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Accessibility assessment of mobile serious games for people with cognitive impairments

Abstract:

Today, serious games allow different kinds of content to be taught in a fun way. They have become a great tool in the learning process. However, the vast majority of them do not focus on vulnerable groups such as people with impairments. On the other hand, the use of mobile devices has increased worldwide. This type of device is an important player in the learning process: There are many serious games developed for environments in these devices. In spite of this, accessibility for people with cognitive impairments has not been considered as a necessary element in the development of this type of video games. Some authors and companies of development of video games have proposed general guidelines for the construction of this type of applications. However, these initiatives have not yet been formalized and that is why they need to be consolidated and analyzed to define a model for assessing the accessibility of video games for people with cognitive impairments. This article presents a compilation and analysis of the accessibility guidelines for the development of video games for people with cognitive impairments. It also proposes a categorization of the guidelines that should be used to analyze the accessibility level of a video game and especially serious games. As a case study, this categorization is used to evaluate some mobile serious games and subsequently identify their level of accessibility. An assessment tool for those who wish to develop serious games for people with cognitive impairments on mobile devices is proposed.