[games_access] Information please: Game Designers with Disabilities.

[Eleanor]

Ray,

There are many game designers with disabilities.  There are a number of 
sources to get the information.  If you go to our website, www.7128.com, 
you will find our top 25 listing of websites for gamers who are blind, 
deaf, or motion impaired.  In the list for the blind, the Audyssey 
listserve is managed by Thomas Ward who is blind and a game developer.  
The discussion is interesting and you will soon identify several other 
game developers who are blind among the participants.

I'm sure the Accessibility SIG has other information about developers 
who have disabilities.  If you talk to Barrie Ellis at oneswitch.org, he 
can identify game developers who have motor impairments.  Mark Barlet at 
AbleGamers can also identify developers who have a disability.  All of 
these website URL's are directly available on our Top 25 list.

There is nothing to prevent a disabled person from developing games.  
And, since many of the game developers do not give accessibility a high 
priority, if a disabled person wants a game they can play, they may have 
to develop it themselves.

The technology used depends on the type of game they are developing, 
just like any other game designer.  For a blind developer, there is a 
development tool called the Blastbay Game Toolkit (BGT) that allows a 
beginning game developer to put together an audio game.  On Audyssey, 
there has been an intense discussion about the various development 
languages and what is better for different types of games.  There are 
people programming in iOS, C++, JAVA, and some of the older programming 
languages.

All in all, check out the websites and you should have adequate 
information to support the program.  I wish you luck in working your way 
through the hoops you have to jump through.  If I can be of further 
help, please contact me again.  I'm interested in hearing how you make out.

Eleanor Robinson
7-128 Software





On 5/8/2014 1:16 PM, Raymond M. Rose wrote:
> I'd like to confirm that there are game designers with disabilities.
>
> I'm doing research for a publication initially for a K-12 audience, 
> and then for higher ed.  My focus right now, is making the case that 
> online education programs/courses have a responsibility to make all 
> online education accessible to students with disabilities. I believe 
> the laws are clear on this, and have evidence in the form of Office 
> for Civil Rights compliance reports to back me up.
>
> In the process, I've been asked by some folks who are currently 
> teaching game design in middle and high school on-ground courses, but 
> have been asked to develop online courses.  So, they started by saying 
> they had never heard of a game designer/developer with disabilities.  
> I didn't know of any either, but felt I could find evidence they 
> exist.  (If the field said it was not possible for someone with a 
> disability to design games there would be justification for the 
> program to not be accessible.)
>
> I've found the information about standards for making games accessible 
> to be very informational and will include some of those links in the 
> publication I'm working on.
>
> I now know there are game designers with disabilities.  So, my second 
> question is what sorts of technology do those designers use -- and I 
> realize there are many different disabilities, so there's not a single 
> tool used?
>
> Any information you can provide will be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks
> Ray
>