Gamers with a high degree of visual impairment, or those that are completely blind, may find an Audio Game style of interface is the only way in. A person who has a visual impairment might find tiny fonts a problem (a problem suffered by many gamers of all abilities playing Capcom's Dead Rising on the Xbox 360 using a standard TV). Sight related disabilities: A person who is colour-blind might find colour matching games impossible (such as Puzzle Bobble) if they can't distinguish the different colours. As the third Thursday of November is World Usability Day, Adventure Gamers took the occasion to speak to Barrie, both to enlighten ourselves and to spread awareness of this issue: not only can game designers do better, but there are already ways around many problems so that anyone can play.Īdventure Gamers: What kind of disabilities affect gamers, and how does each type impact their ability to play games?īarrie Ellis: There are four broad types of disability which a person may be affected by: Sight - Hearing - Mobility - Cognitive. If age or accident or disease one day adds us to such statistics, what would we do then?īarrie Ellis runs One Switch, a site dedicated to helping make games more accessible. Studies have shown that the number of people who suffer from a reduced game experience totals in the millions. And as we age, we may find that our own motor skills are lessened, reaction times dulled, and suddenly a whole load of games have become inaccessible to us. Woe betide a colour-blind person or someone with hearing problems that tries to play even as mild a game as Myst, for example. This affects game designers as much as anyone else. It’s easy to take common physical activities for granted, never considering the problems that others may have with things that are simple for us.
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