[games_access] Virtual worlds open up to blind

[Thomas Westin]

nice, now where is Blizzard :)

/thomas

18 sep 2007 kl. 20.33 skrev Barrie Ellis:

> From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6993739.stm
>
> Online virtual worlds could soon be accessible to blind people  
> thanks to research by students at IBM in Ireland.
> Some estimates predict that 80% of active internet users will be  
> using a virtual world in four years' time.
>
> The company said that it is keen to ensure that blind people are  
> not excluded from an environment that sighted people will take for  
> granted.
>
> The students have designed an audio equivalent of the virtual world  
> using 3D sound to create a sense of space.
>
> They were working as part of the company's Extreme Blue research  
> initiative which brings groups of students together for 12 weeks to  
> solve problem set by senior researchers.
>
> The project - called Accessibility In Virtual Worlds - is what the  
> company describes as "a proof of concept" at this stage, but it  
> will be passed on to IBM's Human Ability and Accessibility Centre  
> in Texas for further development.
>
> For their work the Irish team decided to use the Active Worlds  
> online environment rather than the more popular Second Life (which  
> has almost 9.5m accounts) because it allowed them more flexibility.
>
> Active Worlds is a collection of user-made virtual worlds that  
> people can visit via a web browser plug-in. Like many other virtual  
> spaces they let people make many of the artefacts, including  
> buildings, found in them.
>
> Audible cues
>
> The research team exploited this ability to tinker with objects in  
> the online world to make it more hospitable to the blind.
>
> "When the user comes into the world, the items are described as  
> well as their positions," explained Colm O'Brien, one of the team  
> of four researchers who worked on the project.
>
> "There is also sound attached - for example, if there's a tree  
> nearby you will hear a rustling of leaves," said Mr O'Brien.
>
> The work also developed tools which uses text to speech software  
> that reads out any chat from fellow avatars in the virtual world  
> that appears in a text box.
>
> Characters in the virtual world can have a "sonar" attached to them  
> so that the user gets audible cues to alert them to when they are  
> approaching, from which direction and how near they are.
>
> A number of blind mentors have given advice and feedback to the  
> team - one in IBM's Dublin lab and two based at IBM's research  
> centre in Texas.
>
> The students have also liaised with the National Council for the  
> Blind of Ireland on their work.
>
> As well as proving that the idea is feasible, the team has made a  
> number of recommendations about accessibility standards for virtual  
> worlds which should help the developers of the future.
>
> "IBM believes that virtual worlds are going to be the next big  
> evolution of the web and if this happens...it's not right for blind  
> people to be missing out on what the rest of us have available,"  
> said Mr O'Brien
>
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