Adapting Gaming Technology for People with Disabilities

1. Adapting Gaming Technology for People with Disabilities Mark C. Barlet, President – The AbleGamers Foundation

2. Accessibility In Gaming is possible It just takes planning Revolutions in the video game space is proving to be an effective tool in making lasting impressions on your workforce as you train them in things that are important to your business. You should not fear that this technology will leave your disabled employees behind if you think about their needs from the start.

3. Why you are looking at video games… They are not going away • Personnel Psychology October 2010 • Published in the scientific journal Personnel Psychology and says that those who were trained using video games were 11 percent better at grasping the facts they were taught, displayed a 14% better knowledge of job skills and retained information at a rate that was 9% better than for those in the control group.

4. Seventy Percent of Major Employers Use Games Three-quarters who aren’t will soon. Seventy percent of major employers utilize interactive software and games to train employees according to a new study released today by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). The study data also showed that more than 75 percent of businesses and non-profits already offering video game-based training plan to expand their usage in the next three to five years. And more than three-quarters (78%) of organizations not utilizing this technology today are likely to offer it in the next five years. The survey found a vast majority of organizations offering video game-based training were satisfied with the results and sophistication of the training. Respondents said the biggest advantages of video game-based training are: a reduction in costs; more efficient and faster training; the ability to apply consistent training across all parts of an organization; the ease of measuring employee participation; and, better information retention.

5. Disabilities by Age

6. Disability Laws Around the World What laws may effect your operations • United Kingdom • The Disability Discrimination Act 1995, Part III Access to Goods and Services • Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 • The Disability Discrimination Act 1995, Part IV Education • Canada • Canadian Human Rights Act of 1977 • Australia • Disability Discrimination Act 1992 • German • Gesetz zur Gleichstellung behinderter Menschen und zur Änderung anderer Gesetze vom 27. April 2002 (Act on Equal Opportunities for Disabled Persons of 27 April 2002)

7. The United States of America People with disabilities are well protected • Section 508 Amendment to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 • How people with disabilities access federal government information • Section 255 of the Communications Act • Access for people with disabilities to telecom • Section 504, Rehabilitation Act of 1973 • Outlaws discrimination to participate in activates at a entity that gets government grants. • Americans with Disabilities Act

8. “a qualified individual with a disability” What does this mean “Disability discrimination occurs when an employer or other entity covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act, as amended, or the Rehabilitation Act, as amended, treats a qualified individual with a disability who is an employee or applicant unfavorably because she has a disability.”

9. How to get there from here. Options are your friend • We are going to discuss how approaches to inclusion in the following categories • Physical Disabilities • Visual Disabilities • Auditory Disabilities • Cognitive Disabilities

10. Physical Disabilities Control / Timing / Precision / Speed • In order to make the most of your development project here are some things you should make sure are baked in from the start • Flexibility in controlling the game • Will I be using a mouse? • Should I also include keyboard shortcuts? • Will it use a mix of both? • Timing and Time based scenarios • Am I going to have timed activities? • Are we going to have a “rating” or “score” based on a timed activity?

11. Physical Disabilities Control / Timing / Precision / Speed • In order to make the most of your development project here are some things you should make sure are baked in from the start • Speed • Do we want our user to click on fast moving objects? • Precision • Does my game need you to pick up small things and move them?

13. Visual Disabilities More than meets the eye. • Visual disabilities go far beyond blindness, and one of the most prevalent disabilities in the United States is often overlooked in game development. • Colorblindness • 10% of MALES in the US are colorblind • 99% of those colorblind are RED / GREEN

14. Visual Disabilities How to support colorblind folks • In order to make the most of your development project here are some things you should make sure are baked in from the start • Are you going to use color to indicate status?

15. Visual Disabilities How to support colorblind folks Normal Red Blind Total Green Blind Weak Red Blue Blind

16. Visual Disabilities How to support colorblind folks • In order to make the most of your development project here are some things you should make sure are baked in from the start • Are you going to use color to indicate status? X X X Green Red X

17. Visual Disabilities More than meets the eye. • Macular-Degeneration • Leading cause of vision loss in Americans 60 years of age and older

18. Visual Disabilities How to support the blind in your company • You need to provide a training program that TRAINS everyone with the same outcome, but the law does not say the they need to be trained the same way. • Audio based training program • Training materials published in braille • Personal Trainer

19. Audio Impaired Best –practices are well established Close captioning is easy to add to games you are working on Does your game have audio cues to indicate something is happening or about to happen? Are you using directional sound?

20. Cognitive Disabilities Are the instructions easy to understand? Are you using a timer to test effectiveness of your training? Do you use loud noise, or “goch’as” in the game?

21. In Closing Revolutions in the video game space is proving to be an effective tool in making lasting impressions on your workforce as you train them in things that are important to your business.

22. Mark Barlet mark@ablegamers.org

23. References • http://accessibility.gtri.gatech.edu/sitid/stateLawAtGlance.php • http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/disability.cfm • http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/publications/fs-ada.cfm • http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/maculardegen/armd_facts.asp • http://thehiringsite.careerbuilder.com/2010/03/04/businesses-embrace-video-gameserious-business-benefits-of-video-games/