Article by two researchers on video game accessibility awarded by the industry
Researchers and lecturers from the UAB Faculty of Translation and Interpreting María Eugenia Larreina Morales and Carme Mangiron were recently awarded the Best Academic Research prize for their paper on video game accessibility at the GACONF Awards 2023, the most important event held by the video game industry and focused on accessibility.
The 2023 edition of the GAconf Awards, the international gaming industry's premier event, recognises the efforts of people around the world to raise the bar for accessibility. This year awards were presented in 19 categories, shortlisted by a jury of experts, with the winners decided by a combination of public and jury voting.
UAB researchers María Eugenia Larreina Morales and Carme Mangiron won in the best academic research category with an article on accessibility in video games. Their article had previously been selected to compete with two other articles by other international researchers.
The winning article is entitled "Audio description in video games? Persons with visual disabilities weigh in" and was published in the journal Universal Access in the Information Society in open access. The jury, which described it as an excellent paper, noted that it addresses a very topical issue and "points to a future of more accessible games for blind and low vision players with data that game developers can use with their equipment".
The awards were announced this past Wednesday, 24 January, in a ceremony broadcast online. The award to the UAB researchers appears in the 36th minute of the video of the full ceremony on the IGDA-GASIG YouTube channel, with audio description, ASL, BSL and full subtitles in English, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.
The article presents part of the results of the project "Research on audio description: translation, speech and new scenarios (RAD)", funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (2019-2022).
One of the main objectives of the project was to investigate the possible inclusion of audio description (AD) in video games to improve their accessibility and contribute to a better gaming experience for visually impaired people.
Survey of blind people on accessibility in video games
The award-winning article presents data collected in a survey of blind and low vision people in Spain, for which 106 valid responses were received. The survey topics included the accessibility barriers to video games encountered by participants, the solutions they would like to see implemented and their interest in the application of AD in video games.
Survey participants were interested in including AD in video games, especially in non-interactive parts such as cinematic scenes. The results also show that screen reader support should be improved, sounds should be enhanced and the technical feasibility of real-time AD in interactive parts of video games should be explored.
"These results can be useful for developers to improve the accessibility of video games for blind people and thus reach a wider audience and contribute to a more inclusive society," say the two award-winning researchers from the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting at the UAB.
Awarded article:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10209-023-01036-4
More information on GAconf Awards:
https://www.gaconf.com/gaconf-awards-2023/
Video of the award being given to the researchers (minute 36):