An Overview of Accessibility and Usability of Educational Games

This chapter presents an overview of accessibility and usability for educational computer-based games and the first survey of the accessibility and usability of digital educational games. The overview includes a discussion of accessibility and usability, both in general and in the specific context of educational games, as well as a brief presentation of issues relating to game design, including of mobile games. Since there are no previous studies of the accessibility and usability of educational computer-based games, studies of the accessibility and usability of the related areas of virtual learning environments, digital games for entertainment and PDF documents, are also presented. The overview of accessibility and usability and the results of the survey are used to draw up a structured list of 62 guidelines and recommendations, organised into three categories at the first level and ten at the second level. These guidelines and recommendations are illustrated by an example of their application to a fictitious new educational game.

[1]  David Sloan,et al.  Forcing standardization or accommodating diversity?: a framework for applying the WCAG in the real world , 2005, W4A '05.

[2]  Thomas W. Malone,et al.  What makes things fun to learn? heuristics for designing instructional computer games , 1980, SIGSMALL '80.

[3]  David Skinner,et al.  Developing Usability and Utility: A Comparative Study of the Users of New IT , 2000 .

[4]  Mica R. Endsley,et al.  Toward a Theory of Situation Awareness in Dynamic Systems , 1995, Hum. Factors.

[5]  Miguel Nussbaum,et al.  Playability in Action Videogames: A Qualitative Design Model , 2002, Hum. Comput. Interact..

[6]  Marion Hersh.  PARTICIPATIVE RESEARCH WITH DIVERSE END-USER GROUPS: MULTI-LANGUAGE, MULTI-COUNTRY BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED PEOPLE , 2011 .

[7]  Stefano Federici,et al.  Checking an integrated model of web accessibility and usability evaluation for disabled people , 2005, Disability and rehabilitation.

[8]  Jakob Nielsen,et al.  Enhancing the explanatory power of usability heuristics , 1994, CHI '94.

[9]  Chris J. H. Fowler,et al.  Learning technology and usability: a framework for understanding courseware , 1999, Interact. Comput..

[10]  Martin Ebner,et al.  Successful implementation of user-centered game based learning in higher education: An example from civil engineering , 2007, Comput. Educ..

[11]  Constantine Stephanidis,et al.  Designing universally accessible games , 2009, CIE.

[12]  Jennifer E. Rowley,et al.  Towards a methodology for the design of multimedia public access interfaces , 1998, J. Inf. Sci..

[13]  Barbara Leporini,et al.  Editing Wikipedia content by screen reader: Easier interaction with the Accessible Rich Internet Applications suite , 2009, Disability and rehabilitation. Assistive technology.

[14]  David Sloan,et al.  Accessibility 2.0: people, policies and processes , 2007, W4A '07.

[15]  Michael Oliver,et al.  Fundamental Principles of Disability , 1996 .

[16]  Petri Nokelainen,et al.  Conceptual Definition of the Technical and Pedagogical Usability Criteria for Digital Learning Material , 2005 .

[17]  Elina M. I. Koivisto,et al.  Playability heuristics for mobile games , 2006, Mobile HCI.

[18]  Heather Desurvire,et al.  Using heuristics to evaluate the playability of games , 2004, CHI EA '04.

[19]  S. Greenberg,et al.  The Importance of Awareness for Team Cognition in Distributed Collaboration , 2001 .

[20]  Helen Petrie,et al.  The relationship between accessibility and usability of websites , 2007, CHI.

[21]  Iván Martínez-Ortiz,et al.  Educational game design for online education , 2008, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[22]  Michael Zyda,et al.  From visual simulation to virtual reality to games , 2005, Computer.

[23]  Marion Hersh.  METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES IN MULTI-COUNTRY MULTI-LANGUAGE PARTICIPATIVE RESEARCH WITH BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED PEOPLE , 2010 .

[24]  Barbara Leporini,et al.  Criteria for Usability of Accessible Web Sites , 2002, User Interfaces for All.

[25]  Agnes Kukulska-Hulme.  Human Factors and Innovation with Mobile Devices , 2008 .

[26]  Clark C. Abt,et al.  Serious games , 2016, Springer International Publishing.

[27]  Steve Dahlskog,et al.  Mapping the game landscape: Locating genres using functional classification , 2009, DiGRA Conference.

[28]  Marion Hersh.  Acessibility and Usability of Virtual Learning Environments , 2008, 2008 Eighth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies.

[29]  Ben Shneiderman.  Promoting universal usability with multi-layer interface design , 2002 .

[30]  Marion A. Hersh,et al.  Making Conference CDs Accessible: A Practical Example , 2008, ICCHP.

[31]  Helen Petrie,et al.  Tension, what tension?: Website accessibility and visual design , 2003, W4A '04.

[32]  Francisco Luis Gutiérrez Vela,et al.  Playability: How to Identify the Player Experience in a Video Game , 2009, INTERACT.

[33]  Barbara Leporini,et al.  Applying Web Usability Criteria for Vision-Impaired Users: Does It Really Improve Task Performance? , 2008, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[34]  Mary Frances Theofanos,et al.  Bridging the gap: between accessibility and usability , 2003, INTR.

[35]  Barbara Leporini,et al.  Distance Learning: New Opportunities for the Blind , 2010 .

[36]  Chuck Clanton,et al.  An interpreted demonstration of computer game design , 1998, CHI Conference Summary.

[37]  Espen Aarseth,et al.  Game Classification as Game Design: Construction Through Critical Analysis , 2005, DiGRA Conference.

[38]  Agnes Kukulska-Hulme,et al.  Mobile Usability in Educational Contexts: What have we learnt? , 2007 .

[39]  Lesley Shield,et al.  Are Language learning websites special? Towards a research agenda for discipline-specific usability , 2006 .

[40]  Barbara Leporini,et al.  Evaluating a modified Google user interface via screen reader , 2007, Universal Access in the Information Society.

[41]  James R. Lewis,et al.  IBM computer usability satisfaction questionnaires: Psychometric evaluation and instructions for use , 1995, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Interact..

[42]  Melissa A. Federoff,et al.  HEURISTICS AND USABILITY GUIDELINES FOR THE CREATION AND EVALUATION OF FUN IN VIDEO GAMES , 2002 .

[43]  Leela Damodaran,et al.  User involvement in the systems design process-a practical guide for users , 1996, Behav. Inf. Technol..

[44]  Jonathan Grudin,et al.  Computer-supported cooperative work: history and focus , 1994, Computer.

[45]  Sofoklis Sotiriou,et al.  The Motfal Project - Mobile Technologies For Ad-Hoc Learning , 2004, IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, 2004. Proceedings..