Leveling Up Accessible Video Game Features: How New Technology is Making Gaming More Immersive and Inclusive for People with Vision Loss
On Tech & Vision With Dr. Cal Roberts
Release Date: 04/14/2023
BenVision: Navigating with Music
On Tech & Vision With Dr. Cal Roberts
This podcast is about big ideas on how technology is making life better for people with vision loss. When it comes to navigation technology for people who are blind or visually impaired, many apps utilize voice commands, loud tones or beeps, or haptic feedback. In an effort to create a more natural, seamless experience, the team at BenVision has created a different type of system that allows users to navigate using musical cues instead! For this episode, Dr. Cal spoke with BenVision’s CEO and co-founder, Patrick Burton, along with its Technology Leadd, Aaditya Vaze. They shared about the...
info_outline
People’s Choice Podcast Awards
On Tech & Vision With Dr. Cal Roberts
We appreciate your support for our show — and now, we need your help nominating the On Tech & Vision podcast for the People’s Choice Podcast Awards! We are participating in these awards so we can showcase On Tech & Vision to a broader audience, gain recognition within the industry, and, most importantly, help spread the message about Lighthouse Guild and the role that technology is playing in tearing down barriers for people who are blind or visually impaired. To help us nominate On Tech & Vision, please go online to , where you can register to vote for...
info_outline
The Possibilities of Vision Restoration
On Tech & Vision With Dr. Cal Roberts
This podcast is about big ideas on how technology is making life better for people with vision loss. For hundreds of years, health professionals have dreamed of restoring vision for people who are blind or visually impaired. However, doing so, either through transplanting a functioning eye or using technological aids, is an incredibly complex challenge. In fact, many considered it impossible. But thanks to cutting-edge research and programs, the ability to restore vision is getting closer than ever. As a first for this podcast, this episode features an interview with Dr. Cal Roberts himself!...
info_outline
Biosensors: The Future of Diagnostic Medicine
On Tech & Vision With Dr. Cal Roberts
This podcast is about big ideas on how technology is making life better for people with vision loss. This episode is about how biosensor technology is revolutionizing the field of diagnostic and preventive medicine. Biosensors can take many forms — wearable, implantable, and even ingestible. And they can serve many different functions as well, most notably when it comes to detecting the various pressure levels in our bodies. This episode features interviews with several luminaries working with biosensors. One of them is Doug Adams, a revolutionary entrepreneur who became inspired to create a...
info_outline
The World in Your Hand: The Power of Generative AI
On Tech & Vision With Dr. Cal Roberts
When it comes to emerging technology, there’s no hotter topic than artificial intelligence. Programs like ChatGPT and Midjourney are becoming more popular and are inspiring people to explore the possibilities of what AI can achieve — including when it comes to accessible technology for people who are blind or visually impaired. One of those people is Saqib Shaikh, an engineering manager at Microsoft. Saqib leads the team that developed an app called Seeing AI, which utilizes the latest generation of artificial intelligence, known as generative AI Dr. Cal spoke with Saqib about how...
info_outline
Reimagining the Visual Arts
On Tech & Vision With Dr. Cal Roberts
This podcast is about big ideas on how technology is making life better for people with vision loss. When it comes to art, a common phrase is “look, don’t touch.” Many think of art as a purely visual medium, and that can make it difficult for people who are blind or visually impaired to engage with it. But in recent years, people have begun to reimagine what it means to experience and express art. For this episode, Dr. Cal spoke to El-Deane Naude from Sony Electronics. El-Deane discussed the Retissa NeoViewer, a project developed with QD Laser that projects images taken on a camera...
info_outline
Developing Big Ideas: Product Testing and Iteration
On Tech & Vision With Dr. Cal Roberts
This podcast is about big ideas on how technology is making life better for people with vision loss. When we buy a product off the shelf, we rarely think about how much work went into getting it there. Between initial conception and going to market, life-changing technology requires a rigorous testing and development process. That is especially true when it comes to accessible technology for people who are blind or visually impaired. For this episode, Dr. Cal spoke to Jay Cormier, the President and CEO of Eyedaptic, a company that specializes in vision-enhancement technology. Their flagship...
info_outline
Robotic Guidance Technology
On Tech & Vision With Dr. Cal Roberts
This podcast is about big ideas on how technology is making life better for people with vision loss. The white cane and guide dogs are long-established foundational tools used by people with vision impairment to navigate. Although it would be difficult to replace the 35,000 years of bonding between humans and dogs, researchers are working on robotic technologies that can replicate many of the same functions of a guide dog. One such project, called LYSA, is being developed by Vix Labs in Brazil. LYSA sits on two wheels and is pushed by the user. It’s capable of identifying obstacles and...
info_outline
Smart Cities and Autonomous Driving: How Technology is Providing Greater Freedom of Movement for People with Vision Loss
On Tech & Vision With Dr. Cal Roberts
This podcast is about big ideas on how technology is making life better for people with vision loss. Navigating the world can be difficult for anyone, whether or not they have vision loss. Tasks like driving safely through a city, navigating a busy airport, or finding the right bus stop all provide unique challenges. Thankfully, advances in technology are giving people more freedom of movement than ever before, allowing them to get where they want, when they want, safely. Smart Cities are putting data collection to work in a healthy way by providing information to make busy intersections more...
info_outline
Leveling Up Accessible Video Game Features: How New Technology is Making Gaming More Immersive and Inclusive for People with Vision Loss
On Tech & Vision With Dr. Cal Roberts
This podcast is about big ideas on how technology is making life better for people with vision loss. For decades, people with vision loss had limited options when it came to accessing video games. Aside from screen magnification and text-to-voice tools, gamers who are blind or visually impaired didn’t have many ways to play their favorite titles. But in recent years, the same cutting-edge technology used to create games has been used to also make them more accessible for people with vision impairment. These advances include more visibility options, the implementation of 3D audio, haptic...
info_outlineThis podcast is about big ideas on how technology is making life better for people with vision loss.
For decades, people with vision loss had limited options when it came to accessing video games. Aside from screen magnification and text-to-voice tools, gamers who are blind or visually impaired didn’t have many ways to play their favorite titles. But in recent years, the same cutting-edge technology used to create games has been used to also make them more accessible for people with vision impairment. These advances include more visibility options, the implementation of 3D audio, haptic feedback, and customizable controllers for gamers with vision impairment. Furthermore, 3D audio technologies being developed in live sports may soon make their way to online multiplayer video games. The implementation and improvement of these technologies mean that everyone will be able to play together, regardless of their visual acuity.
The Big Takeaways:
- Leap in Accessible Gaming Options. In the past, the lack of accessibility features has made it much harder for gamers like Elaine Abdalla to access her favorite titles. But as gaming technology and accessibility improve, gamers like Elaine who are visually impaired are now able to more actively participate in their favorite titles. For example, The Last of Us: Part 2 boasts over 60 accessibility options including sophisticated visibility adjustments and inclusive difficulty settings.
- Participating in the Process. Robin Spinks is the Head of Inclusive Design at the UK’s Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB). He helps gaming companies implement accessibility options as part of the design process from the very beginning. By ensuring people with vision loss are part of the process from the jump, Robin is helping make games more immersive than ever — for everyone.
- Xbox Accessibility Team. Kaitlyn Jones first became passionate about gaming when she helped her father launch a nonprofit foundation that built customized setups for gamers with disabilities. She’s now the program manager of Xbox’s Gaming Accessibility Team. They develop guidelines for all kinds of accessible gaming options, including for people with vision loss. Thanks to her team’s efforts, new titles include options like spatial audio cues, which make it easier for gamers who are blind to navigate complex dungeons and unlock achievements.
- Action Audio. At the 2022 Australian Open, a new technology called Action Audio became available for tennis fans with vision loss. Through cutting-edge camera tracking technology, Action Audio creates an information-rich 3D audio experience that allows tennis fans with vision loss to experience every thrilling rally as it happened, and to share in a communal experience.
- Spatial Audio in Gaming. Action Audio’s developers hope to make it a universal technology that can also be used in gaming. Whether it’s working with a team in the latest first-person shooter or dribbling around opponents on a virtual basketball court, 3D (or spatial) audio technology is positioned to help people with vision loss to more equitably participate in the gaming community.
Tweetables:
- “The motivation here is to remove barriers, to form partnerships, and to collaborate so that going forward it becomes a much more possible area of life for people. ’Cause gaming's fantastic, right? And why should you be stopped from enjoying it just because you’re blind or partially sighted?” — Robin Spinks, Head of Inclusive Design at RNIB
- “When something happens on the court, it’s captured quite fast with Hawkeye within hundreds of milliseconds, and we’re able to take that data relatively quickly and generate the audio and then send it to the broadcast before it’s received in the real world.” — Tim Devine, AKQA Executive Director of Innovation
- “It’s like that Japanese principle of continuous improvement, kaizen, where you’re kind of constantly looking to do things better. That’s what we want to see in the gaming world. — Robin Spinks, Head of Inclusive Design at RNIB
- “We’ve always really prioritized accessibility along the way. But I think in terms of the journey of, even where we started when I first joined the team a few years ago versus now, I think the bar honestly just keeps getting higher and higher.” — Kaitlyn Jones, Program Manager: Xbox Accessibility Team
- “I’m just happy to see the disabled community is finally getting the assistance they need. It’s taken a while and it’s still gonna take a while, but we’re going in the right direction.” — Elaine Abdalla, creator of BlindGamerChick YouTube Channel
Contact Us:
- Contact us at [email protected] with your innovative new technology ideas for people with vision loss.
Pertinent Links: