Synthesis of Work and Opportunities for Gaming with Motor Mobility Disabilities
Overview
When you think about gaming, you may imagine hands gripping a controller and maybe mashing some buttons in quick succession. This classic vision of a gamer, however, misses the fact that there are millions of people with motor-mobility disabilities (from arthritis, to tremors, to full paralysis) who want to be able to play games. Intel, as a key player in the creation of gaming PCs and a collaborator with Dell and Microsoft of accessible gaming projects, wanted to get a sense of what existing research and experts pointed towards as areas for innovation in this space. Working as an independent researcher funded through a gift from Intel to the Center for Responsible, Ethical and Accessible Technology (CREATE), I reviewed existing research, interviewed experts, and generated a report pointing towards key areas for Intel involvement and innovation in the field of disabled gaming.
Problem Statement
What do existing research sources and industry experts identify as areas where more technology, tooling, or research is needed in the area of games accessibility for those with motor mobility disabilities?
Methods
Intel had begun researching accessibility use cases a few years before and needed a review of the gaming technology and disability literature. Working with Intel’s Director of Accessibility, Darryl Adams, and other stakeholders in the accessibility office, client computing group, and partner organizations such as Dell, I conducted secondary research from a broad range of academic and industry sources. For each document, I summarized the main idea, key interesting details for Intel, and other points of interest worth investigating. This data was put into a resource document and had my supervisors review the summaries and pull out any keywords or topics of interest that they felt were valuable to Intel. From that I had a more focused second round of research to get deeper insight into those handful of technologies or research keywords. The full corpus of papers and summaries were the basis for my written report and presentation.
In addition to my desk research, Intel was interested in some interviews with experts in the games and accessibility space to get their perspective on what areas were well covered versus what areas were poised for more technical development. I contacted accessibility leads at various companies that were familiar with Darryl Adams, the Director of Accessibility overseeing the project. I also found potential interview participants based on research topics that were interesting to Intel and areas that early interviewees mentioned needed more work. In total I spoke to six experts in the games accessibility space, from accessibility consultants to heads of accessibility at games companies, to accessible game developers. I summarized these interviews and the findings from them as part of my final report.
After finishing the initial research, I was off to an internship at Microsoft Research. When I came back to Intel for the summer, I was tasked with synthesizing my work with two other related Intel studies. The first was a qualitative study in collaboration with the Shepherd Center, where they interviewed gamers with motor-mobility impairments about their gaming set-ups and accessibility needs. From this data I created compelling user profiles showing the common problems and unique opportunities in technology for physically disabled gamers. The second study was a quantitative survey of gamers with disabilities and the assistive technologies or gaming software used, which I reported statistics on to give stakeholders an understanding of broader context. I compiled all data into a single report, starting from the business case for accessibility, to specific technologies that Intel could improve on to benefit a wide range of users.
Outcomes:
Because of my work on this project, there are a few ongoing Intel investments in gaming and disability. The RED team, the Southwest ADA Center, and Dell are currently working on a journal article, which I was tapped to consult on, based on the survey study data. Additionally, after presenting my findings to Microsoft, Dell, and Intel, there is an ongoing collaboration seeing if Intel technology can advance Microsoft's Adaptive Gaming accessories, or if Intel can partner with Dell to create a more accessible gaming laptop. One of the features discussed for the laptop, based on my findings that keyboards often cause issues for people with dexterity impairments when trying to complete fast-paced games, is input correction so that users who press the wrong key could still be able to successfully complete their games. The studies on gaming and disability were also part of the use cases document I created during my internship to keep accessibility in mind with future Intel product releases.
