[games_access] Game Accessibility - How to we get there?

[Ian Hamilton]

Although I totally get the points of view about use of wheelchairs Vs positive messaging I'm from the opposite school of thought, if it was down to me I'd be more in favour of just the standard international wheelchair symbol as that's already universally recognised, although I do understand the worry of it inferring a higher level of accessibility than might be possible. 

I can't speak for wheelchair users obviously as I'm not one, but a wheelchair is a positive, empowering piece of assistive tech after all, and (for me at least) one of the strongest symbols of the power that technology has to remove barriers.

On a different note the reason for it linking to special effect reviews at the moment is just because it's currently an internal special effect trial right? 

As far as I can tell the idea would be SE to trial it to see how/if it works, then if successful for it to be opened up for other people to use how they wish, just as a general signifier of accessibility information. So regardless of whether it's associated with an AG review, a SE review, PEGI symbols, bullet points or so on, the grand ambition would be for gamers to be able to tell at a glance whether or not any accessibility information is present. Is that right? If so I think it's fair to say that's something that everyone would be in favour of.

Ian

> Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2012 16:46:44 -0400
> From: Steve Spohn <steve at ablegamers.com>
> Subject: Re: [games_access] Game Accessibility - How to we get there?
> To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List <games_access at igda.org>
> Message-ID:
> 	<CABrM+MVtm_ANGV+ZXwiPHSbBPyfhWPCH5VhW_KOBhhuBJTbM2w at mail.gmail.com>
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> 
> I can tell you with my AbleGamers hat on that we were in communication with
> Barrie to open up a third-party website where people could go to that saw
> the mutually agreed-upon symbol that would mean that the game had been
> given the seal of approval by AG or SE or Anyone (gamefwd 7-128 etc.).
> After a number of e-mails and no responses from Barrie, AbleGamers walked
> away from the project. (Can share with the emails with the group if you'd
> like)
> 
> The important part of the discussion was a third-party non specific website
> that could house reviews from all websites and allow people to thoroughly
> explore the accessibility of games from many angles. So, I think specifying
> that you are going to lobby for a symbol to be placed on boxes that goes to
> GameBase is a bit much.
> 
> There are a couple fundamental flaws with the symbol system. First, if you
> read the fine print on the website it says that the game only needs to be
> reviewed by SpecialEffect. It doesn't need to be accessible, good, friendly
> or easy to play, it simply means that is reviewed to some extent. That is
> not helpful at a glance. Second, the symbols you used Barrie are downright
> offensive. Eleanor's is a nice neutral symbol, although it still has a
> wheelchair in it, but the teddy bear symbol absolutely offends me, and
> every single disabled gamer I have asked so far said they would be offended
> seeing a teddy bear on the box meaning that  it is accessible.
> 
> A good question for everyone to think about is why are all of the symbols
> we see coming out that could mean accessibility filled with ultra-colorful,
> cartoonlike and childish symbols. Not all gamers with disabilities are
> children, in fact, the majority are not.
> 
 		 	   		  
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