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Design and Development of One-Switch Video Games for Children with Severe Motor Disabilities

Published: 09 August 2017 Publication History

Abstract

Video games are not just played for fun; they have become a handy instrument for the cognitive, emotional, and social development of children. However, several barriers prevent many children with disabilities from playing action-oriented video games, alone or with their peers. In particular, children with severe motor disabilities, who rely on one-switch interaction for accessing electronic devices, find fast-paced games that require rapid decision-making and timely responses, completely unplayable. This article contributes to lowering such barriers by presenting GNomon (Gaming NOMON), a software framework based on the NOMON mode of interaction that allows the creation of action-oriented single-switch video games. The article reports the results of two studies that evaluate the playability and rehabilitation suitability of GNomon-based video games. The playability of GNomon-based games is evaluated by assessing their learnability, effectiveness, errors, satisfaction, memorability, and enjoyability with a group of eight children with severe motor disabilities. The suitability for pediatric rehabilitation is determined by means of a focus group with a team of speech therapists, physiotherapists, and psychologists from a Local Health Agency in Turin, Italy. The results of the playability study are positive: All children had fun playing GNomon-based video games, and seven of eight were able to interact and play autonomously. The results of the rehabilitation-suitability study also entail that GNomon-based games can be exploited in training hand-eye coordination and maintenance of selective attention over time. The article finally offers critical hindsight and reflections and shows possible new future game concepts.

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Cited By

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  • (2023)A Usability Study of Nomon: A Flexible Interface for Single-Switch UsersProceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3597638.3608415(1-17)Online publication date: 22-Oct-2023
  • (2022)Methodological Standards in Accessibility Research-PLXBCCR- on Motor Impairments: A SurveyACM Computing Surveys10.1145/354350955:7(1-35)Online publication date: 11-Jun-2022
  • (2022)A Performance Evaluation of Nomon: A Flexible Interface for Noisy Single-Switch UsersProceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3491102.3517738(1-17)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2022
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Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing
ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing  Volume 10, Issue 4
October 2017
129 pages
ISSN:1936-7228
EISSN:1936-7236
DOI:10.1145/3131767
Issue’s Table of Contents
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

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Publication History

Published: 09 August 2017
Accepted: 01 April 2017
Revised: 01 April 2017
Received: 01 February 2016
Published in TACCESS Volume 10, Issue 4

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Author Tags

  1. Accessible games
  2. action-oriented games
  3. children with disabilities
  4. one-switch interaction
  5. single-switch selection

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Cited By

View all
  • (2023)A Usability Study of Nomon: A Flexible Interface for Single-Switch UsersProceedings of the 25th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility10.1145/3597638.3608415(1-17)Online publication date: 22-Oct-2023
  • (2022)Methodological Standards in Accessibility Research-PLXBCCR- on Motor Impairments: A SurveyACM Computing Surveys10.1145/354350955:7(1-35)Online publication date: 11-Jun-2022
  • (2022)A Performance Evaluation of Nomon: A Flexible Interface for Noisy Single-Switch UsersProceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3491102.3517738(1-17)Online publication date: 29-Apr-2022
  • (2022)Demonstrating Nomon: A Flexible Interface for Noisy Single-Switch UsersCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts10.1145/3491101.3519892(1-4)Online publication date: 27-Apr-2022
  • (2022)Validation and Prioritization of Design Options for Accessible Player ExperiencesInteracting with Computers10.1093/iwc/iwac01733:6(641-656)Online publication date: 20-Jun-2022
  • (2019)A Systematic Review of Usability and Accessibility in Tele-Rehabilitation SystemsAssistive and Rehabilitation Engineering [Working Title]10.5772/intechopen.85869Online publication date: 15-Apr-2019
  • (2019)Enabled Players: The Value of Accessible Digital GamesGames and Culture10.1177/155541201989387716:2(262-282)Online publication date: 23-Dec-2019

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