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Virtual Assistants Let’s Talk about Blind Accessibility By Adriane Kuzminski Overview • 1. History of blind accessibility in tech • 2. Blind-accessible design principles • 3. The accessibility community and developing Personas • Group discussion 1. Blind Accessibility in Tech History of Screen Readers for VI Users • Speech synthesis projects aimed at blind users: • 1976 – Kurzweil Reading Machine (OCR – optical character recognition) • 1980s – Talking Typewriter by IBM Research (first blind employee in 1914 [1] ) • Command-line interface (CLI) computers: • Accessible to blind users with screen readers, like the IBM Screen Reader in 1986 [2] • Popularity of Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) – new set of challenges for blind users: • Icons were not able to labeled, incompatible with screen readers • Original Macintosh had an inaccessible keyboard with no arrow keys • Screen readers compatible with GUI computers: • Commercially available with IBM’s Screen Reader/2 (1994) [3] and ALVA Access Group’s outSPOKEN for Macintosh (1989) [4] and Windows (1994) [5] The Macintosh Keyboard released in January 1984 had no arrow keys The Macintosh Numeric The 1986 Macintosh Keypad (Sept 1984) Plus Keyboard included arrow keys Modern Screen Readers for VI Users • Screen readers: • Desktop: VoiceOver for Mac; JAWS, NVDA, Narrator, etc. for Windows • Mobile: VoiceOver for iOS; TalkBack and Voice Assistant for Android • Consoles: Xbox One – Narrator for home screen, Xbox API for in-game text • Games: Polly for Amazon Web Services and Lumberyard, MonoGame, Python, proprietary • Game Engines: • DAWS: No native screen reader for engine or Screen reader accessible on Screen reader accessible with game implementation yet Mac with Flo Tools (2016) SWS + Osara extensions (2015) More Improvements in Blind-Accessible Media • Virtual assistants (Alexa, Cortana, Siri, Google Home): • 21% of the US population owns as smart speaker as of January 2019 [1] • Computers, smart phones, consoles, smart TVs, & watches have built-in virtual assistants – over 7 billion devices expected with virtual assistants by 2020 [2] • Virtual assistants have improved in their affability and flexibility in interpreting commands, making them more likely to be used regularly by sighted people – could allow “default” accessibility for users with visual impairments (however, virtual assistants ≠ screen readers) Recent Improvements in Blind-Accessible Media • Audio Description: • Theaters: • Final Rule (2016) requires a certain amount of audio description equipment in US theaters [2] • Television: • FCC requires the top 5 networks to broadcast 87.5 hours of audio-described content per quarter (2017) – up from 50 hours [2] • Streaming: • Netflix adds an average of 22 newly audio-described titles per month (total 931 titles in April 2019) [3] - received backlash over Daredevil series in 2015 and took action • iTunes has over 1,000 audio-described titles as of April 2019 [4] • As of 2016, all Pixar films are audio-described on Disney Movies Anywhere app [5] • Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): Hulu only has a “plan” to start adding audio description, class action lawsuit filed in 2017 [6] The Communications and Video Accessibility Act • Part of FCC - not under ADA (“public places”), Section 508 or WCAG 2.0 • Games: • The CVAA requires text-to-speech (TTS) for devices with advanced communications services to include electronic messaging services like in-game chat on consoles as of 1 January 2019 • Xbox One is clear frontrunner: TTS support for in-game chat in Halo Wars 2, Forza Motorsport 7, Forza Horizon 4 and Sea of Thieves, as well as voiced menus in Crackdown 3 and The Division 2 • Crackdown 3 also employs the Xbox One’s “Let games read to me” accessibility option for accessible UI elements, though limited • Other games have developed their own solutions, such as the platform- agnostic TTS solution in Apex Legends Recent Timeline of Blind-Accessible Games The IGDA Game Papa Sangre is Injustice: Gods A Blind Legend Microsoft’s Zach Accessibility Special released and uses Among Us is patched receives nearly Quarles writes about Interest Group is binaural audio to be with an Accessibility $50,000 USD in designing sound for established [1] played without a Mode for blind crowd funding plus blind players in Killer screen [3] gamers [5] public assistance [7] [8] Instinct [10] Academic AAA Indie AAA Indie CVAA…. Acad Academi Indie Indie AAA Indie Q4 AAA Q4 2003 emic 2005 2010 2011 2013 c 2014 2015 2017 2018 2019 Academic Indie Indie Indie AAA Audiogames.net, Swamp is released Skullgirls is patched Frequency Missing, Madden NFL 18 website for VI as an audio-only with text-to-speech a blind-accessible becomes blind gamers, is created by multiplayer first- compatibility; Tolk point-and-click accessible through Sander Huiberts and person shooter [4] support added in adventure, was haptic feedback [11] Richard van Tol [2] 2016 [6] released [9] Who Can Benefit from Blind Accessibility? Blind/Low Vision • 36 million people worldwide are blind [1] • 217 million are moderately to severely visually impaired • 188.5 million people are mildly visually impaired • Audiogames.net has over 125,000 registered users [2] Aging Gamers 50+ • US – 1 in 4 gamers are over the age of 50 (2018) [3] • Australia – 43% of people over 64 years old play games (2017) [4] Dyslexia New language learners [6] • 1 in 10 people have dyslexia [5] • Duolingo alone has 300 million active users (2018) Benefits Outside Gameplay • Quality of life: Accessible games… • promote technological independence/job skills: research, education, design, retail, customer service, etc. • encourage people to learn to program using blind-accessible game engines (MonoGame, Python) and integrated development environments (IDE) like Visual Studio • create shared experiences and help blind and sighted people relate to each other • expose players to cultural expression and Art in video games • encourage gamers with disabilities to express themselves through game dev and streaming • Tech advancements: • Game accessibility improved design for new tech like interactive car audio, virtual assistants, hands-free/eyes-free devices, voice user interfaces (VUI), e-readers, VR audio (reduce strain of subtitles/icons, motion sickness) • Reach a wider audience, both disabled and abled There are blind accessible solutions for almost every other type of media… Books Film & Television Internet • Audiobooks • Audio Description • Screen Readers • Screen readers • Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) So why should we ignore games? Challenges • Culture • Sighted people are sensitive to audio output they don’t know how to control (like text-to-speech, pop ups with audio) – interaction improved with flexible commands of virtual assistants • Sighted people in general have stronger memory capabilities for visual and tactile stimuli compared to auditory stimuli (Bigelow, Poremba) [1] • Myths about the blind community [2] • Industry • Game, UI, and UX design are visually-oriented fields • Sound design is often added in the later stages of development • Game audio often focuses on aesthetics – though games like Apex Legends, Killer Instinct and Overwatch have innovative solutions for portraying gameplay info • Text-to-speech is crucial for blind accessibility but still in early stages for in-game menus/UI elements [3] • Sound design and screen reader implementation are handled by separate departments • Mobile – developing for TalkBack isn’t the same as for VoiceOver 2. Blind-Accessible Design Blind-Accessible Design • Accessibility: • “Giving as many players as possible the best opportunity of completely experiencing a game” – Josh Straub of DAGER System [1] • Blind-accessible audio can help players: • Learn to play and control the game • Understand the story • Be more engaged and informed players • Can player understand …where they are and can go? …what they are supposed to do? …how they are intended to feel? Associated Fields • Interaction Sound Design/Sonic Interaction Design • Employing sound to convey information, meaning and aesthetic/emotional qualities in interactive contexts [1] • User Experience Design (UX) • Enhancing user satisfaction by improving usability, accessibility and pleasure in interacting with product [2] • … not technology driven – focuses on human experience • … not anecdotal • … not synonymous with usability or User Interface design • Usability • Product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use. [3] • User Interface Design • Visually-oriented – but values gameplay information over immersion • User control, user memory load, consistency Prototype – Tower Defense 2D assets https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/packs/tower-defense-2d-85612 https://player.vimeo.com/video/251516171 Instructional Information • “What should I do?” • Purpose: Help players learn game with audible menus, icons, tutorials and actions • Use methods to enhance player’s memory • Logical, consistent, predictable patterns • Repetition – “one sound, one function” Repetition and Patterns • Warnings – Iconic “!” alert from Metal Gear Solid series; nearby collectables in Uncharted 2; interaction cues in Injustice 2; zombie hordes in Left 4 Dead • Confirmations – hit other player in MarioKart; full shadow/instinct meters in Killer Instinct • Progress – puzzle complete in Zelda series; enemy/friendly radio in Metal Gear Solid series, puzzle comments in Uncharted series • Unique character
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