#GACONF EU 2019

The second EU edition of #GAconf was held on 21st October 2019 at Plexal, London.

ALL PREVIOUS CONFERENCES

Ian Hamilton

The New Normal

Ian Hamilton, independent

This session shares a sense of how the accessibility landscape has shifted over the past year, where the industry is currently at, and where it will be heading in future.

 


Brannon Zahand

Rallying The Troops: Battle-Tested Strategies for Recruiting Accessibility Allies

Brannon Zahand, Microsoft

In this talk you’ll learn how to build and organize networks of allies, and empower them through tools and training to be champions for inclusive design throughout the product lifecycle.

 


Tara Voelker

Inclusion Through Design Sprints

“>Tara Voelker, Mixer

This session shares practical tips on recruiting and engaging with subject matter experts, what the benefits can be for your games, and what we have learned from the sprints run at Playground Games.

 


Bringing Accessibility To Everyone In Tom Clancy’s The Division 2

Matte Wagner & Patrick Görtjes, Ubisoft

The Division 2, released in March 2019, gained praise at launch for the inclusion of many accessibility features, including its subtitle system and player communication options. Ubisoft developers Patrick Görtjes and Matte Wagner speak about the iterative process of designing and implementing these solutions, the challenges of working with a large team from around the world on such a large project, and becoming advocates for the accessibility community.

 


Cherry Thompson

Grounded In Neurodiversity: Accounting For The Invisible

Cherry Thompson, Jamie Knight, Shell Little, Steven Woodgate

Join this panel of accessibility specialists from across the fields of technology and games as we discuss the approaches we take for addressing cognitive accessibility in our professional practice. We’ll share how our personal experiences as neurodivergent people have shaped our work and given us insight into the barriers a surprising number of players face today.

You will gain insight into what it’s like to face cognitive barriers while playing games and how to incorporate that knowledge into core design practices.

 


Audio Description: Seeing Videogame Narrative Through Sound

SightlessKombat, independent

SightlessKombat, accessibility consultant and gamer without sight, talks through what audio description is and looks at just how this common feature of the film, TV and theatre industries could transition into the medium of videogames.

 


Design Considerations For Players Using Voice Commands

VoicedGaming, independent

How game design can be adjusted to account for players who use mapped voice input. This will detail how voice commands differ from regular inputs, their unavoidable challenges, and various game mechanics which make things more difficult alongside recommendations for alternatives.

 


Johnny Wallbank

Accessibility As A Design Pillar

Johnny Wallbank, Team Cats & Bears

This talk explores the development process of a single button platformer for PC and mobile platforms, ‘Bubbles the Cat’.

It looks at how the game’s prototyping and iterative design was guided by core accessibility design pillars, as well as the challenges faced in making a game simple to play whilst still retaining depth for advanced players.

 


Barrie Ellis

Reg

Barrie Ellis, SpecialEffect

A 15 minute talk on the most influential person in the history of assistive technology. And a poem.

 


Championing Accessibility In Any Organisation

Gareth Ford-Williams, BBC

Enabling any organisation to understand the benefits of cultural and practical change in an evolving technical environment is not straight forward. There are many approaches and techniques, and over the last 14 years Gareth has probably tried all of them. Often more than once. He still has the scars to prove it.

This talk covers the strategies, tricks, meaningful metrics and pitfalls to look out for when growing accessibility within any organisation whether it is public service or commercial.

 


Dr Amy Kavanagh

Blind Button Masher

Dr Amy Kavanagh, independent

Amy Kavanagh is a visually impaired video gamer, activist and campaigner. Through a discussion which will cover a variety of consoles and genres, Amy will explore what makes games accessible to her and the easy adaptations game designers can make to widen their audience.

 


Andrew Bromilow

Included By Adaption Or Design

Andrew Bromilow, Everyone Can

Taking examples from the accessible gaming centre run by Everyone Can, this talk will highlight the small changes that allow disabled gamers to be included and to show the impact these make. An opportunity to see how the work you do can really make a difference to disabled players, and to say thank you.

 

GAconf Europe

22nd - 23rd April 2024

Pullman St Pancras, London

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