What the world thinks about accessibility
Panelists discussing the AbilityNet Attitudes to Digital Accessibility report
Christopher Patnoe, Google: [on the challenge of consistency]
"Even if accessibility is part of your DNA, an infection can come in in the form of a leader who doesn't get it, who doesn't recognise the importance."
Download the report here: https://abilitynet.org.uk/attitudes2022
Day 3, how are we all feeling?
Lots to digest this week and lots of great sessions on this last day too🙂
Debbie Bradford, DWP, sharing updates on the Access to Work scheme including the Adjustment Passport:
"Once a university has put the support in place, capturing all of the support down [on the passport], so that then the student has that information so when they go to see an employer, that they can say, this is the support I have had in the past, it is the support that I will need in the future and raising awareness of Access to Work."
Dr Lynsay Shepherd, co-organiser of the RNIB - Abertay University Gaming Symposium, has just published an article on Raise The Game about the event: https://raisethegame.com/news/we-can-work-it-out-increasing-accessibility-in-the-video-games-industry
Robin Sloan, Abertay University:
(paraphrased) "It's clear [there is] a strong desire to make tools directly accessible and easy to use, and integrated from the get go.
Developers want to do good accessible design, and there are good resources out there.
[But putting] Audio description into game engines. There's not support there, it sometimes causes problems and need a lot of extra work, a dedicated team to deliver it. There's knowledge gaps around integration."
Robin Sloan, Abertay University:
[on integration]
"I think a lot of conversation there, within games is centred on game engines themselves, like Unity or Unreal, the mainstays of development. But game development is more fragmented than that, there’s a lot of inhouse engines too.
Those mainstream engines don't necessarily make it easier to integrate. There’s an increased cost in terms of development time and how to integrate features into them"
Reflections on the 2022 RNIB-Abertay Accessible Gaming Symposium
Robin Sloan, Abertay University:
(paraphrased) "In games education, there's a tendancy to focus on things seperately. Maybe you focus on level design, character design, or inclusive design.
For me, teaching students how to design games and how to design for accessibility are one in the same thing."
Disability Policy and Strategy.
Celia Hensman, The Disability Policy Centre (paraphrased):
"The burden of knowing or understanding is not on the indidivual; organisations should make them aware of what's available.
Not all disabilities are the same and not all people's accessibility needs and demands are the same. Flexible working is one approach.. but there are a plethora of options.
They should be made aware of what's available to them."
Back again for day two.. Catching what sessions I can around my day job.
I'll keep using this thread so feel free to mute if it's not your jam🙂
The end of a great day of sessions 👏
I'll try to thread some more here tomorrow (mute the thread if you prefer) but so much food for thought today.
Daniel Mclaughlan (He/Him)