Delivered at the UK Games Expo on Friday 1st of June, 2018 . In this seminar, Dr Michael Heron and Pauline Belford of Meeple Like Us discuss the topic of board game accessibility and why support for people with disabilities within the tabletop gaming community is important - not just for its own sake, but for all of us. Pages referenced here: Meeple Like Us: http://meeplelikeus.co.uk The Game Accessibility Guidelines: http://gameaccessibilityguidelines.com/ Eighteen Months of Meeple Like Us: http://meeplelikeus.co.uk/eighteen-months-of-meeple-like-us-an-exploration-into-the-state-of-board-game-accessibility/ Meeple Centred Design: http://meeplelikeus.co.uk/meeple-centred-design-a-heuristic-toolkit-for-evaluating-the-accessibility-of-tabletop-games/

1. Adventures in the World of Board Game Accessibility
Michael Heron and Pauline Belford
http://meeplelikeus.co.uk

2. Introduction
It’s nice to be living in a golden age of board games.
But the riches of this age are not equally available to everyone.
We are awash in innovation and exciting design.
The range of game styles and interactions is phenomenal.
But sometimes that can be a problem…

3. Games are Amazingly Varied
Fast, real-time,
failure all but
guaranteed
Tense,
argumentative, lies,
deceit and bluffing
‘Awkward
Conversations: The
Board game’
Physical dexterity,
binocularity, breath
and mobility

4. Games are Amazingly Varied
Vocabulary and
inference
Potentially
everything, with no
advance warning
Empathy, art
interpretation,
creativity within
constraints
Colour interpretation
and pattern matching

5. And that’s only the start…
Video games, despite tending towards being more demanding, are
an easier problem domain.
If you can sort out the connection between the player, the
interface, and the game you’re sorted.
What is the interface between a player and a board game?
It varies from game to game, and almost every game is inaccessible
to some degree.

6. The Social Model of Disability
Consider the word ‘disability’
Where is the disability in the
picture shown?
In the person?
In the wheelchair?
Or…

7. The Social Model of Disability
Inaccessibility means, literally, not accessible
It usually references a barrier that exists between an actor and a
goal
In the slide before, it’s not the wheelchair or the disability that is
the inaccessibility.
It’s the stairs, and they were put there by someone.

8. Inaccessibility in Board Games
Board games are full of stairs. Metaphorically speaking.
Our problem is more complex than simply avoiding them.
The problem is that inaccessibility is fun.
Games, by their very nature, are about overcoming
inaccessibilities.
The trick is to make sure that inaccessibilities are intentional.

9. Categories of Inaccessibility
Colour Blindness
Visual Impairment
Fluid Intelligence
Memory
Emotional
Sociological
Economic
Fine motor control
Gross motor control
Communication

10. Accessibility is for Everyone
Disability is a hugely important use case for accessibility, but not
the only one.
Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances have the same
concerns as extraordinary people in ordinary circumstances.
We are all getting older, and I assume we all want to be playing
games in our old age.
Accessibility is how we ensure that.

11. Permanent, Temporary and Intermittent Impairment
Permanent Temporary Intermittent
Colour Blindness Monochromacy Bad lighting Inference of Context
Visual Total blindness Eye patch Sunlight in eyes
Cognitive Dementia Drunk Distracted
Physical Paralysis Broken arm Holding something
heavy
Emotional Borderline Personality
Disorder
Work stresses Bad mood
Communication Deaf Lost voice In a mixed language
environment
Socioeconomic Ethnicity Cash-flow problem Unpleasant company

12. Meeple Like Us
Meeple Like Us is aimed at mapping out the accessibility
landscape.
This work is often controversial, particularly because we view
inclusion and diversity as an accessibility domain.
To date we have analyzed ~150 games, mostly from the BGG Top
500
And we are looking to do more.

13. Limitations
We make no claim this work is authoritative.
It’s undertaken from primarily an abled perspective.
(Anything else is incredibly difficult)
It doesn’t benefit from an embodied appreciation of inaccessibility.
Letter grades for categories flatten all nuance.

14. The Teardown
The primary tool we use for accessibility analyses is the teardown.
This works from a heuristic framework that creates a consistent set
of lenses for analysis.
We play each game several times.
We apply the framework.
We publish the results.

15. The Philosophy of a Teardown
Hugely important here is the philosophy behind a teardown.
It does not take a medical approach to the topic.
(No-one involved in the site is qualified to do that)
It doesn’t address conditions or manifestations of disability.
It analyses game systems, not the people that would play them.

16. The Teardown
From this we map out areas of concern or best practice in games.
Like olde-world sailors, occasionally we miss hazards or mark ‘here
be dragons’ on safe waters.
However, these case studies are provided for players to decide for
themselves how appropriate a game may be.
And to offer designers a comparator against which to assess their
own games.

17. Thank you!
Any questions?
http://meeplelikeus.co.uk

18. If you found this useful and would like to support our
accessibility, please consider our Patreon!
Your support is invaluable in keeping this work going.
https://www.patreon.com/meeplelikeus