play games and loves to play games with 
>his friends who don't have disabilities,'' Hinn explained.
>
>Many developers are astounded at the lengths that people will go to 
>play their game. At GDC, they showed developer David Perry footage 
>of a quadriplegic gamer playing The Matrix: Path of Neo using a quad 
>controller that uses ``sip and puff'' tubes to control the action.
>
>``The look on his face was astounding,'' Hinn said of Perry. 
>``Because it's touching when you see something that you've created 
>and see what someone does in order to access your game because they 
>think that it's so important to their lives.''
>
>``I think it really puts some things into perspective of what kind 
>of impact the gaming industry has on people's psychological 
>well-being.''
>
>Hinn's unpaid game accessibility work is piggybacked on top of an 
>already busy schedule. She teaches courses on video game design at 
>the University of Illinois and runs a ``living-learning community,'' 
>which she explains is like a small college within the university for 
>women majoring in math, science and engineering.
>
>Hinn, who has a BA in music performance, a B.Sc. in psychology and 
>MA in multimedia in design, was recently named one of the ``Game 
>Industry's 100 Most Influential Women'' by the online magazine Next 
>Generation.
>
>``I'm always looking for injustice and trying to do research that in 
>some ways helps,'' Hinn explained. ``OK, maybe this is not the most 
>important issue in the universe but for some people it is.''
>
>Hinn has dealt with problems of her own. She is dyslexic, although 
>she wasn't diagnosed until she was about to graduate from 
>undergraduate school.
>
>``I guess I felt a kind of personal tug in my heart, knowing I had 
>somehow gotten through school with good grades despite having this 
>reading disability.''
>
>``Then later I started developing a condition that gives me chronic 
>pain. It just happens here and there and so I've become more aware 
>in recent years of my own body kind of shutting down on itself and 
>the importance of having things to do when that happens, I mean who 
>wants to just sit there with nothing to do?''
>
>The term disabled run the gamut _ from vision-, hearing- and 
>mobility-impaired issues to those caused by aging, genetics or 
>accidents.
>
>Hinn says she gets e-mails all the times from parents or doctors 
>asking about how to get hold of a certain controller.
>``Those are the heartbreaker e-mails,'' she said. ``You hate that's 
>what brought a parent into the field but if we can help, just keep a 
>child from being depressed, helping them feel more included in the 
>world and in touch with friend groups, if more online multiplayer 
>games were more accessible, that would open up a huge range of 
>social possibilities.''
>
>``We're always talking about bad things that happen on the web and 
>online games but that's one of the positives, no one knows you're 
>disabled online.''
>
>But the sands are ever shifting. Progress is made on one console, 
>only to have a new one come out with new challenges for disabled 
>gamers.
>
>Hinn, who once worked as an intern at Microsoft, sees progress among 
>independent developers but says the larger console manufacturers 
>have lagged behind.
>
>``Microsoft had not done very much which is disappointing ... 
>because they have done a lot with accessibility with regards to 
>their operating systems and other programs but when it comes to 
>gaming not so much. And the same with Sony and Nintendo, although I 
>think Nintendo has more of an understanding, especially games for 
>the elderly with games like Brain Age, etc.''
>
>Each small victory is savoured by Hinn, whose passion shines through.
>``I've always been an advocate of social justice and that's why I'm 
>involved in a lot of programs that help foster women in the game 
>industry and women in technology,'' she explained.
>
>
>
>``So yeah. the pay's not so great but it feels worthy, for me it's 
>the right choice.
>___
>For more information, visit:
>_ www.igda.org/accessibility 
><<http://www.igda.org/accessibility>http://www.igda.org/accessibility>
>_ www.gameaccessibility.com 
><<http://www.gameaccessibility.com>http://www.gameaccessibility.com>
>_ www.deafgamers.com <<http://www.deafgamers.com>http://www.deafgamers.com>
>_ www.audiogames.net <<http://www.audiogames.net>http://www.audiogames.net>
>
>
>
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