What is the most ignored disability during the game design process?

What do you think is the most ignored disability during the game design process?

What are steps that can be taken to correct this problem?

The SIG ignored Speech impairments for a long time. I am waiting that we move from 4 to 5 categories.

Cognitive disabilities seem to be difficult to address and are often ignored. Some games address the issue of dylexia through good tutorial systems or the use of advisors to reduce the need to read a manual, but many other cognitive issues are not addressed.

I have to disagree with you on this. Unless a game is controlled by voice, speech impairments should not be an issue. Can you provide an example of a game where a speech impairment would be an issue?

Sandra_Uhling wrote:The SIG ignored Speech impairments for a long time. I am waiting that we move from 4 to 5 categories.

Well, let's say: play and ask the gamers with disabilities. I said the basic information have a bad quality.
We should first check it!

Try out Counterstrike in a team, without voice communication.

I feel like I am going to have to agree with Barrie on this one. In my personal game collection, I can't think of any games that require voice controls. Sure, some of them have team play and talking could be beneficial- but this just makes me think of my little brother. He always plays those multiplayer shooters (Halo, Call of Duty), but most of the time doesn't have a mic because he constantly breaks his.

I feel like speech isn't so much ignored as it doesn't apply to a lot.

then we should listen more to the gamers.

I'm not sure if it's an issue of listening to more gamers as it is identifying more games in which speech accessibility is an issue.

There is a very big difference between: knowing a game, playing a game, and listening to other gamers.

I got this information from a german gamer. He is member in a clan. (At the moment I do not know if they play in an eSport League). They play against other clans. And it is a big problem for them.

A small help are predefined messages they can set via keyboard.

Unfortunately, sending audio via a microphone usually does not fall into an area developers have much control over. Often that gets handled by the input and networking portions of a game engine, which the developers won't mess with unless they have a major reason to do so. The idea of predefined messages is good and that can be added fairly easily.

With regard to your source, does the whole clan have speech issues or is it just one person? Is there a way to communicate via text in the game? I seriously doubt a game publisher or developer would work on putting in an accessibility feature without convincing proof of a wide spread need and the total lack of an alternative way to deal with the situation. It's not an ideal world and publishers will often look at the economic impact of additional features before adding them in.

Hi,

well to be honest it is very very very hard to find the PwDs. When you talk to organisations and mention "games", they will stop listening.
One big big big problems is that young people do want lot of things, but they usually do not want to do something.

I am very glad I was able to chat (text) with one of the CLAN. It is a whole Clan with deaf gamers. They take part in LAN-Parties.
I am not sure if they take part also in a league.

There is the group www.deafgamers.com. It would be great to be in contact with them. But they never write back to me.
They know more and they have lots of knowledge about the needs of deafgamers, of course.

I'm a bit confused about this topic. Sure, there are problems that games have with accessibility, but I'm not sure I can pin point a specific one that stands out the most.

As for the whole speech being an issue thing, most of the games I've seen and played asked for the player to use a mic to make a noise. So not really talking, but maybe a sound, like yelling or whispering. An example would be, Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks. In the game you have to speak with the Lokomos (a race of humaniod train people) at each destination (as in, the next destination that Link would be going to) and play a song with them on a pan flute. You actually have to blow into the mic for the DS to play it. Thats simple, unless someone has a breathing problem........then that would be bad.

.....I think I rambled on a bit.

Hello,

I think this is a very difficult question to answer. While there are a multitude of conditions and disabilities, and I'd agree that many could be categorised under a broader label (motion-impaired, visual-impaired, auditory-impaired, etc.), I would think it depends largely on the type of game being designed. For example, a fighting game such as 'Streetfighter IV' places more emphasis on co-ordination and good mobility/dexterity whereas Real-Time Strategy games such as 'Command & Conquer' require fast decision-making and an ability to multitask. While different types of game place different emphasis on certain abilities, there are some overlaps.

In most mainstream big-budget games, and in many independent developed games (e.g. XBox Live Arcade titles), in my opinion, the most common overlooked area is reaction time. In the two examples I suggested above, reaction time is a large requirement of both, and also overlaps with many other game types, e.g First Person Shooters, Racing games, Hack & Slash style RPGs such as the up and coming 'Diablo 3'.

If new games were to include variable speed settings covering a wide range of game speeds, this would greatly improve the accessibility of new games to many people with a broad spectrum of disabilities.
Sorry this isn't a direct answer to the question but from my point of view it's easier to state the one thing (in my opinion) that if it was included, would open up a game to the largest number of people who otherwise wouldn't be able to play it.

Re. Sandra. The GASIG have never ignored any particular barrier, nor disability to my knowledge. Speech issues are just as relevent as any others, and to my mind fit as a sub-category within two of the existing broad four categories: Cogntive, Physical, Sight, Hearing barriers. Speech issues will be related to Congitive and/or Physical issues.

Seaman for the Dreamcast was a virtual-pet game that relied upon speech. I think it would have been great if it had offered compatibility with the keyboard, so users could type their responses in too (with localisation taken into account for a number of different langugages). That falls within offering alternative input methods, which has been a pretty standard call for a long time.

I'd actually say that Deaf-Blind people are the most excluded by a mile. I think it's important that they are thought of, but I really don't expect mainstream games to give this minority of a minority priority thought, when the much more common issues of colour-blindness and hearing impairment is seldomly considered.

Barrie

Graeme wrote:Hello,


Sorry this isn't a direct answer to the question but from my point of view it's easier to state the one thing (in my opinion) that if it was included, would open up a game to the largest number of people who otherwise wouldn't be able to play it.

We don't need exact answers. Just opening thoughts are great. This is a place to start ideas, and I think your post does that!

I think this is a very difficult question to answer. Although there runescape gold
are many conditions and disabilities, I also agree that many of the labels according to broader categories (sports impaired, visually impaired, hearing impaired, etc.), I think it depends largely on the type of The game is being designed. For example, if 'Streetfighter IV', where more coordination and the real-time strategy game, good mobility / dexterity emphasizes fighting games such as'Command & Conquer' need for fast decision making and rs gold multitasking capabilities. Although the focus of the game where different types of some ability and some overlap.