Western Oregon University Digital Commons@WOU Honors Senior Theses/Projects Student Scholarship 6-1-2018 Achieving Immersive Gameplay: Interpreters and Video Game Accessibility Rebekah Cheeley Western Oregon University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/honors_theses Part of the American Sign Language Commons Recommended Citation Cheeley, Rebekah, "Achieving Immersive Gameplay: Interpreters and Video Game Accessibility" (2018). Honors Senior Theses/Projects. 171. https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/honors_theses/171 This Undergraduate Honors Thesis/Project is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at Digital Commons@WOU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Senior Theses/Projects by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@WOU. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. Achieving Immersive Gameplay: Interpreters and Video Game Accessibility By Rebekah Cheeley An Honors Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Graduation from the Western Oregon University Honors Program Professor Erin Trine, Thesis Advisor Dr. Gavin Keulks, Honor Program Director June 2018 i Table of Contents LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ IV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................. VI ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ VII CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................... 8 FOREWORD ................................................................................................................ 8 DEFINITIONS AND KEY TERMS ................................................................................... 10 SCOPE OF RESEARCH ................................................................................................. 11 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................ 12 IMMERSION .............................................................................................................. 12 Defining Immersion ............................................................................................................................................... 12 Why Soundscapes? ................................................................................................................................................................ 14 ACCESSIBILITY ........................................................................................................... 16 Sound, Visual, and Sensory Cues ....................................................................................................................... 18 Subtitles and Captions .......................................................................................................................................... 22 History of captions. ............................................................................................................................................................... 24 Assistive Technology and Technological Accommodations ................................................................... 24 External technology. ............................................................................................................................................................. 24 Mods. ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 27 Language Accessibility ......................................................................................................................................... 29 INTERPRETERS .......................................................................................................... 30 Social Justice, Advocacy, and Allyship ............................................................................................................. 30 Linguistic and Extra-Linguistic Knowledge .................................................................................................. 34 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY ............................................................................. 35 LIMITATIONS OF STUDY: SURVEYS 1 AND 2 ............................................................... 35 SURVEY 1: VIDEO GAME ACCESSIBILITY ..................................................................... 36 SURVEY 2: SIGNERS AND ACCESSIBILITY .................................................................... 42 TRANSLATION PROJECT ............................................................................................. 43 CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS ........................................................................................ 47 SURVEY 1: VIDEO GAME ACCESSIBILITY RESULTS ....................................................... 47 Representation ........................................................................................................................................................ 47 Summary .................................................................................................................................................................... 52 SURVEY 2: SIGNERS AND ACCESSIBILITY .................................................................... 64 Results ........................................................................................................................................................................ 64 Representation ........................................................................................................................................................ 64 Summary .................................................................................................................................................................... 74 TRANSLATION PROJECT ............................................................................................. 85 ii Process and Results ............................................................................................................................................... 85 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................................................... 93 CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION ...................................................................................... 96 CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS ........................................... 101 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH .................................................................. 101 APPENDIX A: SURVEY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ................................................... 103 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................... 108 iii List of Tables Table 1: Survey 1: Codes and Descriptions for Why Gamers Play without Sound ................. 39 Table 2: Codes and Descriptions for Why Respondents Were Dissatisfied with Subtitles to Any Degree ......................................................................................................................................... 40 Table 3: Codes and Explanations for Why Some Gamers Prefer to Play Without Subtitles . 40 Table 4: Codes and Descriptions for Why Participants Preferred Not to Play with Subtitles41 Table 5: Codes and Descriptions for Why Gamers Preferred to Play with Subtitles .............. 42 Table 6: Translator Profiles .............................................................................................................. 43 Table 7: Survey 1: Necessary and Actual Representation ............................................................ 50 Table 8: Changes Respondents Would Like to See Towards Video Game Accessibility ....... 84 Table 9: Pros and Cons of Different Orientations ....................................................................... 93 iv List of Figures Figure 1: Gender Identity of Respondents (Self-Reported)......................................................... 48 Figure 2: Respondents by Gender Identification and Gaming Habits ...................................... 48 Figure 3: Percentage of Respondents who Play Video Vames "Sometimes" or More, by Sexual Identity .................................................................................................................................... 48 Figure 4: Age Spans of Respondents .............................................................................................. 49 Figure 5: Age of Respondents Who Play "Sometimes" or More Often .................................... 49 Figure 6: Audiological Status of Respondents ............................................................................... 51 Figure 7: Percentage of Respondents who Play Video Games "Sometimes" or More, by Audiological Self-Identification ....................................................................................................... 51 Figure 8: How Often Respondents Reported Playing Without Sound or in an Environment Where they Could Not Hear the Game Sufficiently ..................................................................... 53 Figure 9: How Often Respondents Reported Playing Without Sound or in an Environment Where they