Having scanned Michael Feir's introductionary

presentation about blind accessible gaming, I noticed that he mostly

mentioned American companies and websites. I was surprised to hear nothing

about the AGRIP project or Terraformers (both excellent examples of games

that push the limits of game accessibility). I may scanned too quickly

through the .mp3 and missed Michael naming these examples so I will listen

to it again to make sure. I also missed him naming AudioGames.net (did I

miss it or wasn't it mentioned?), especially since we're hosting back

issues of Audyssey Magazine on our server and we are probably the biggest

online community website on this topic (with well over 1000 unique hits per

day).
The reason why I started this topic is that it is not the first time

I encountered a difference between the American and Europian approach to

game accessibility. Whereas the American approach is very commercial-based,

like an industry, the Europian approach is more research-based, with more

student and open source projects. I have experienced that in the American

dialog or monolog about game accessibility (articles, etc.), only American

efforts are discussed. Whereas in an Europian dialog or monolog, both

Europian and American (as well as Asian) efforts are discussed. This is only

a feeling I have based on my experiences. What is your opinion about

this?

Final word: this is not to bash Michael's presentation in any way.

I believe Michael had the task to present a subject with a huge scope in a

relatively short time to a crowd mostly interested in where to find

english-languaged quality games in order to start playing immediately. I

think that he succeeded with his presentation in doing

that.

Greets,

Richard