Social aspects in game accessibility research: a literature review

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Hassan Lobna Baltzar Pauliina
2022 DiGRA ’22 – Proceedings of the 2022 DiGRA International Conference: Bringing Worlds Together

Games and game-based applications are part of entertainment, learning, socialization, and many other daily life activities. They have become a key part of the social fabric of our societies, nonetheless, social aspects in games and game-based applications have received little attention, meaning that these game technologies often remain inaccessible to people with disabilities, especially within social use contexts. This study is a literature review of research on game accessibility (2016 -2020 inclusive) to investigate social aspects in game accessibility literature, The findings indicate the scarcity of research primarily investigating social themes. Individuals with disabilities differ in their social accessibility challenges and needs based on the type of disability they have. The lack of conscious research on social aspects of game accessibility threatens to further the exclusion of people with disabilities from gaming and related activities and this study provides directions for further research of social themes.

 

Body Count

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Carr Diane
2018 DiGRA ’18 – Abstract Proceedings of the 2018 DiGRA International Conference: The Game is the Message

 

Delicate Subjects: Vulnerability and validation in action adventure games

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Carr Diane
2016 DiGRA/FDG '16 - Abstract Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG

 

Players, Diverse Bodies and Embodied Interpretation: Issues in Research Design

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Carr Diane
2016 DiGRA/FDG '16 - Abstract Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG

 

Textual Analysis, Digital Games, Zombies

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Carr Diane
2009 DiGRA '09 - Proceedings of the 2009 DiGRA International Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory

This paper is a contribution to ongoing debates about the value and limitations of textual analysis in digital games research. It is argued that due to the particular nature of digital games, both structural analysis and textual analysis are relevant to game studies. Unfortunately they tend to be conflated. Neither structural nor textual factors will fully determine meaning, but they are aspects of the cycle through which meaning is produced during play. Meaning in games is emergent, and play is a situated practice. Undertaking the textual analysis of a game does not necessarily involve ignoring these points. Textual analysis, like any methodology, does have limitations. The specifics of these limitations, however, will depend on the particular model of textuality employed. These issues are explored through an analysis of the survival horror game, Resident Evil 4.