Hi,

I would like to bring the following to your attention:

Recently we (Sander and I of AudioGames.net) started a project called the Game Accessibility-project at our work at the Bartimeus Accessibility foundation. In this (government-funded !) project we are building a R&C (Resource & Community) website on the subject of game accessibility.

As you may know, the field of game accessibility reaches further than just blind-accessible games. There's a whole field of one-switch games out there, games that can be played with one key only and therefore very accessible for gamers with limited physical abilities. One-switch games are often quite simple to understand and therefore very suitable for gamers with learning disabilities as well. More recently, the field of mobile gaming discovered the strength of these games and are exploring the possibilities to implement such games on mobile phones. There's also game accessibility for gamers with hearing disabilities, focusing on closed captioning and sign language in games, visual audio radars and more.

The R&C site can be found here:

http://www.game-accessibility.com

The aims of the Game Accessibility project are:
- to inform gamers with disabilities about the availability of accessible games
- to provide resources for developers, publishers and researchers
- to raise awareness of game accessibility
- to gain more knowledge on accessible game design

The main activities within the Game Accessibility project are:

- to develop a website that includes:
  - information about accessible games for the gamers with a disability
  - research materials and other resources about game accessibility for students, developers and publishers
  - a community space for gamers, developers and researchers
- to give lectures and tutorials
- to participate in student seminars/projects

It is not this website's aim to be  'another AudioGames.net', 'another Phil Vlasak List of Game Developers' or 'another archive of games for the blind'. It also does not aim to be a substitute for the various communities that already exist - the BlindGamers list, the AudioGames.net forum, the Dutch Blindgamer list, the German Blindzeln list to name a few.

Instead, it aims to be a *visible* portal to the communities that already exist and connect these to all parties in the field of accessible gaming. One repeating topic of discussion is the lack of communication and sharing of knowledge and information between gamers with disabilities, developers of accessible games, academics and the professional game industry. The majority of the industry has never thought about accessibility in games, academics produce interesting demo's that unfortunately aren't real games (and most of the research gets lost after a couple of years anyway) and which hardly anyone knows about, developers of accessible games try their best to develop games with tiny or no budgets and are way behind the professional game industry at many points (innovation, resources, technology, marketing, etc.) and the community of gamers have a hard time communicating their 'presence' (with their wishes, needs, ideas) to the game industry.

So this website hopes to connect all parties (developers, gamers, industry and academics). At this very moment, there are more initiatives gradually coming to existance, for instance: http://gameaccess.medialt.no/guide.php and http://ace-centre.hostinguk.com/index.c … 150B34D902  /  http://ace-centre.hostinguk.com/index.c … 6134AAC67. However, their approaches are slightly different then our aims.

Now, what does this mean for you?

The Game Accessibility-project aims to involve as many people and communities as possible. Therefore we would like to have as much as your input as you are willing to give.
The website enables you to get in contact with the professional game industry as well as academics involved in accessible games projects. Participants in this project are people from the industry like Microsoft Games, LucasArts, people who research games and teach game design to future game designers at universities, disabled gamers of all sorts,  the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) and more. For example, we're currently also doing a project with two teams of students who are developing alternative controllers for a new audio game called The Gnawlers (under development by AudioGames.net).

The website is still under development and many things will be added for the next year or so. However, parts of it are already active. The forum is now active and part of the "gaming with a visual disability"-section is also done. As you can see, this is still very basic information (with a bit too much on AudioGames.net, yeah, we know - will change it!) . We would really look forward to all the feedback you have on this.

One thing you can help us with is this:

We are setting up a "Top 10 List of Blind-Accessible Games To Start With" - this is basically a list of 10 game titles recommended by you, the community, for new gamers to start playing blind-accessible games. Which ten titles do you recommend for new gamers? We have setup a thread in the forum (http://www.game-accessibility.com/forum … pid=62#p62) where you can post your list. You have to become a member of this forum to post - however, this is completely free and set up in only a couple of minutes - and you do not even need an email-address to register! It's it the same forum as the AudioGames.net forum so all of you already know how it works Unfortunately it is not possible to automatically post on the Game Accessibility forum with your AudioGames.net account (although we might be able to copy-paste all accounts - Sander...?) so you have to create a new one... (on the Game Accessibility-forum, that is, NOT here on the AudioGames.net forum .

Well, so far for this message. Anxious to know what this list thinks of these developments. And, because we think collaboration is very important, if anyone has a suggestion for a possible collaboration with the community, let's hear it!

Greets,

Richard