Kevin H Gordon
MFA Thesis
MFA Thesis
© 2019 - Kevin H Gordon
Introduction
Designing for Deaf Accessibility in VR
My name is Kevin Gordon and I’m from Mount Vernon, NY. I'm a game designer, graduate student and Hard of Hearing individual that specializes in Environment Art, Technical Art as well as designing experiences for VR/AR. In the past few years I worked on various VR projects where I was the Environment | Technical artist for the duration of production. Each project and experience I worked on was nothing short of amazing, as I was able to push the boundaries of my work to reach new heights. But as I continue developing and playing VR games and experiences, I noticed one glaring issue with all VR games. That issue is one that I hope to solve with this Project.
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION...
THESIS
Current accessibility features available on Virtual Reality games and experiences are inadequate. To ensure the next generation of Virtual Reality gamers are included in the fun, developers need
access to a set of uniform guidelines and tools that will aid in the production of accessibility
features for this new platform
access to a set of uniform guidelines and tools that will aid in the production of accessibility
features for this new platform
Thesis Abstract
In theory video games are made so that everyone can play, but more often than not for people in the Deaf community that is not the case. Designers and developers get so caught up in the process of making the game that they forget to make their games accessible until the tail end of a project. This leads to ineffective, confusing or even non-existent accessibility patches that are rushed to market without much forethought. With the advent of VR technology, this issue will only be exasperated. Though it is easy to say that the fault lies with the designers and developers, that is only a small part of the problem. The true issue lies in the fact that there’s no clear set of rules or guidelines, made by artist and designers, that governs designing for accessibility in the gaming space. To make video games more accessible for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, especially in the VR gaming space, accessibility can’t be an afterthought that’s tacked on at the end of a game.
The goal of this paper is to establish that set of visual and systemic guidelines that designers can use as a tool to make their VR games accessible early in development. Using the data collected from various sources, a set of 3 of the biggest core issues facing the Deaf community will be established. With that information a VR environment space will be created that where best practices will be tested and solution made to remedy those core issues. The target is to create a system of guidelines for developing and designing VR games to experiences more accessible for the Deaf community. True accessibility is realized when the developers and artists have access to tools and best practices as early as possible to aid in making their content so. This paper aims to make best practice tools a reality for developers everywhere.
In theory video games are made so that everyone can play, but more often than not for people in the Deaf community that is not the case. Designers and developers get so caught up in the process of making the game that they forget to make their games accessible until the tail end of a project. This leads to ineffective, confusing or even non-existent accessibility patches that are rushed to market without much forethought. With the advent of VR technology, this issue will only be exasperated. Though it is easy to say that the fault lies with the designers and developers, that is only a small part of the problem. The true issue lies in the fact that there’s no clear set of rules or guidelines, made by artist and designers, that governs designing for accessibility in the gaming space. To make video games more accessible for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, especially in the VR gaming space, accessibility can’t be an afterthought that’s tacked on at the end of a game.
The goal of this paper is to establish that set of visual and systemic guidelines that designers can use as a tool to make their VR games accessible early in development. Using the data collected from various sources, a set of 3 of the biggest core issues facing the Deaf community will be established. With that information a VR environment space will be created that where best practices will be tested and solution made to remedy those core issues. The target is to create a system of guidelines for developing and designing VR games to experiences more accessible for the Deaf community. True accessibility is realized when the developers and artists have access to tools and best practices as early as possible to aid in making their content so. This paper aims to make best practice tools a reality for developers everywhere.
Why this topic?
This thesis topic is important to me because it is one that has directly affected me all of my life. I have a disability of my own, as I am Hard of Hearing myself and a member of the deaf community. When I was a kid, I remember there was a time where I didn’t like listening to music just because I had no idea what it was saying. Heck I didn’t like listening to most songs before 2005 because, to me, it all sounded like one jumbled mess. That all changed however when I finally gained access to the internet and was able to look up the lyrics for the song. The simple addition of knowing what’s going on transformed my opinion on music drastically in those days. Even when I was playing standard games as a kid, I was only interested in playing games that featured subtitled text on them. Simple things such as subtitles helps out drastically when if comes to providing inclusion for games. But with the rise of Virtual Reality and the increasing complexity of modern games, I've seen a rift in the urgency of adding accessible tools to games. Especially with Virtual Reality, people can be unintentionally excluded from games due to the simple fact that there's no standard for subtitles or visual cues to tell the player where they need to go. I wish to explore different options for changing that situation and enhance the VR game experience for Deaf people with this thesis project.
This thesis topic is important to me because it is one that has directly affected me all of my life. I have a disability of my own, as I am Hard of Hearing myself and a member of the deaf community. When I was a kid, I remember there was a time where I didn’t like listening to music just because I had no idea what it was saying. Heck I didn’t like listening to most songs before 2005 because, to me, it all sounded like one jumbled mess. That all changed however when I finally gained access to the internet and was able to look up the lyrics for the song. The simple addition of knowing what’s going on transformed my opinion on music drastically in those days. Even when I was playing standard games as a kid, I was only interested in playing games that featured subtitled text on them. Simple things such as subtitles helps out drastically when if comes to providing inclusion for games. But with the rise of Virtual Reality and the increasing complexity of modern games, I've seen a rift in the urgency of adding accessible tools to games. Especially with Virtual Reality, people can be unintentionally excluded from games due to the simple fact that there's no standard for subtitles or visual cues to tell the player where they need to go. I wish to explore different options for changing that situation and enhance the VR game experience for Deaf people with this thesis project.
Methodology
In the lead up to this project I was only able to find only a few scholarly documents or information regarding designing for accessibility in games, especially in the VR space. I did, however, find articles from members of the Deaf Community laying out some of the issues Deaf gamers face when playing. Though most of these articles feature primarily anecdotal recollections, the articles clearly lays out just some of the major focal issues that Deaf and HoH gamers face. With that basic information I was able to formulate a method of attack for tackling this thesis.
For this project to start, there needs to be an extensive period of time spent of research to formula key focus issues that the project will address. When some of these focal issues are established, the information will start to be parsed and organized by priority with the most reoccurring issues taking precedent. In tandem with this research method I will also be looking into some of the techniques designers are currently using to make games more accessible, and looking into how some of these techniques can be improve or expanded upon. Focus on expansion of techniques for traditional console gaming and VR gaming will be paramount. The reason that I will also focus on console gaming in addition to VR gaming for this research is twofold. For one console gaming is the predecessor to VR gaming and has been attempting to tackle the issue of accessibility for years. While console games have succeeded in making content accessible in some areas, the lack of a cohesive standard has hurt the effort of accessibility for all in other ways. Studying from, using and improving on the methods of console games will help greatly in establishing a system for accessibility in VR.
In the lead up to this project I was only able to find only a few scholarly documents or information regarding designing for accessibility in games, especially in the VR space. I did, however, find articles from members of the Deaf Community laying out some of the issues Deaf gamers face when playing. Though most of these articles feature primarily anecdotal recollections, the articles clearly lays out just some of the major focal issues that Deaf and HoH gamers face. With that basic information I was able to formulate a method of attack for tackling this thesis.
For this project to start, there needs to be an extensive period of time spent of research to formula key focus issues that the project will address. When some of these focal issues are established, the information will start to be parsed and organized by priority with the most reoccurring issues taking precedent. In tandem with this research method I will also be looking into some of the techniques designers are currently using to make games more accessible, and looking into how some of these techniques can be improve or expanded upon. Focus on expansion of techniques for traditional console gaming and VR gaming will be paramount. The reason that I will also focus on console gaming in addition to VR gaming for this research is twofold. For one console gaming is the predecessor to VR gaming and has been attempting to tackle the issue of accessibility for years. While console games have succeeded in making content accessible in some areas, the lack of a cohesive standard has hurt the effort of accessibility for all in other ways. Studying from, using and improving on the methods of console games will help greatly in establishing a system for accessibility in VR.
Blog