[accessibleimage] Games Wii

Wii Has Great Potential For The Visually Impaired

By Rupert Pupkin

It's a perfect fit, actually
When most people think of the Nintendo Wii and its groundbreaking
controller, images are conjured up such as Wii tennis matches, dancing
with bunnies, and the like. But what about the people who are visually
impaired? Will they be left out of the next-gen gaming world?

Henry Jenkins, Director of Comparative Media Studies at MIT, thinks not
necessarily. In an interview about motion control sensors, Jenkins opined
that the combination of motion sensivity and vibration feedback in the
Wiimote can reach out to a whole new audience of gamers.

"Right now, there is such a strong visual bias in games that blind or near
blind people have great difficulty playing most of the games currently on
the market," said Jenkins. "One key step forward is to design games which
can be played primarily on the basis of sound cues. But it seems to me
that the haptic possibilities of the Wii are also very interesting in this
regard. Could we combine a physical interface like the Wii with forced
feedback systems so that the player could use the controller as a walking
stick to explore the physical space of the game, possibly accompanied with
sound cues when you bump into objects. We could imagine a game where there
was no visual stimulus whatsoever so that the visually impaired player,
who has experience exploring the world with their canes, would have some
advantages over sighted players. Or one could design a game which allowed
one to rely on either visual or physical feedback."

That's simply brilliant. Here's to hoping that as many developers as
possible decide to take this idea and run with it. 

Source: IGN

http://www.nintendorevolution.ca/06172006/09/wii_has_great_potential_for_the_visually_impaired

Lisa Yayla
Huseby Kompetansesenter 
Oslo Norway
lisa.yayla@xxxxxxxxxx

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