More information: http://www.darkworks.com/news.php

I am currently working on my MFA thesis project for SCAD and trying to make Warcraft 3 accessible to players with physical disabilities.  I have created a custom map prototype and modified a keyboard accessibility script, now I just need other people to test it and provide feedback.  If you are interested, please go to http://www.chrisquinn.com/thesis and follow the instructions.  There is a brief survey at the end.  Please email any questions to chris@chrisquinn.com.  Thanks!

Questions:
1. Do you know other AAR engines (besides for the iphone)
2. Who uses and Android phone and would like to test?

This project was made possible with financial help from Vereniging Bartimeus.

Eric

More information and download links here (it's free to download and use):

http://www.graemesfreegames.com/html/track_n_trace.html

Seems the Chinese played the game in the dark. Save the planet!

Source: http://www.yankodesign.com/2010/07/26/t … lle-rubik/

We will have to wait for it because Microsoft announced that they will file the patent but are not planning to use it in the next marketed version of Kinect. The reason for that is the downgrading of the camera unit. The current camera can not see the seperate limbs. But the patent shows the enthousiasm of Microsoft to use Kinect in other markets besides games and to have Kinect help in communication.

How about that?

More information: http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Pars … 0100199228
(sorry about the long URL)

On the Yanko Design website (http://www.yankodesign.com/2010/07/28/l … yes-speak/) a pair of funky looking glasses that a speech impaired person can use to communicate. The device tracks your eye movement as Morse-code inputs and then voices it out as speech. One eye is dedicated to “dot” and the other to “dash”. The design seems to includes usage of word and sentence completion. Dont know if this is any better than the stuff allready existing, but it looks nice. But to sit there all the time with the glasses on your nose seems like a burdon closing you off from the rest of the world. Not sure if this would be good as a game interface..

Simply type in your top ten games for each category on the actionforblindpeople website.

Action for Blind people would like to start promoting accessible games through their site. they are starting off with a poll to find out peoples favourite games.

With a little help from Dark at audiogames.net and the Audyssey list there is now a form on the Action for Blind People website for you to nominate your top 10 games – both free and commercial.

Please follow the link below, nominate your favourite games and Jason will put a list of the top 5 in each category together before Christmas.

NOTE: poll is closed

http://www.actionforblindpeople.org.uk/games.html

The Mayer held an event to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. At the event, he handed out Disability Awards to organisations who worked hard to make New York more accessible to all people. The AbleGamers Foundation was honored with the Title IV Telecommunications award for its use of technology and accessible telecommunications, including its website, AbleGamers.com; its annual "Game Accessibility Day", its interactive event "The Accessibility Arcade" that allows non-disabled people to look at, and experience the gaming world from the perspective of the disabled; and its "Path to Games Accessibility Project".

The Accessibility Arcade

The Accessibility Arcade is an interactive event that allows non-disabled people to look at, and experience the gaming world from the perspective of the disabled. State of the art adaptive technology is on display with much of it ready for people to play with. The arcade also offers a chance for disabled people to take some time to play with this innovative equipment, to see if it might be right for them

Path to Games Accessibility Project

The goal of the Path to Games Accessibility Project is to convene leading games accessibility experts, game technology vendors, and lead game programmers, producers, artists, and testers to identify and clearly state what technologies and processes can be developed by 2015 that will greatly enhance the ability of people with disabilities to better play the videogames they want and love.

More information: http://www.ablegamers.org/pathtoaccessibility.html

Video games and storytelling have long had an uneasy relationship, with strong proponents for and against the idea that video games should bother with stories at all. But games and storytelling have always had a much deeper cultural relationship than we tend to realize, and the line dividing them is narrow.
Join Semionaut and Narrative Designer Corvus Elrod in a discussion of the role that game mechanics have always played in our culture. Then explore how gameplay affects the players' emotional attachment to the shared-storytelling experience that all video games, from Tetris to Mass Effect 2, inherently provide.

Eric

It's the international hub for wheeling and dealing in the game industry, featuring visionary keynotes, international speakers and media, and over 40 exhibitors and sponsors. Too bad there is no accessibility track and the searching for the word accessibility does not make you happy also. Or does anyone know about accessibility at the GDC Europe conference? Is anyone going for the disability world? There is one presentation about Kinect, so..
The Conference is from 16 to 18 august 2010. Let us know how you liked it:

http://www.gdceurope.com/index.html

Thanks to Kinect's ability to track hand and arm gestures, it can understand somebody signing at it in American Sign Language, and then convert it to either text or spoken word. Would that not be great. That would make text input through sign language possible and maybe also text output?

Microsoft will be organising a Kinect accessibility Roundtable in September so this is really serious. What could this mean for games and communication for people who are deaf or hard of hearing?

More accessibility discussion on this forum at: http://www.game-accessibility.com/forum … hp?id=4072

Eric Velleman

In addition, if a gamer purchases a stand-alone GameBook game and installs it, the GameBook they already have installed will be retrofitted with SAPI.  We hope that will please the folks who have complained about our previous voice!

There are 17 GameBook games (including 5 Popcorn games) that are blind accessible as well as all 8 of the Pizza Games for young children. 

Enjoy!

Eleanor Robinson
7-128 Software

In addition, if a gamer purchases a stand-alone GameBook game and installs it, the GameBook they already have installed will be retrofitted with SAPI.  We hope that will please the folks who have complained about our previous voice!

There are 17 GameBook games (including 5 Popcorn games) that are blind accessible as well as all 8 of the Pizza Games for young children. 

Enjoy!

Eleanor Robinson
7-128 Software