[games_access] Australian Game Dev Awards -- First Mainstream Award Show to Include Accessibility Award

[Brian Schmidt]

FYI, looks like they have a typo in the URL in their announcement.

For more information see http://www.gameaccessibilitguidelines.com. Screen

That's a dead link.

They forgot the "y" in gameaccessibilityguidelines

 

Brian

From: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org]
On Behalf Of Barrie Ellis
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2013 1:38 AM
To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List
Subject: Re: [games_access] Australian Game Dev Awards -- First Mainstream
Award Show to Include Accessibility Award

 

Belatedly... Fantastic news!! Well done to all involved It's happening it
seems...

 

Barrie

 

From: Michelle Hinn <mailto:michellehinn at gmail.com>  

Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2013 8:52 PM

To: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List <mailto:games_access at igda.org>


Subject: [games_access] Australian Game Dev Awards -- First Mainstream Award
Show to Include Accessibility Award

 

Ok, so this is some exciting news -- the Game Development Association of
Australia is giving (and still accepting nominations for) their annual
awards show, making this the first mainstream game development awards show
to have this award! Please spread the news! My email is
michellehinn at gmail.com if you have any questions and the head of the GDAA's
information is in their press release below

------

Media Release: For immediate release

 

A world first for recognising the importance of inclusion in game
development.

 

17  September 2013

Australia is leading the world in making games accessibility a priority. The
latest demonstration of commitment to enabling a wider cross section of the
community be catered for when playing games is the inaugural Accessibility
Award announced by the Game Developers' Association of Australia (GDAA) as
part of the 2013 Australian Game Developer Awards. This follows on from the
inclusion of accessibility considerations by Film Victoria and Screen
Australia when allocating funding to game development projects.

Accessibility in this context means mainstream games that make an effort to
avoid unnecessarily excluding people with motor, cognitive, hearing, speech
or vision impairments. For more information see
http://www.gameaccessibilitguidelines.com. Screen Australia's Investment
Manager, Justin Halliday said "Accessibility was one of the key issues
raised by the industry during the consultation process for Screen
Australia's new Games Fund. Screen Australia and state agencies like Film
Victoria recognise that accessibility in gaming brings some huge benefits,
not only the obvious economic benefits of being able to reach wider
audiences, but also quality of life, allowing access to culture,
entertainment, and socialising for many people who have limited recreation
opportunities. " 

 Accessibility advocates and experts the world over are excited by the news
that Australia is not only financially supporting, but also recognising
excellence in the field of game accessibility.

The International Game Developers' Association (IGDA) Accessibility Special
Interest Group (SIG) Co-chair, Michelle Hinn, welcomed the award's inclusion
in the Australian Game Developer Awards, to be held in Melbourne on 22
October. "The Accessibility SIG has been lobbying for inclusion of
accessibility categories in industry awards for at least 8 years now. There
have been so many "almost...but thanks but no thanks" roads we have been
down and I am just simply over the moon that you guys are picking up on an
award for this!"

 

Another Accessibility advocate and expert, Ian Hamilton from the UK, who
visited Australia late last year, also pledged his support for these latest
initiatives. "From Team Bondi to The Voxel Agents, Global Game Jam to the
Film Victoria and Screen Australia funding programmes, Australia has often
been at the forefront of accessibility in the games industry. The government
and industry support and guidance through the funding programmes in
particular has resulted in a local industry with an unsurpassed level of
knowledge and understanding about the barriers people can face and how to
open up access to as wide an audience as possible.

The accessibility award is a natural next step. Awards have been given in
the past by individuals and charities such as AbleGamers in the USA, but
this AGDA category is, to my knowledge, the first time that the economic and
life changing value of accessibility has been recognised in this way by an
internal industry body, which is a really significant and exciting landmark
in game accessibility." Said Hamilton.

Nominations for the Accessibility Award are open until 30 September 2013
come from within the video game development sector and a panel of experts in
the field then decide on the winners. For the accessibility award the panel
will include international authorities in the field including Hamilton and
representatives from the IGDA Accessibility SIG. 

 

The Australian Game Development Awards include the categories of: Game of
the Year, Studio of the Year, Excellence in Art, Excellence in Design,
Excellence in Audio, Technical Excellence, Innovation Award, and the
Accessibility Award.  The awards night will be held on Tuesday 22 October in
conjunction with 2013 Game Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP) conference at the
Melbourne Conference and Exhibition Centre 21-23 October.

----ends

 

For further information contact

Giselle Rosman

Game Developers' Association of Australia

gisellerosman at gdaa.com.au

0406631926

  _____  

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