Using serious games for cognitive disabilities

Abstract

Serious games have increasingly become a good option with regards to professional training. However, the majority isn’t appropriate for people with cognitive disabilities, since there are several obstacles when developing for such a heterogeneous population. This paper’s objective is to contribute for the development of serious games for people with cognitive disabilities by presenting a list of recommended design principles, collated from recent literature. A strong emphasis is placed on the adaptability of games since this is an important characteristic that ensures the game can be configured to fit to the needs of each player, minimizing the obstacles encountered and providing a personalized environment for learning. In some cases cognitive disabilities can have motor control implications and consequently the traditional devices commonly used may not be the most appropriate for this population. In order to help developers choosing an adequate device, this paper also surveys and compares the most common devices used nowadays for serious games.