accessibility | Polygamer

Polygamer #124: Cyndi Wiley, Iowa State University’s Digital Accessibility Lead

Posted on April 20, 2022 by Ken Gagne

Cyndi Wiley is the Digital Accessibility Lead for Iowa State University’s Digital Accessibility Lab. Equipped with everything from screenreaders to Xbox consoles, the Lab helps students and faculty create, advocate for, and consume media that is accessible to users of all different abilities.

In this interview, Cyndi and I chat about how disability is a social construct; what the phrase “Nothing About Us, Without Us” means; why users need to be paid for accessibility testing; the distinction between accessibility and usability; whether accessibility diminishes a video game’s difficulty; how to test video games for accessibility; and whether video games are a civil right.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, Overcast, Pandora, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for a transcript and links to resources mentioned in this episode.

Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:04:27 — 74.7MB) | Embed

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Polygamer #74: Joseph Bein of Out of Sight Games

Posted on January 17, 2018 by Ken Gagne

Joseph Bein is the president & creative lead of Out of Sight Games, developer of the audio game A Hero’s Call. The studio’s first game, A Hero’s Call was designed to be accessible by visually impaired gamers, including half of Out of Sight Games, who built their own game engine to ensure the game’s accessibility.

In this interview, Bein talks about what kinds of games tend to be more accessible to blind gamers; what developers can do to improve their games’ accessibility; whether or not the development tools themselves are accessible; talks he’s attended at the Game Accessibility Conference and GDC; why a future version of A Hero’s Call will have a visual component; and why he turned to Kickstarter for the game’s final push.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Overcast, Pandora, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 44:10 — 21.1MB) | Embed

Polygamer #43: Engagement Lab at Emerson College

Posted on May 11, 2016 by Ken Gagne

The Engagement Lab at Emerson College is an applied research lab in Boston, Massachusetts, dedicated to innovating the ways people participate in civic life and expanding the study of citizenship in a digital era. By working with city and state governments and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Engagement Lab collaborates with partners both locally and globally to develop software that addresses systemic, cultural, and health issues, from global warming to hand-washing.

In this podcast, creative producer Jordan Pailthorpe and lead developer Johnny Richardson discuss how the Engagement Lab uses digital technology to create unique solutions to address problems both big and small; how partnerships form with governments as far away from Egypt, and the workshops such collaborations have produced in both Egypt and Boston; the responsibility of game developers to produce software with social values, and how that’s reflected in the Engagement Lab’s values; how the Engagement Lab fits into the larger mission of Emerson College; and Johnny’s work with The AbleGamers Charity to encourage and implement software and hardware accessibility.

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 51:25 — 24.4MB) | Embed

Polygamer #39: Mark Saville of SpecialEffect

Posted on February 10, 2016 by Ken Gagne

SpecialEffect is a UK-based organization that uses technology to enhance the quality of life of people with physical disabilities by providing them with access to video games. Whether a gamer’s challenge arises from a congenital birth issues, car accident, stroke, or war wound, SpecialEffect adapts video game hardware to make games more accessible, all at no cost to the client.

In this week’s podcast, SpecialEffect communications officer Mark Saville discusses the variety of approaches that the organization’s engineers and occupational therapists take to adapt today’s video games to each unique patient and situation. We discuss how today’s increasingly advanced games and input methods have been accommodated by advances in technology, such as eye tracking; whether motion controls, mobile games, and virtual reality have made games more or less accessible; how accessibility stems not just from physical disabilities, but also cognitive and age-related issues as well. Finally, we look forward to GameBlast, a weekend-long gaming marathon being held February 26–28 as a fundraiser for the organization.

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 45:41 — 21.8MB) | Embed