[games_access] Nintendo Wii issue. Controller.

Tue Nov 28 15:05:20 EST 2006

I've been trying to come up with a fake game submission for
Accessibility Idol. The only one I came up with was a game that used a
camera and forced players to learn sign language to do things in the
game. The game would use the camera to translate the hand motions into
game actions.

The "joke" was supposed to be on the "fake designer" who didn't
understand what was meant by "an accessible game". The fake designer
thought it dealt with issues of disabilities and not making the game
playable by others with disabilities.

If I get my hands on a Wii, I'll see if I can do something like the above idea.

-Reid

On 11/25/06, Robert Florio <arthit73 at cablespeed.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> I just started looking at the Nintendo Wii.  Michelle made a great point in
> the article recently
>
>
>
> http://wham.canoe.ca/news/2006/11/20/2430839-cp.html .
>
>
>
> Now that were trying to make some progress with the current consoles new
> ones are popping up.  If they don't get our point in the first one there not
> translating to the second consoles especially the new Nintendo Wii. I
> started thinking about this looking at the new commercials sword fighting in
> gunfighting jumping behind couches and one of the commercials.  There's no
> way I'd be able to ever play with this controller because it takes two hands
> and for someone who can even use their fingers is virtually almost
> impossible.
>
>
>
> I think for the accessibility idle at GDC should have somebody present a
> totally non- accessible game with that controller for the NintendoWii new
> system  that is out now just to serve a point.
>
>
>
> Robert
>
> www.RobertFlorio.com
>
>
>
>  ________________________________
>
>
> 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 8:02 PM
>  To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List
>  Subject: Re: [games_access] Fwd: Re Canadian Press article
>
>
>
>
> 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://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 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
>
>
> 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>
>  _ www.gameaccessibility.com
> <http://www.gameaccessibility.com>
>  _ www.deafgamers.com <http://www.deafgamers.com>
>  _ www.audiogames.net <http://www.audiogames.net>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>  _______________________________________________
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>  games_access at igda.org
>  http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access
>
>
>
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