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I am Marion, a first year Cybersecurity student at TalTech.
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Week 14: Accessibility in gaming
This week's blog once again touches upon HCI (human-computer interaction) and gaming, a topic that is very close to my heart. But more specifically I am going to talk about the accessibility of video games, mainly for people with motor impairments.
Video games, in general, are heavily dependent on physical interaction with the device being used, something that the average gamer with no disabilities (other than being toxic and flaming is League of Legends) usually doesn't even notice. Gamers with motor impairments may find it extremely difficult to play some games. I'd like to bring some examples from the gaming industry where companies actually care about people with disabilities and have taken their needs into account by offering alternative technologies.
When it comes to software in gaming, one of the biggest problems is no way of remapping controls, which would allow players to move functions around the input device, would it be a controller, keyboard, or something else. For example, this would hugely benefit people with joint problems like arthritis, so they could reach places more comfortably without experiencing pain in doing so. And surprisingly remapping in games isn't as common as you might think. For PC games it is pretty much a standard that you can remap all of your controls to whatever you want but on console games, this is pretty uncommon. But for console games, this is pretty rare. Examples of games where you can change your input in-game would be Overwatch and Titanfall 2 where you can even change the response curve and ramp up time. One of the greatest examples is Uncharted where the developers have made it possible to play the game with only one toggle stick, and this by turning on a camera assist from the in-game menu. You can also move and aim your gun with the same toggle stick just by changing the modes with a flick. But mostly the person has to rely on system-level controller remapping that you constantly have to change from game to game. Consoles like PS4 and Xbox One and newer ones offer this, but sadly this also isn't really a standard yet.
accessibility options in the Uncharted 4 menu
When it comes to hardware, a great example is Microsoft's Adaptive Xbox Controller, which can be used both with PCs and the Xbox One console. The controller was designed taking into consideration the needs of people with motor impairments. You can connect the controller directly to external switches, buttons, mounts, and joysticks to make it work for you and it comes with large programmable buttons, so it's really customizable. Although the controller isn't perfect and not for everyone, it has won multiple awards and was generally perceived very positively by the community. But as the target group is small and the product is a niche, the controller is a bit pricier - 100€ compared to the 65€ regular Xbox One controller.
the Xbox One's Adaptive Controller ports, which make it highly customizable
Another technology I'd like to mention is BCI (Brain-Computer Interfaces) in gaming. Although this kind of tech isn't really ready yet for mass production, it could bring a breakthrough in the gaming community in general and not only for the physically disabled gamers. Right now BCI technologies are mainly being developed for healthcare, but there is definitely a huge future for it in gaming. As it gets developed more and more, it could possibly be the game controller of the future. Already over 9 years ago, playing World of Warcraft with just your own thoughts with the help of an EEG machine, was possible (see the video below). If this sort of a thing was already possible back then, I believe we aren't too far away from having this kind of tech sold to the average gamer. This could offer people who are completely paralyzed, with for example locked-in syndrome, a chance of escaping their reality to run around and communicate with other people in the virtual world.
a great video that shows and explains how BCI can be used for gaming
I think games need to be made accessible for all sorts of gamers with different abilities. As Josh Straub said in his Naughty Dog's interview, playing games do more than just entertain the disabled - they also provide an escape from the doldrums of being disabled and they provide a social space where, instead of being judged by physical appearance, they are purely judged by the actions that they do and the things they produce in the game. Seeing big companies taking steps towards making games more accessible to everyone and the amount of joy this brings to people really makes me smile.
PS. Also really cool companies and organizations that came across while reading about the topic:
DAGERSystems - they provide disabled people resources about accessibility in gaming. They do game and tech reviews so people would find out if they can even play the game or use a console without buying it first and possibly wasting their money on something they can't use.
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