[games_access] New Member and thoughts about legislation

[hinn at uiuc.edu]

Cool! This is awesome! If anything we need more programmers so if you know any like-minded colleagues, I'm sure Eelke would love to have them join us as well! 

---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2007 19:48:06 -0800
>From: "Eelke Folmer" <eelke.folmer at gmail.com>  
>Subject: Re: [games_access] New Member and thoughts about legislation  
>To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" <games_access at igda.org>
>
>Hi Mike,
>
>More programmers in this SIG that can actually help games make
>accessible are always welcome! If you are interested in helping me
>with some small accessibility programming jobs shoot me an email
>offline. I have a bunch of students working for me already but since
>I'm thinking of new accessible game projects at a faster rate than my
>students are able to finish I could use the help. ;-)
>
>Cheers Eelke
>
>On 04/12/2007, Michael Ellison <devellison at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Greetings again,
>>    I think I managed to mail the bounce folder directly the first
>> time, thanks for catching that Michelle!
>>
>> I'm gonna back out of the legislation/petition discussion for now.
>>
>> As far as why the game industry, and the software industry as a whole,
>> don't currently make their products accessible - here's the reasons I
>> see:
>> 1.) It's expensive, and the relative financial return on investment is
>> small.  Same reason why there aren't many games ported to Macintosh or
>> Linux.
>> 2.) We don't know how, or aren't aware of the specific problems our
>> products may present to each type of disability.  I've worked on
>> products where all the indicators were little circles of different
>> colors.  Changing them to be different shapes as well as different
>> colors took about 5 minutes, but the original implementors hadn't ever
>> thought about anyone having difficulty telling the difference between
>> green, yellow, and red circles and no one had complained.  Someone
>> just had to point out the problem and provide an easy solution.
>>
>> Here's my thoughts on solutions to the above. I don't know if I'm
>> adding anything new idea-wise, but as an engineer looking for ways to
>> help I'm still currently looking for a problem to solve ;)
>>
>> 1.) First, solve any problems that can be solved by third-party
>> software for multiple games.  This is where you'll get the most bang
>> for the buck, and it means you get benefit from it now on multiple
>> products. It also provides examples for the software industry to
>> follow on what actually works.  I don't know what the problems that
>> are left in this category are right now - I see a lot of specialist
>> software to solve different accessibility problems, but I don't know
>> what works and what doesn't or what's been left out.
>>
>> 2.) Second, make generic libraries that can be integrated by game
>> developers that provide those functions as easily and transparently as
>> possible - and preferably make them open and free for the developers
>> to use using BSD-style licenses (not GPL ones).  If possible, get
>> these libraries integrated with the big game development libraries
>> like Miles Sound System, Microsoft's DirectX and XBox SDKs, Sony's
>> SDKs, etc. so that any new major game gets the features for free.  The
>> cheaper and easier it is for game developers to make their games
>> accessible, the more likely they will.
>>
>> 3.) Third, keep doing what ya'll are doing for awareness. It got me
>> here, others will come.  I do think that specifically targetting Open
>> Source groups will get you a lot of mileage in the long run, although
>> there will be a lot of false starts in the process (fair warning: when
>> people are doing things for free in their spare time, the stuff can
>> get derailed easily by events in the individuals' lives. Try not to
>> get too frustrated by this. Best defense against it is to get multiple
>> people working together on projects so that leadership can be
>> transferred if a problem arises).
>>
>> 4.) Finally, keep trying to change the design process of video games
>> to be more inclusive to those with disabilities.  As you already know,
>> this part will be extremely hard in a lot of cases, and it will affect
>> the game as a whole for everyone. In a lot of cases there will be
>> tradeoffs between accessibility and normal gameplay that require a lot
>> of thought and time.  The fact that most development efforts are
>> *already* behind schedule, over budget, and are throwing out features
>> they wanted left and right won't help.  It's definitely worth doing,
>> I'm glad ya'll are doing it, but I think it's the hardest and slowest
>> avenue.
>>
>> I'd like to have a shot at my #1 up there. If it looks like I'm doing
>> something useful and enjoying it, I'll toss around the idea for #2
>> (libraries) and see if I can find others interested in it as well.
>>
>> So, what software would be useful?
>>
>> I've taken a look at the QuadController, but aside from pictures and
>> video I don't have any experience with it.  It looks like the PC
>> version installs as a native game device with one joystick, some
>> toggles, and a few buttons. It also looks like they've got some form
>> of Joystick->Mouse emulation available for it that could work both
>> with games and with normal applications.
>>
>> What are the common hurdles you currently face interacting with modern
>> games that existing hardware and software don't fix? Are there
>> problems still around that could be generalized and solved by external
>> software for multiple games?  I can put just about any kind of
>> interface up inside modern PC games and/or reroute just about any kind
>> of input switches you can throw at me into any other kind of input or
>> output.  I may be able to slow down or change the rendering behavior
>> of a lot of modern PC games, but it'll depend on how they're written.
>>
>> Let me know if there's something I can do that'd be useful.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Mike Ellison
>> _______________________________________________
>> games_access mailing list
>> games_access at igda.org
>> http://seven.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/games_access
>>
>
>
>-- 
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Eelke Folmer                           Assistant Professor
>Department of CS&E/171
>University of Nevada              Reno, Nevada 89557
>Game interaction design        www.helpyouplay.com
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.......................................
these are mediocre times and people are 
losing hope. it's hard for many people 
to believe that there are extraordinary 
things inside themselves, as well as 
others. i hope you can keep an open 
mind.
 -- "unbreakable"
.......................................