Michael Nelson
SpecialEffect
Michael is Technical Specialist in Assistive Technology for the BAFTA award winning charity SpecialEffect, where he has worked for over 7 years. Michael works alongside individuals with physical disabilities to adapt new and existing technologies to enable them to engage in the lives they wish to lead on an even playing field. Michael was part of the team sent to represent the British games industry at the World Expo in Osaka, as well as working alongside developers to translate the learnings and experience of SpecialEffect into effective accessibility design, ensuring everyone has the opportunity to play.
Michael Nelson is speaking at the following session/s
Mobile Gaming: The Next Frontier for Accessibility
Playing games on mobile devices is more popular globally than any other platform, yet to date, less is known about how to make these games more accessible for people with physical disabilities. SpecialEffect sees opening up the world of mobile games as the next frontier in its mission to make gaming more accessible for physically disabled players around the world. However, there are many challenges to be navigated in doing so, both in terms of game design and making them compatible to the widest possible range of assistive control devices - including eye-tracking. It is for this reason that we decided to help bridge the gap and create mobile games of our own. We aim to use these as ‘proof of concept’ to share with the wider-industry what we consider to be best practice for this growing audience of potential players. If you’re interested to find out more about what we’ve learned so far, as well as seeing some of our new games demoed before launch, then this is the session for you!
Session Takeaway
We will share key lessons learned from our experience creating SpecialEffect's own mobile games for Android and iOS.
Positive and practical suggestions for things you should incorporate into your own game design to make it easier for people with physical disabilities to play, as well as an overview of the different assistive control devices now available for mobile and tablet. devices.
Session speakers
