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.