Talk Recording
(via the Accessibility NYC YouTube channel)
An article version of this talk is available on the Equal Entry blog.
Talk Summary
Video games offer entertainment and a sense of community for many, yet for people who are blind or have low vision (BLV), these experiences are largely inaccessible. The vast majority of video games are not designed with BLV players in mind, and games that are specifically created for BLV players tend to lack the depth and complexity found in mainstream titles. The challenge at hand is not just about creating accessible games but ones that are equivalently accessible — ensuring that BLV gamers can dive into the same vibrant worlds and enjoy equally enriching experiences as their sighted counterparts.
In this talk, I share insights from my journey in designing, building, and testing video game accessibility tools for BLV players to navigate and engage with 3D game worlds in a fun and independent way. Through a deep dive into three of my major Ph.D. projects, I highlight feedback from BLV gamers and discuss what these projects reveal about next steps within game accessibility and even beyond.
Additional Resources
Introduction
- A link to a playthrough of Terraformers.
- Or if you want to play the game yourself, you can download it for free from its official website.
- Article from 2023 in the Montreal Gazette on accessible gaming for BLV gamers.
- Overviews of the "8 Kinds of Fun" by Riot Games (starts on page 7) and on Gnome Stew.
Project 1: NavStick
- Main project page for NavStick.
- Demo video showing NavStick in action. (Note that this video does not contain any narration.)
- Academic paper on NavStick, published at ACM UIST 2021.
- The room from Terraformers that we replicated for Study 1 can be found at 8:30 within this playthrough.
- There is an effort within our lab (the Computer-Enabled Abilities Laboratory) to convert NavStick into a plugin for the Unreal Engine that developers can use to integrate the tool within their games. Release is expected sometime soon!
Project 2: Spatial awareness tools (SATs)
- Main project page for the SAT project.
- Demo video showing the four SATs we implemented in action.
- Academic paper on the SAT project, published at ACM ASSETS 2022.
Project 3: Surveyor
- Main project page for the Surveyor project.
- Demo video showing Surveyor in action.
- Academic paper on Surveyor, published at ACM CHI 2024.
Other projects
- Main project page for the ImageAssist project (creating touchscreen-based image exploration tools for BLV users), which I led.
- Demo video showing ImageAssist in action.
- Academic paper on ImageAssist, published at ACM CHI 2023.
- Main project page for the ASSIST project (creating a turn-by-turn indoor navigation system for BLV users), which I led during my undergrad.
- Demo video (from 2018) showing ASSIST in action.