[games_access] Happy Seasons Greetings/New Years/Etc!

[d. michelle hinn]

Hi all,

I'm about to head out (tomorrow morning) for about 10 days of travel 
from Champaign, IL to Detroit, MI then to Tampa, Florida (the colder 
norther part, not the 365 days/year warm parts), back to Detroit, and 
then back to exciting Champaign-Urbana before the new year hits. I 
won't google up a "how this translates to European travel given 
differences in vehicle speeds, etc" because, well, even I'm not that 
nutty. :) Unfortunately I got hit by some death flu (and I even got 
the flu shot!) for the past 48 hours or so and am just now getting it 
shaken off a little bit!) -- so I have a lot to catch up on as the 
brain fog clears.

First, I wanted to wish everyone on the list a happy new year (at 
least according to most Western calendars)! It's been a rough road at 
times for us this year but we made it through, important lessons were 
learned, and we've experienced lots of growth. I know for a few of us 
it's been a tough year in our personal lives as well and I can 
appreciate that we are a volunteer group and that life gets tough to 
balance. We do what we can with the time we have to try and make 
change. And I think if you add up everything that's happened in the 
last year, we've gotten a lot done. We've learned important lessons 
on approaches not to take, approaches we haven't yet taken, and so 
forth. We have an exciting 2008 ahead of us, no doubt.

Second, I want to thank everyone for their participation this year! 
There's always more to do but we have to recognize that we are a 
small group (for now!) and feel good about what we've been able to do 
in the world of game accessibility. We're starting to tackle some of 
the harder issues now -- social justice, legalities, 
advantages/disadvantages of a symbol system for rating accessibility 
(long talked about in the SIG but has it's trickiness in how the 
check/balance system will work like the ESRP with their full time 
employees), the complexities of guidelines, the academic puzzle of 
how to frame what we do and say in a larger design paradigm, and 
much, much more.

Third, I want to take the time to encourage everyone to get refreshed 
and ready for a new and exciting year with the SIG -- "the book" will 
happen this year (a general announcement will follow as soon as legal 
stuff is worked out), we have conferences to look forward to, work 
with the Electronic Consumers Association (the ECA that has been 
formed to help fight the legal shutting down of games -- one that we 
can use to help show a potential positive side that the industry 
could/should be contributing to as much as they can because it HELPS 
put the industry in a positive light), a grant to work through, fund 
raising, a new website...so much more! This is exciting!

So I will be reachable while I'm gone but obviously things will slow 
down from my end for the next week or so, as I imagine will be the 
case for others as well. Relax and enjoy time with family. And, as I 
have said before, hope for peace in the new year. The world, more 
than ever, needs some healing.

Michelle
Chairperson, IGDA Game Accessibility SIG