Interesting article on blind games on computers

[suereyya poyraz <poyraz_bEi_uni-duesseldorf.de>]

>  By MICHAEL STROH
>  The Baltimore Sun
>  Like millions of kids
>  around the country, 12-year-old Amy Herstein found new computer
>  games under the tree this Christmas. But these
>  games aren't like any you'll find at the local computer store.
>  That's because Amy, who lives in Ellicott City, Md., is blind. And
>  the bowling and Monopoly games she now plays on her family PC are
>  designed not for the eye, but the ear.
>  While most mainstream game designers are pushing the limits of
>  computer graphics technology to create titles with
>  ultra-realistic 3-D
>  looks, a small group of programmers is doing just the opposite for
>  sight-impaired computer users: developing titles with little or no
>  visual content.
>  For example, instead of aiming just to the right of a headpin she
>  can't see, Amy listens to a wavering tone that tells her when it's
>  time to release her bowling ball. If she times it exactly
>  right, it's
>  a strike. If she moves too soon or too late, it's a gutter ball.
>  The emergence of such games signals a subtle shift in the
>  computer's role in the lives of people with disabilities. Advocates
>  for the disabled have long viewed computers as important tools for
>  learning or for getting a job, but some are reconsidering the
>  importance of computer games.
>  People trivialize computer games. But for people with certain
>  disabilities, it really is their only form of entertainment," says
>  Randy Marsden, president of Madentec Limited in Edmonton, Alberta,
>  which recently developed a technology for those who've lost the
>  use of
>  their hands to play Microsoft's Links 2000" golf simulator.
>  The existence of games for the sightless comes as a surprise even
>  to most blind computer users. Hardly anyone knows these games are
>  out there," says Michael Feir, a blind game enthusiast who started
>  Audyssey, the first online magazine about computer games for the
>  blind.
>  When Amy's mother, Karen Herstein, discovered the games at a recent
>  conference for the blind, she thought they might make Amy more
>  comfortable with computers and her classmates at Dunloggin Middle
>  School, where she is the only blind student.
>  She always feels different anyway," her mother says. I thought
>  if she could talk to other kids about computer games, it might be
>  something she could have in common."
>  The games were created by Carl Mickla and Bill Vlasak, two blind
>  game designers whose company, Personal Computer Systems in Perth
>  Amboy, N.J., is the only one of its kind in the United States,
>  although others are planned.
>  For years, the only games accessible to blind computer users were
>  primitive text-based adventures, leftovers from the early days of
>  computing such as the 1970s classic Zork." In these games, players
>  navigate a complex underground labyrinth with short, typed commands
>  such as go north" or pick up ax." The computer responds with a
>  simple description of the player's surroundings and other
>  characters'
>  actions (Troll chops off your head").
>  Because these adventure games use only words, they're easily
>  digested by the screen-reading software that most blind
>  computer users
>  employ to convert text to speech.
>  But Mickla and Vlasak wanted more. Both had been avid game players
>  before losing their sight as adults. When personal computers first
>  appeared, Mickla _ who never had great vision _ hooked his
>  Apple II to
>  a 19-inch television set and played graphical adventure games
>  such as
>  Wizzardy" a nose-length from the screen.
>  When his vision deserted him in 1990, Mickla took a few programming
>  classes and started the company with Vlasak, who had been an
>  interior
>  designer at Macy's in New York before complications from
>  diabetes took
>  his sight.
>  At first, the games they created were simple, text-based sports
>  simulations such as baseball. But their games have gradually become
>  more sophisticated _ and faster-paced.
>  The big problem: How are you going to get a blind person to do
>  targeting?" says Mickla.
>  Their solution: Paint pictures with sound.
>  Just as a blind person can tell the difference between an
>  environment of grass or cement by its sound signature, Mickla and
>  Vasak have embedded sophisticated audio cues in their games to
>  signify
>  when players are approaching a wall _ or just got nailed by a left
>  hook.
>  Mickla and Vlasak try to crank out five new games a year and
>  actively sell a dozen titles, including bowling, car racing and
>  kickboxing games _ there's even an audio version of Pac-Man.
>  Still, the blind game business isn't easy. They're lucky to
>  sell 50 copies of each game a month.
>  We're not even making coffee money," Mickla says. It's pretty
>  hard to market to blind people."
>  But advocates for the disabled say the number of potential gamers
>  is large. According to the latest Census Bureau figures, one in 10
>  Americans has a serious disability. Some disabled computer users
>  wonder why there aren't more games available for them. A few are
>  pressing mainstream game makers to add subtitles and other
>  adaptations.
>  For teen-agers Henry and Andrew De Young of Export, Pa., problems
>  are even more frustrating. The boys were born with a degenerative
>  neuromuscular disorder that confines them to wheelchairs and blunts
>  their fine motor skills.
>  They can't turn a page, they can't play Legos. The computer is
>  the one thing they can do. It's their world," says Joan De Young,
>  their mother.
>  Andrew, 13, is barely able to use a keyboard. Fourteen-year-old
>  Henry can't manipulate one at all. As a result, they can play only
>  games that use a computer mouse. Unfortunately, they find that many
>  games don't.
>  They've sent e-mail to game publisher EA Sports, which makes
>  popular PC titles such as Madden football, to ask for mouse
>  control in
>  their games. They've also pleaded their case to Lucas Arts
>  Entertainment, which makes the popular Star Wars and Indiana Jones
>  games.
>  But those who follow the industry say it's unlikely that mainstream
>  developers will spend the time or money to adapt their games for
>  people with disabilities.
>  Microsoft has built features into Windows to make the operating
>  system easier to use by people with disabilities, such as
>  subtitling.
>  But a company spokesman says he knows of no company that has
>  incorporated the feature.
>  The cost is probably not worth it to the companies," says Rob
>  Smolka, senior editor at PC Gamer magazine in San Francisco. It may
>  not be high up on their radar."
>  But some advocates for the disabled are hoping the software
>  industry might be forced to reconsider.
>  In November, the National Federation of the Blind sued America
>  Online in federal court, claiming the online giant had violated the
>  Americans with Disabilities Act because its software is incompatible
>  with screen readers that convert on-screen text to speech or
>  Braille.
>  Says Joan De Young, with a sigh: Maybe with just a little
>  programming they could reach a new class of people."
>