[games_access] An emotional Response to Kinect not "seeing" peoplein wheel chairs.

[Sandra Uhling]

Hi,

my opinion is that we (maybe) should try to understand each other much
better.
Of course people who working hard to have more accessible games, are
frustrated.


I had more time and possibilities to play some kinect games.
The Dance Central Menu is great for people who can use it.
It is fast and easy to use. So the next step would be to think
about an "one arm" solution.

Zumba Fitness Game has a "one arm" solution. But it sucks.
The usability is very very very bad and also it is one arm menu,
It is very hard to use. The overview is bad and the whole menu
exists of buttons.
(Try out to change the options .... :-( )


The first games are great for being the first games.
Now we have all to think about solutions to make them more accessible.
I do not know about the other, but I did not know much about it before.
We have also to learn something. :-)


One idea for dance central:
Mirroring does not work, because you would still need two arms?
But what about this:
Is it possible to make an alternative input with the actual structure?
E.g. the menu will stay like it is, but there is an alternative input for
it.
Is it possible to make it working with this dewll clicking?
Maybe we would need two additional arrows for scrolling up and down?

I read that some people who have a disability love how this menu is now.
It would be great when it is possible to have one structure with two
Types of interaction and the gamer can choose which one he wants to use.

Best regards,
Sandra


-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] Im
Auftrag von Lynsey Graham
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 5. Januar 2011 17:44
An: 'IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List'
Betreff: Re: [games_access] An emotional Response to Kinect not "seeing"
peoplein wheel chairs.

As Microsoft pointed out in their response, the first wave of Kinect titles
were encouraged to make as much use of body tracking as possible and
developers were firmly discouraged from offering a standard controller
option, presumably in the hope of making sure the game was fully designed
around Kinect rather than a standard controller experience with Kinect
control shoehorned in (as happened with a lot of early Wii titles).  

 

I think most games from here on in will be able to detect sitting players as
the skeletal detection stuff has come a long way from the early days of
Kinect development – quite a few games can already.  Whether or not the game
will require full body control will depend on the game itself.  

 

In some good news though, there are big developers looking into Kinect and
alternative controllers in a different way:

 

http://www.develop-online.net/news/36663/Valve-envisions-eye-movement-contro
llers

 

From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Tara Tefertiller
Sent: 05 January 2011 15:17
To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List
Subject: [games_access] An emotional Response to Kinect not "seeing"
peoplein wheel chairs.

 

I just thought that this was interesting to read and thought I'd share.

http://blog.ncpad.org/2011/01/04/microsoft-kinect-fail-for-wheelchair-bound-
gamers/