Kinect Games made Accessible to Blind Gamers

We made the Kinect hurdles game accessible to players who are blind, using a technique called real time sensory substitution. Using video analysis we detect those visual cues that indicate when to jump and translate this into vibrotactile cues provided with a Wii remote, which should allow someone who is blind to play this game without visual feedback.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• accessibility
• visually
• impaired
• blind
• Kinect
• exergames

[eelkefolmer]

@florie0117 I understand your point but I would argue that audio plays a big role in video games as well.

My personal experiences with blind children is that they can get immersed in playing video games using non visual modalities. Many audio games have been developed. You may want to take a look at some of our other projects where blind kids play our Wii based games using audio and haptic feedback google "vifit"

[florie0117]

As a visually impaired person w/ macular degeneration, I am grateful for the effort to accommodate disabled users. But as a UX designer and usability professional, this makes no sense whatsoever.

Visual immersion is a key ingredient in the enjoyment of this type of game. It's almost cruel to have a blind person imaginary run and jump hurdles, which, btw, can just as well be achieved without a console.

Seriously people. Come on now.