BRING THE USERS TO THE GAMES BY THE USAGE OF THE ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY RAPID INTEGRATION & CONSTRUCTION SET
Authors:
Roland OSSMANN, Gerhard NUSSBAUM, Stefan PARKER, Dominique ARCHAMBAULT, Klaus MIESENBERGER
Abstract:
In this paper we will present a new, flexible, easy configurable and affordable assistive technology called AsTeRICS. The AsTeRICS (Assistive Technology Rapid Integration & Construction Set) project will be introduced, describing the platform, the hardware and software design and the key features. In a next step, the games accessibility guidelines will be brought back into mind. Based on these guidelines, it will be shown, how the AsTeRICS platform can help making games accessible for persons with mobility disabilities. Therefore, the use of AsTeRICS will make the game automatically follow a substantial subset of these guidelines and it will be shown where the platform will support game developers. Furthermore, the borders, where AT in general and AsTeRICS in particular are not sufficient, so the game developer must manually follow some guidelines, will be presented. This paper shows how to bring the group of disabled gamers closer to (mainstream) games.
Keywords:
Games Accessibility, Accessibility Guidelines, Assistive Technology.