Towards a low cost adaptation of educational games for people with disabilities

Abstract

In this paper we analyze how to increase the level of accessibility in videogames by adding support for it in game authoring software. This approach can reduce the effort required to make a game accessible for people with disabilities, resulting in significant savings. A case study is presented to support the approach based on the eAdventure educational game authoring platform, which allows semi-automatic adaptation of the games. The game, My First Day At Work, was made accessible for students with different disability profiles, mainly blindness, low vision and limited mobility, although hearing and cognitive disabilities are also considered. Results show that the effort needed to make the games accessible is moderate in comparison to the total effort dedicated to game development. Although the specific solutions proposed are optimized for educational games, they could be generalized to other game frameworks and purposes (e.g. entertainment, advertising, etc.).