Playing in the Sandbox: Developing games for children with disabilities

Abstract

Many researchers believe that special games are needed for people with special needs. However, this study highlights some of the issues surrounding computer games and disabled children by conducting interviews to ask them what games they would like to play. Interestingly, they wanted to play the same games that everyone else did. What they do need is a way of interacting with these games, especially those on Xbox and Playstation consoles, which require two very dexterous hands to control. This paper is the start of an ongoing project to investigate input devices for disabled people, to allow them to interact with other players through playing commercial multiplayer games. The study also considers the issues of using computer games to test the abilities of disabled people in an attempt to integrate them into mainstream society.