An approach to mobile serious games accessibility assessment for people with hearing impairments

Abstract

Serious games allow educating in a fun way in different areas and its development in mobile devices has been growing since the advent of smartphones. However, accessibility for people with hearing impairments has not been considered as a necessary element in the development of this type of video games. Unfortunately, there is no model for assessing the accessibility of serious games for people with hearing impairments, although some video games development companies recommend general guidelines for the construction of these applications. This paper presents a compilation and analysis of the current accessibility guidelines for the development of video games for people with hearing impairments. As a case study, an assessment of a mobile game is made to identify its level of accessibility. An analysis tool for those who wish to develop or evaluate serious games for people with hearing impairments on mobile devices is proposed.