Guidelines of Serious Game Accessibility
for the Disabled
Hwa-Jin Park
Sang-Beom Kim
Dept. of Multimedia
Sookmyung Women’s University
Seoul, Korea
[email protected]
School of Real Estate Management
Sejong Cyber University
Seoul, Korea
[email protected]
Abstract—Web accessibility/mobile app accessibility for the
disabled has been studied for the past 10 years. The legislation of
web accessibility guidelines can guarantee easy access to web
contents of the disabled but not game playing, because web/
mobile app contents consists of rather simple information
compared with game contents. Game contents include many PCs
(player characters)/NPCs (non PCs) and the conflicts among
them, as well as upgrade of a player character by completion of a
quest in competition. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze and
classify game accessibility so as to make the game accessibility
guidelines.
Keywords—web
accessibility;.
accessibility;
I.
a
serious
game;
game
TABLE I.
Principles
WEB ACCESSIBILITY
Guidelines
▪ Provide alternative text
Perceivable
▪ Multimedia alternative
methods
▪ Clarity
Introduction
A serious game is a game designed for a special purpose,
including entertainment elements. Generally, the effects on
education, remedy, and training are increasing. Recently,
reducing harmful effects of excessive immersion and
enforcing the good functions of gaming in Korea, the serious
game research in many laboratories is very active. In addition,
game companies invest in a serious game for image
improvement and a return profit. “Hanja Maru” in English
education, ‘brain age' in the medical field, and “wii sports" in
sports genres are very successful cases, with many other
serious games also being developed [1]. In particular, serious
games for the socially weak like the disabled are in very high
demand for content that is enjoyable and has some sort of
cognitive benefit. However, the previous game is a simple
training program and very inconvenient to use without
considering accessibility. Therefore, this paper suggests the
planning of games by dividing the levels of disability and by
classifying the game play method and accessibility according
to the level of disability.
II.
(World Wide Web Consortium) suggests 4 primary web
accessibility principles - perceivable, operable, understandable,
and robust [2]. The guidelines and checklists associated with
each core principle are as follows:
Related Research
A. Web Accessibility
Web accessibility is put in place to guarantee any user
can access information equally with the non-disabled in any
technical circumstances without professional techniques. W3C
▪ Keyboard access
▪ Provide enough time
Operable
▪ Light sensitivity
seizure prevention
▪ Easy navigation
▪ Readability
▪ Predictability
Understandable
▪ Logicality of contents
▪ Input assistance
Robust
▪ Grammar observance
▪ Web application
accessibility
Check list
▪ Provide a proper
alternative text
▪ Provide the subtitles
▪ Contents recognition
unrelated color
▪ Clear direction
▪ Brightness contrast
▪ Prohibition of
background sound
▪ Keyboard usage
guarantee
▪ Focus moving
▪ Adjust response time
▪ Provide holding function
▪ Restriction on flickering
and sparkling
▪ Jump over repeating
fields
▪ Provide a title
▪ Proper link text
▪ Basic language
▪ Activate the request of
user
▪ Linearization of contents
▪ Composition of table
▪ Provide a label
▪ Error correction
▪ Markup error prevention
▪ Web application
accessibility observance
B. Planning of a serious game
Other than the process of a common game planning, that of
a serious game is to specify the original purpose for
improvement and to include feedback of the achievement from
step 1. The following table shows the steps of planning a
serious game [5].
978-1-4799-0604-8/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE
Game playing
interface
accessibility
TABLE II.
PROCESS OF A SERIOUS GAME
Process
Step 2: Scenario planning (character)
Description
Define training contents and the
degree of difficulty
Various stories
Step 3: Game component planning
Item, puzzle, event
Step 1: Define game goals
Step 4: Reward planning
Rewards online/offline
Step 5: Training progress planning
Step 6: Planning training effects
and achievement
Provide training progress
Provide game effects and
Achievement
III.
Game Accessibility
Web accessibility for the disabled was legislated, and most
portal sites and homepages of famous enterprises should
follow the regulation. However, a game in which many men
and women have fun naturally can’t follow all regulations
about web accessibility due to the basic function of the game;
that is, the speed of too many characters, and a lot of
information and items based on the graphical models.
Therefore, the disabled who wants to enjoy computer games
cannot be satisfied. Moreover, it is true that negative social
views about online games disregards the disabled rights of
having fun with the game. However, the positive functions of
a game are emphasized recently, and the serious game
improving the physical function of the disabled is in high
demand.
A. Classification of game accessibility
Web accessibility / mobile accessibility for the disabled
and the aged has been studied for the past 10 years. The
legislation of web accessibility cannot guarantee the use of
game playing because web accessibility is only about web
contents and app contents, which is simple information
without immersion or scenario. On the other hand, game
contents encourage many characters and the conflicts among
them, as well as the upgrade of a PC by completion of a quest
in competition. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze and
classify game accessibility and to make guidelines for game
companies. GA (game accessibility) is classified into three sub
groups; technical accessibility includes basic web accessibility,
game content accessibility that suggests the proper complexity
in scenarios and in game genre, and game playing interface
accessibility, that suggests the proper playing method
according to the disabled.
TABLE III.
Class of
accessibility
Technical
accessibility
Game content
accessibility
CLASSIFICATION OF GA
Motivation
▪ Complexity of web
contents
▪ Complexity of multitype scenarios and
characters
Description
▪ Same with table Ⅰ.
▪ Restrain the number of
appearances of PC/NPC
multi-type scenario,
MMORPG and speed of
game playing progress
▪ Complexity of game
play method
(diversity/simultaneity)
▪ Restrain both hands
interface, multi keyboard,
mouse, joystick
B. Considerations of GA
1 While a serious game defines only functional goals at
○
the starting stage, a serious game for the disabled should also
define a target person in a specific disability class and his/her
functional goal.
2 The consistency of a scenario and synopsis, as well as
○
characters, is important to all versions of games for the
disabled/ non-disabled and the disability ratings.
3 Most of the OSMU (one source multi use) should be
○
considered for intimacy, especially for the disabled.
4 The complexity of the game scenario and the number of
○
PC and NPC in the class of disabilities should be considered.
5 The speed of scenario and game play in the disability
○
ratings should be considered.
6 GA should be considered in all steps, from the first step
○
to the end, while WA is considered at the implementation
level.
IV.
Guidelines For a Serious Game
Accessibility
This chapter suggests the guidelines of serious game
planning based on the GA discussed in chapter Ⅲ, and applies
a serious game plan complying with them.
▪ Step 1: Definition of a serious game goal with the disability
ratings.
Guideline: Define a serious game goal with the disability
ratings.
Define the method of game play complying with the
goal.
1 Major league baseball for the visually impaired,
Case study: ○
which includes improving the arm and shoulder
muscles via baseball game motion. (he/she should
2 A war game for the
swing his/her arm to play). ○
visually impaired, which improves leg strength by
mimicking horse riding.
▪ Step 2: Scenario planning (PC, NPC):
Guideline: Define various stories in various backgrounds,
game genres, and PC/NPC at the targets’ age,
gender, personality, and disability ratings.
Define a type of multi scenario and adjust the
scenario with a view to the disabled.
Define linear processing of a scenario with a view
to the disabled.
1 Become a pitcher who is involved with a team
Case study: ○
(such as the Dodger’s) and win the tournament. The
complexity of the rules of baseball is
2 War in
understandable for the visually impaired. ○
the three states ages-territory battles among
Kokuryo, Backjae, and Shilla. Limit the number of
enemies appearing on the screen to less than 10.
▪ Step 3: Game components planning
Guideline: Design items, puzzles, events, and quests to elevate
immersion and excitement in the game.
Adjust the number of items and quests appearing in
the same scene.
Keep the speed of the game consistent.
Don’t lose the story line, but also require reading all
NPC’s actions and all additional items.
1 The item “a ball” make the speed of the
Case study: ○
baseball faster, or grant ability to throw a breaking
2 The item “sword” is a weapon to wield
ball. ○
against the enemy.
▪ Step 4: Reward planning
Guideline: Design two methods (on/off) of rewards to increase
the training/remedy effects of the game’s final goal.
If possible, make the sight impaired select the
rewards themselves. Such participation can
stimulate the desire of mission completion.
1 Provide a coupon to attend a real baseball
Case study: ○
game when the sight impaired finish and become a
2 Provide
winner at the major league baseball game. ○
a Korea map if he/she finishes the mission of
unification of the three states in the game “3-states
era” via horse riding exercise game.
▪ Step 5: Training progress planning
Guideline: Define the level of exercise to improve the function.
Connect each game’s upgrade mission to the
functional status.
1 If he/she finishes and wins the baseball game,
Case study: ○
it means that his/her shoulder is strengthened. So
the next game goes against a stronger team, which
seems to require stronger shoulder power. If he/she
fails, the stage should be repeated.
▪ Step 6: Planning of training effects and achievement
Guideline: Make the sight impaired understand the evaluation
of a serious game.
Express praise and make him/her happy.
Remind them that the most important thing in this
step is to make them replay.
1 Provide the effects and achievement to him
Case study: ○
/her when the baseball game is over. Even though
the player might lose the game, express praise and
encourage them to play again.
V.
Conclusion and Future Work
This paper investigates and analyzes GA (game
accessibility) for the disabled and suggests guidelines for
game planning. Finally, a new serious game for the sight
impaired is created based on the guidelines in each of the
planning steps as an example. The contribution of this
research is a new concept to GA, including not only web
accessibility but also game contents accessibility and game
play interface accessibility. In addition, GA should be
considered in all planning stages from the first step to the end.
This guideline is leading the way of game planning and lets
the game company develop more conveniently. Therefore, the
disabled are expecting to play a serious game with enjoyment.
For future research, a serious game recognizing
gestures/behavior based on this guideline will be implemented.
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[2]
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[4]
[5]
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