Finding Our Accessibility Collaborators

September 29, 2020 By Andy Robertson

One of my favorite things about working on the Playability Initiative is all of the incredible people I have met as I’ve been gathering knowledge and tools to share. I’ve been fortunate enough to find some amazing individuals to guide me and travel with me on this path. 

Photo of Andy Robertson as his desk. On the left is an screen capture of the Family Video Game Database website.

My role in the initiative is to create and add information to the Family Video Game Database (http://www.taminggaming.com) that enables players to discover and search for games that match their needs. Early in this process, I realized that this was a mountain I would need to climb.

 

Even coming up with search terms was a challenge. What datasets would be the most useful? I began by asking questions on social media and reaching out to the accessibility community. I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly I found experts who kindly gave me their time and advice. With their help, my plan for how to add accessibility search terms to the database came together much more accurately and completely.

 

As I’ve moved from planning to implementing the database, this group has grown to offer advice not only on what information I should record but also the sorts of games I should add to the database. They have given me fantastic recommendations of games that reflect good practices of inclusive design.

 

This means that I have opened up the editing of the database to this wider group. At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about having other people working on it. But it’s been brilliant. And again, the conversations that have arisen from collaborating on entering data have enhanced the content in many ways already.

 

Although we’re still early in the process, we now have 155+ games (https://www.taminggaming.com/search/accessibility+features/yes/) with accessibility information entered for them. I have only been able to get so far so quickly because of the generous support and time of a wide range of individuals.  I feel privileged to be working alongside all of them. The database is better because I met them, and it can be better still with your help.

 

The database is now ready to enable a wider group to contribute accessibility information and update the data for individual games. If you have suggestions of games to add, or you would like to play a role in adding accessibility data for games please do get in touch via this blog, via Twitter ( @GeekDadGamer) or email andy@taminggaming.com.