PowerUp: an accessible virtual world

PowerUp is a multi-player virtual world educational game with a broad set of accessibility features built in. This paper considers what features are necessary to make virtual worlds usable by individuals with a range of perceptual, physical, and cognitive disabilities. The accessibility features were included in the PowerUp game and validated, to date, with blind and partially sighted users. These features include in-world navigation and orientation tools, font customization, selfvoicing text-to-speech output, and keyboard-only and mouseonly navigation. We discuss user requirements gathering, the validation study, and further work needed. Categories and Subject Descriptors H.5.1 [Multimedia Information Systems]: Artificial, augmented, and virtual realities; K.4.2 [Social Issues]: Assistive technologies for persons with disabilities; K.8.0 [General]: Games General Terms Design, Human Factors. Keywords 3D, virtual worlds, accessibility.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: ASSETS
• Authors: Shari Trewin, Vicki L. Hanson, Mark Laff, Anna Cavender
• Keywords: Accessibility Features, ASSETS 2008, Emerging Technology, Multi-player Virtual World, Virtual Worlds