Re: Fwd: UA-Games new release: Game Over!

Oh - what a great idea!

Whilst promoting the Right Way to develop accessible applications is 
obviously of paramount importance, giving developers the opportunity to 
directly experience some of the barriers that users face every day can 
be very educational and illuminating - especially in situations where 
they may have to make judgement calls based upon general principles 
rather than just tick off another checkbox.

This is an approach that WAI might consider aopting alongside it's more 
traditional educational resources. A web site where each page 
demonstrates a different barrier that has been deliberately created to 
maximise its effect on all users.

I notice that as well as "Game Over", the same HCI Lab has
produced "Terrestrial Invaders". This, or so they claim, is a
universally accessible game packed with numerous accessibility features
that can be switched on and off, both off-line and on-the-fly. Again, 
this could be adopted by the same web accessibility resource where, 
after experiencing the 'barrier', developers had a chance to experience 
the 'barrier-free' page with an explanation of how they can remove 
similar barriers on their own sites.

There's a Chinese proverb that says:

"I hear I forget, I see I remember, I do I understand"

I think there's a lot to be gained, in the way of deeper understanding, 
  from giving web developers the opportunity to "do" from the 
perspective of disabled users.

Mel P.
-- 
Administrator
Guild of Accessible Web Designers
mel.pedley@gawds.org
http://www.gawds.org

Received on Thursday, 19 April 2007 11:45:12 UTC