A presentation at axe-con by Carie Fisher
Where it all started
Early 2018 – Design concept created Spring 2018 – Web Accessibility Initiative group ($1622.33) Summer 2018 – LGBT ($450) Fall 2018 – Able Gamers ($521.82) Spring 2019 – National Federation of the Blind ($1287.84) Fall 2020 – Center for Accessible Technology ($446.77) Ongoing – Accessibility Talks (A11yTalks) Redbubble – https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/39136088
The Digital Accessibility Lab at Iowa State University
The design and development process
• Serious Game
• Remapping controls • Color contrast • Closed captioning (and subtitles)
• Playing typically Non-Playable Characters (NPCs) • Building awareness of disabilities and diversity • Using humor (SFW – Safe for Work) to broach difficult subject
Our research goals and methods
• First step was getting IRB approval • Exempt status: only using survey/interviews/observation; low risk of harm • Why do we need IRB approval? • We are a university – heavy emphasis on research • IRB is required when planning to publish research – we plan to test and publish our research/ the game • IRB is required when research deals with human subjects • IRB ensures our research is not harming anyone
• Inform game design and decisions • Find problems early and often • Understand users and their wants/needs • Research will contribute to knowledge about: • Gaming accessibility • Disability representation in games • How disability representation affects user experience • Gaming as a way to teach accessibility • Including people with disabilities in entire game design process
Research questions:
• Qualitative approach • Phase 1: online survey • Phase 2: semi-structured interviews • Who we are testing with: • ISU students 18 years of age or older • People with and without disabilities
• Mass email sent to Iowa State students • Survey questions focused on understanding: • Digital accessibility within games • Disability representation in the game • What is considered a successful outcome for the game • Feedback on the game concept/User Interface elements
• Likert-type scales: • accessibility preferences and needs • disability representation/respectfulness of portrayals in game • overall game concept • UI design/aesthetics • Semantic differentials scales: • adjective pairs relating to usability and aesthetics • Multiple choice, open-ended, and closed-ended questions: • participant experiences and gaming habits • feedback on the game concept
• Individual interviews - playtesting • Participants recruited from Phase 1 survey • Goals: • Identify problems in design • Pinpoint improvement opportunities • Determine user behavior and preferences • Learn opinions on features/aesthesis • Understand strengths/weaknesses • Evaluate UI elements • Establish overall playability
• Play tests will be in the Lab in Durham 116 with Level 1 • Remappable controls • Play in both portrait & landscape modes • HUD left & right hand mode • Assistive grid toggle for game map • Assistive paths for enemies • Zoom mode • High contrast mode • Toggle between pixel & vector display • Adjustable type sizes & widths
• We are currently focused on design, game development, and UX research/testing • Plan is for the game to be released early 2023 – hopefully in time for axe-con next year!
clwiley@iastate.edu wendling@iastate.edu cefisher@iastate.edu
The Digital Accessibility Lab team at Iowa State University has been designing and developing the A11yCats Game. The team embraces the disability community concept, “Nothing about us, without us.” The games impetus is to embrace disabled characters as playable characters and to form a research study of how disabled players want to be represented in games. Too often, players with disabilities are not included in any phases of game design and development. While disabled characters sometimes appear in games, they are nonplayable characters (NPCs). NPCs devalue and “Other” disabled persons. Further, the game is being created with accessibility in mind from the beginning with art, design, and code.
The following resources were mentioned during the presentation or are useful additional information.
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