GAMES ACCESSIBILITY FROM THE PLAYERS STANDPOINT

WHO ARE YOU AND WHY SHOULD WE CARE?

Games for Health ‘08

e. Coli

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Games for Health ‘08

What is an AbleGamer?• An AbleGamer is a guild mate, clan buddy, or

forum friend that, due to a disability, must approach a game with a different toolset than the average player.

Every AbleGamer is different.• Physical

Disabilities– Spinal Cord

Injury– Autoimmune

Disorders– Amputations– Brain Injury– Many more…

• Sight– Total Blindness– Partial Blindness– Color Blindness

• Hearing– Degrees of

Deafness

So what am I going to talk about.Physical Disabilities

Games on the PC

MMORPG’s

TO SOME, A GAME IS A GAME, TO OTHER IT IS A WINDOW TO THE WORLD

Stephanie Walker (aka Camilya)• Multiple Sclerosis• Plays EQ2 / Conan • Games let her connect with far away

friends.• She can “not be disabled” for a while• No one has to know she has a medical

issue unless she chooses to let you know.

• She can run, anywhere she wants.

How does Stephanie Play

Tim Donaghy (aka Akrin)• Quadriplegic from a boating

accident.• Plays WOW• Likes to connect with people

without being looked after.• Can do something without the

need for help.

How does Tim Play

Trends• Gone are the keyboard and mouse

setups.• Hardware makers are seeing that

gamers are the next big thing.

Trends

CPUCPU

RAMRAM

DiskDisk

CPUCPU CPUCPU

RAMRAM

DiskDisk DiskDisk

The old way New Gaming Rigs

Some observations on AbleGamers

THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIMEMark Barlet

MARK BARLETIOO@ABLEGAMERS.COM202.258.1937

I forgot business cards, sorry