Accessibility Jam: Hand Tremors

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Accessibility Jam: Hand Tremors community

A Few Resources!

A topic by ghoulbroth created Jul 29, 2022 Views: 681 Replies: 22

Viewing posts 1 to 7

ghoulbroth2 years ago(+2)

Hi all, I found the Research section on the jam page really interesting, so I did a little research myself and thought I'd share some of my findings (but talking to a person with a tremor disability would certainly be more accurate)!

1. Tremors can also cause accidental presses of adjacent keys, so it might be good to choose non-adjacent controls. (source)

2. For essential tremors, head shakes can also occur, so it might be good to keep relevant information on screen so the player won't miss it. (source)

3. Voice controls are also an option (if your engine supports it)! (source)

TheNamesJohnny2 years ago(+1)

For #1, another option is always to make a one button only game

Diligent GamesSubmitted2 years ago(+2)

These are good tips! We also found out that toggle buttons are very useful for a continuous action like attacking. People have hard time pressing buttons fast or pressing buttons for long time. This also means that there needs to be a reason not to hold button forever. You can get creative here and punish player for holding button for too long.

Another thing we learned is that major tremors happen when the players get sensory overload, get suddenly excited, surprised or scared. Essentially losing control for brief moments. This means not to make a very intense game. Try to avoid visual or audio unexpected things during gameplay or do that in non threatening game scenario.

ghoulbroth2 years ago

Ooooooh these are really great, thanks. Did you find timed button releases were doable (as opposed to to timed button presses)?

Diligent GamesSubmitted2 years ago

Im not sure what you mean. You're talking about delayed input?

ghoulbroth2 years ago

Hmm kinda, you mentioned having players not hold a button for too long. Was having them release a button at a specific time an action they were able to perform?

Diligent GamesSubmitted2 years ago(+1)

Ah i understand. Yeah that definitely can work but its a bit specific and might not work with common game mechanics well i feel like. Maybe it can be used for walking that way you don't have to hold the button just like a toggle. Although i think toggle gives better precision of player input.

NinNeko2 years ago

Hi everyone. I like your game jam! I might not be able to join because of time constraints but I will be watching and trying the games. I like your ideas so far. I have something to just throw out there IDK if it will work or not. How about game mechanics that reward shaking? One example would be Wario Shake it on Wii. When Wario grabs a money bag the player has to shake the controller to make the coins jump out. A platformer game probably is not the best example but this game mechanic could possibly be used in other genres.

Cwajillions2 years ago(+1)

Regarding your shaking mechanic, I personally have tardive dyskinesia, and a substantial amount of my energy goes towards not shaking, so the idea of gamifying a similar motion is not ideal to me. Also, I don't know about anyone else, but sometimes once I start a motion like that I can't stop.

NinNeko2 years ago

Thank you for sharing. I will rethink my game design for this jam. For control options would you be more likely to use keyboard/mouse or gamepad?

Diligent GamesSubmitted2 years ago

From researching we found that controllers are preferable due to easier time of holding it rather keyboard and a mouse and for easier time with stabilizing the tremors.

Cwajillions2 years ago

my experience is personal, obviously, and I'm not sure how my condition overlaps with other tremor conditions, but I find m+k easier generally with what I play. Recently I've been using layouts that focus on moving accuracy sensitive presses to the keyboard so the mouse can just be used to point. As an example, in the game war thunder, before i developed TD I had machine guns mapped to mouse 1 and cannons to a side button. Now, pressing that side button while also trying to hold the mouse steady is extremely difficult, so I moved the fire keys to a position close to where I rest my hand on the keyboard.

Diligent GamesSubmitted2 years ago

Is it only one arm that gives you issues?

Cwajillions2 years ago

I get various effects basically everywhere, but the biggest issue with M4/5, which I think would be similar with a gamepad is that the effort it takes to suppress the tremor feeds back and makes the tremor worse. I don't use my thumbs for game input much at all, now that I think about it.

Diligent GamesSubmitted2 years ago

M4/5 is the mouse im guessing?

Cwajillions2 years ago

oh, should have been more clear. I meant mouse buttons. 3 is middle click and 4 and 5 are the side buttons. M1/2/3 use a much different set of muscles than M4/5

Diligent GamesSubmitted2 years ago

interesting. So what would make it easier for you to play games on m&k?

Diligent GamesSubmitted2 years ago

Makes sense

Max Damage2 years ago

I don't have time to join, but I like this idea for a Jam! It looks to me that it depends on the game.

My ideas were something like:

Platformer/hack'n'slasher: if multiple buttons are pressed, then excellent - it just means your character does more attacks! Basically what we called "button mashing" when playing Tekken back in the day.
first person: voice controls, to control the character, it would probably need to be a bit slower and give time for the voice stuff to happen.

While my hands work fine, I know that my wife has small hands with limited range and can't use a game controller or keyboard properly, so any game with too many buttons won't be good for her. She can't even press W and Space at the same time. But, the theme is "hand tremors", and interesting to consider these once you start looking into it.

Diligent GamesSubmitted2 years ago

We have experience with voice controls and that solution is very situational. Like you said a game will have to be a slow paced game, almost like a point and click adventure games. We know that voice control is not used for main buttons or actions in games, for example moving character or attacking due to delay in voice recognition and timing your words. Basically it's a terrible solution for precise input. However voice control works very well for actions that are trivial. For example opening inventory, navigating menu, interaction action etc. I think a game like point and click adventure style could work but you know, instead of pointing and clicking you use voice and words.

Pressing multiple buttons for unique action sounds cool! Maybe a temporary bonus or something. I am not sure about button mashing. Button mashing should be avoided in my opinion.

Haunted Bees Productions2 years ago(+2)

I've been working on an Accessibility Suite for Godot that addresses some of the points mentioned in this thread; a custom is_action_just_pressed function includes a customizable delay, so a player with hand tremors who might accidentally press the same button multiple times in a short time period will only register as the one original intended press. There's also functionality to convert button holds to toggles; so if your game normally requires players hold down a button/key to crouch, for example, you can easily surface an option to allow players to press the button once to crouch, and a second time to stop crouching. If any Godot devs are participating in this jam, hopefully one of them can find this useful!

I don't think I'll have time to participate in this jam, but I'll definitely be monitoring it to learn what other ways us developers can work to make games more accessible for everyone.

ghoulbroth2 years ago

This is super cool, thank you! It has accessibility features I never even thought of, and I'm definitely interested in using it!

Haunted Bees Productions2 years ago(+1)

Thank you! I mostly just read through everything on https://gameaccessibilityguidelines.com/ and tried implementing what I could. That site is an amazing resource.

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Accessibility Jam: Hand Tremors

A Few Resources!