The Promotion of Empathy for the Experience of Users with Visual Impairment in the Game Design Education

摘要

People are constantly seeking new experiences through perceptions that involve practical and subjective aspects such as usability, efficiency, satisfaction, and accessibility. The advent of digital inclusion has encouraged the software development with support for accessibility, which is proposed to promote the improvement of the quality of life of people with some type of disability, although also reflects positively with people without disabilities. In this sense, accessible digital games constitute a growing demand and, among the different solutions that have been proposed, the audiogames propose to offer a differentiated user experience, with the exploration of different sound stimuli that complement the visual stimuli. Thus, audio features are explored with the aim of guiding the player about the game universe based on different sounds and such features are significant for the experience of visually impaired players. However, the development of audiogames that are really accessible and provide a satisfying interaction for visually impaired users is still a challenge for game designers, who need to develop empathy for their target audience by understanding their needs and expectations. This article presents an experience report involving the development of audiogames that, though considering the accessibility to visually impaired, focus on the experience provided to game designers without visually impaired so as to awaken in these the empathy for games accessible through the understanding of how sound stimuli can compensate for lack of vision.