Level-Up! Comparing accessibility features based on gameplay performance.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17411/jacces.v14i2.400Abstract
This study examined the impact of accessibility cues on hearing and non-hearing players’ performance in a 3D, third-person shooter video game. The intent was to resolve the debate about whether accessibility features unfairly lessen the difficulty of video games for hearing players. In this study, players completed the video game with three accessibility cue conditions (visual, haptic, both) and were assigned to one of two audio conditions (audio, no audio). Hard-of-Hearing (HOH) participants played the video game under all three cue conditions. Performance data indicated that accessibility cues helped players without audio without affording an unfair advantage to those with audio. Qualitative data indicated that participants’ beliefs about the cues aligned with the popular—but inaccurate—belief that accessibility cues afforded them an advantage. This research is a first step in examining accessibility cues in the context of video games. The results can be applied to video game design as well as to other fields that use cues to convey information—such as human perception—and as a method for designing cues for training people in the medical, aerospace, and education fields.
References
Americans With Disabilities Act 1990, Pub. L. No. 101-336. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-104/pdf/STATUTE-104-Pg327.pdf
Barlet, M. C., Spohn, S. D. (2012). Includification: A practical guide to game. The Ablegamers Foundation. ISBN-13: 978-1479289356 ISBN-10: 1479289353. https://accessible.games/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/AbleGamers_Includification.pdf
Bierre, K., Chetwynd, J., Ellis, B., Hinn, D. M., Ludi, S., Westin, T. (2005). Game not over: Accessibility issues in video games. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction, 22-27. ISBN: 0805858075. https://www.academia.edu/585823/Game_not_over_Accessibility_issues_in_video_games
Black, P. E. (2005). Fisher-Yates shuffle. Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures. https://xlinux.nist.gov/dads/HTML/fisherYatesShuffle.html
Bovard, P. P., Sprehn, K. A., Cunha, M. G., Chun, J., Kim, S., Schwartz, J. L., ... Dey, A. K. (2018, July). Multi-modal interruptions on primary task performance. In International Conference on Augmented Cognition, 3-14. Springer, Cham. https://www.interruptions.net/literature/Bovard-HCII18.pdf
Broadbent, D. E. (1958). The selective nature of learning. In D. E.Broadbent, Perception and communication, 244–267. Pergamon Press. https://doi.org/10.1037/10037-010
Bürkner, P.C. (2019). Package brms (Version 2.9.0) [Computer software]
Department of Justice. (2010, September 15). 2010 ADA standards for accessible design. http://www.ada.gov/regs2010/2010ADAStandards/2010ADAstandards.htm
Ellis, B., Ford-Williams, G., Graham, L., Grammenos, D., Hamilton, I., Lee, E., Manion, J. Westin, T. (2020, January 30). Game accessibility guidelines. http://gameaccessibilityguidelines.com/
Fisher, R.A. (1992). Statistical Methods for Research Workers. In: Kotz, S., Johnson, N.L. (eds) Breakthroughs in Statistics. Springer Series in Statistics (pp. 66-70). Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4380-9_6
Federal Communications Commission (FCC). (2010). 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA). https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/21st-century-communications-and-video-accessibility-act-cvaa
Halton, J. H. (1964). Algorithm 247: Radical-inverse quasi-random point sequence. Communications of the ACM, 7(12), 701–702. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/355588.365104
Jørgensen, K. (2008). Left in the dark: playing computer games with the sound turned off. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351217743-12
Lu, S. A., Wickens, C. D., Sarter, N. B., Sebok, A. (2011). Informing the Design of Multimodal Displays: A Meta-Analysis of Empirical Studies Comparing Auditory and Tactile Interruptions. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 55(1), 1170-1174. https://doi.org/10.1177/1071181311551244
Medeiros-Ward, N., Cooper, J. M., Doxon, A. J., Strayer, D. L., Provancher, W. R. (2010). Bypassing the Bottleneck: The Advantage of Fingertip Shear Feedback for Navigational Cues. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 54(24), 2042-2047. https://doi.org/10.1177/154193121005402405
GameCentral. (2021, September). Accessibility in video games should mean adding hard modes as well as just easy Readers Feature [Editorial]. Metro UK. https://metro.co.uk/2021/09/18/accessibility-in-games-should-mean-adding-hard-modes-as-well-as-easy-15278079/
Navalpakkam, V., Itti, L. (2005). Optimal cue selection strategy. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems, 18, 987-994. https://papers.nips.cc/paper_files/paper/2005/file/2eb5657d37f474e4c4cf01e4882b8962-Paper.pdf
Ng, P.,Nesbitt, K. (2013, September). Informative sound design in video games. In Proceedings of the 9th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Matters of Life and Death, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1145/2513002.2513015
Pao, L. Y., D. A. Lawrence (1998, May). Synergistic visual/haptic computer interfaces. In Proceedings of Japan/USE/Vietnam Workshop on Research and Education in Systems, Computation and Control Engineering, (pp. 155-162). https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=64574142944ddcf784c30d3105165c1f75423465
Porter, J. R. (2014). Understanding and addressing real-world accessibility issues in mainstream video games. ACM SIGACCESS Accessibility and Computing, (108), 42-45. https://doi.org/10.1145/2591357.2591364
Powers, G., Nguyen, V., Frieden, L. (2015). Video game accessibility: A legal approach. Disability Studies Quarterly, 35(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.18061/dsq.v35i1.4513
Rosenholtz, R., Li, Y., Nakano, L. (2007). Measuring visual clutter. Journal of vision, 7(2), 17-17. https://doi.org/10.1167/7.2.17
Sklar, A. E., Sarter, N. B. (1999). Good vibrations: Tactile feedback in support of attention allocation and human-automation coordination in event-driven domains. Human Factors, 41(4), 543-552. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1518/001872099779656716
Soto, D., Humphreys, G. W., Heinke, D. (2006). Working memory can guide pop-out search. Vision Research, 46(6-7), 1010-1018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2005.09.008
Stanton, N. A., Young, M., McCaulder, B. (1997). Drive-by-wire: The case of driver workload and reclaiming control with adaptive cruise control. Safety Science, 27(2-3), 149-159. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0925-7535(97)00054-4
Story M. F. (2001). Principles of universal design. In: Preiser WFE, Ostroff E., eds. Universal design handbook. Boston: McGraw-Hill, New York. https://www.academia.edu/19286642/Universal_Design_Handbook
Story, M. F., Mueller, J. L., Mace, R. L. (1998). The universal design file: Designing for people of all ages and abilities. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED460554.pdf
Van Erp, J. B., Van Veen, H. A. H. C. (2001, July). Vibro-tactile information presentation in automobiles. In Proceedings of Eurohaptics (Vol. 2002, pp. 99-104). Paris, France: Eurohaptics Society. http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:9f0b90e5-9146-477b-8219-e1e0d537e6a1
Vangsness, L. (2019). The role of peripheral cues in judgments of difficulty [Doctoral dissertation, Kansas State University, K-State Research Exchange (K-REx)]. https://krex.k-state.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/952b0e25-4a78-4fc3-96e0-43e635ba9758/content
Ubisoft [@Ubisoft]. (2019, September 25). Control your controls. Ghost Recon Breakpoint comes with a whole host of accessibility features, check them out. [Tweet]. X. http://twitter.com/Ubisoft/status/1176909865803010049?s=20
Unity Technologies. (2019, February, 8). Unity Game Engine (Version 2018.3.5) [Computer software]. Unity Technologies. https://unity.com/releases/editor/whats-new/2018.3.5
Wickens, C. D. (1980). The structure of attentional resources. In R. Nickerson (ed.), Attention and Performance VIII (Vol. 8, pp. 239–257). Lawrence Erlbaum. eBook ISBN 9781315802961. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315802961
Wickens, C. D. (1991). Processing resources and attention. In D. L. Damos, Multiple-task performance (pp. 3-34). Taylor Francis, Inc. eBook ISBN 9781003069447. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.1201/9781003069447-2/processing-resources-attention-christopher-wickens
Wickens, C. D. (2002). Multiple resources and performance prediction. Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science, 3(2), 159–177. https://doi.org/10.1080/14639220210123806
Wickens, C. D., Sandry, D. L., Vidulich, M. (1983). Compatibility and resource competition between modalities of input, central processing, and output. Human factors, 25(2), 227-248. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872088302500209
World Health Organization (2020, March 1). Deafness and hearing loss. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/deafness-and-hearing-loss
Downloads
Published
Versions
- 2025-03-31 (2)
- 2024-11-11 (1)
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Lisa Vangsness, Jasmine Granados, Dominic Canare
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share or adapt the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. Use of the work for commercial purposes are not allowed.
- Authors are able to publish the journal's published version of the work in other media (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as far as they inform the Journal of Accessibility and Design for All of that fact. When publishing their work in other sources, authors must mention the name of the Journal of Accessibility and Design for All, its ISSN, the number and issue in which the article was published and a link to the main page of the Journal of Accessibility and Design for All. Optionally, they can also include a link to the article published in the Journal of Accessibility and Design for All.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website), as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
