Slides of my presentation at the ICWL 2012 conference in Sinaia, Romania. In this paper we discussed the need to improve the accessibility of educational video games to prevent digital divide. But, making an educational game accessible should be transparent for the game creator, who has too many things to deal with already (art resources, storyboard, pedagogy...). The only way to make this possible is to automate the process - and that is what we are trying to analyse, to what extent a game can be adapted automatically with minimum human intervention. Of course, we are using eAdventure as our test environment and target platform.

1. Automatic and Semiautomatic
Methodologies

2. More research is More games are Increasing
available available acceptance
2

3. Accessibility
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4. 4

5. Incompatibility software
with screen Need to respond
readers quickly Story is too
complex and
Poor contrast Game speed cannot be
cannot be followed
Vital clues given configured
in cutscenes Incompatibility
No subtitles with special
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6. Ethical issue Ageing population
Legal issues Beneficial for all
Economic issues
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7. 7

8. Pedagogical design
Good game mechanics
Appealing storyboard / Narrative
Art resources
Testing
…
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9. Goal: Make dealing with accessibility as effortless and
easy as possible
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10. 10

11. 11

12. 12

13. Blind students
Students with reduced
mobility in hands
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14. 100% Automatic Process
Game with Game with
Game adapted adapted
Author (s) interface 1 interface N
Student 1 Student N
…
Game description Accessibility Accessibility Accessibility
files (xml) & resources module 1 module 2 module M
Game editor core (jpeg, avi, …) Game engine core
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15. 15

16. Module activation / deactivation
(Fully automatic process)
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17. http://youtu.be/ROg3pjnfi8U
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18. 18

19. Blind students
Students with reduced
mobility in hands
Low vision students (New)
Students with slight cognitive disability (New)
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20. SemiAutomatic Process
Game with Game with
Game Author adapted adapted
(s) interface 1 interface N
Student 1 Student N
…
Game description Accessibility Accessibility Accessibility
files (xml) & resources module 1 module 2 module M
Game editor core (jpeg, avi, …) Game engine core
Access Config Access Config
tool 1 tool X Additional description
files (xml) +
alternative resources
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21. 21

22. 22

23. Alternative descriptions for game elements
Alternative art resources
Alternative story (students with cognitive disabilities)
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24. 10 users (3 blind, 4 low vision, 3 with reduced mobility)
Minor intervention from researchers needed
Enhanced config flexibility would be beneficial
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25. 25

26. 26

27. Game with Game with
Game Author adapted adapted
(s) interface 1 interface N
Student 1 Student N
…
Access auditing Access auditing Game description Accessibility Accessibility Accessibility
tool 1 tool Y files (xml) & resources module 1 module 2 module M
Game editor core (jpeg, avi, …) Game engine core
Access Config Access Config
tool 1 tool X Additional description
files (xml) +
alternative resources
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28. 28

29. Educational games should be accessible
Accessibility should transparent
Tools are needed!
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30. jtorrente@fdi.ucm.es