Previous research on games for people with visual impairment (PVI) has focused on co-designing or evaluating specific games-mostly under controlled conditions. In this research, we follow a game-agnostic, "in-the-wild" approach, investigating the habits, opinions and concerns of PVI regarding digital games. To explore these issues, we conducted an online survey and follow-up interviews with gamers with VI (GVI). Dominant themes from our analysis include the particular appeal of digital games to GVI, the importance of social trajectories and histories of gameplay, the need to balance complexity and accessibility in both games targeted to PVI and mainstream games, opinions about the state of the gaming industry, and accessibility concerns around new and emerging technologies such as VR and AR. Our study gives voice to an underrepresented group in the gaming community. Understanding the practices, experiences and motivations of GVI provides a valuable foundation for informing development of more inclusive games. CCS CONCEPTS • Social and professional topics → People with disabilities; • Applied computing → Computer games;

In virtual environments, spatial information is communicated visually. This prevents people with visual impairment (PVI) from accessing such spaces. In this article, we investigate whether echolocation could be used as a tool to convey spatial information by answering the following research questions: What features of virtual space can be perceived by PVI through the use of echolocation? How does active echolocation support PVI in acquiring spatial knowledge of a virtual space? And what are PVI’s opinions regarding the use of echolocation to acquire landmark and survey knowledge of virtual space? To answer these questions, we conducted a two-part within-subjects experiment with 12 people who were blind or had a visual impairment and found that size and materials of rooms and 90-degree turns were detectable through echolocation, participants preferred using echoes derived from footsteps rather than from artificial sound pulses, and echolocation supported the acquisition of mental maps of a virtual space. Ultimately, we propose that appropriately designed echolocation in virtual environments improves understanding of spatial information and access to digital games for PVI.

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The graphics-intensive nature of most virtual environments (VEs) prevents many people with visual impairment from being able to successfully explore them. A percentage of the population of people with visual impairment are known to use echolocation -sound waves and their reflections-to better explore their surroundings. In this paper, we describe the development of an echolocation-enabled VE (Echo-House) and evaluate the feasibility of using echolocation as a novel technique to explore this environment. Results showed that echolocation gave participants an improved sense of space in the VE. However, the evaluation also identified a range of orientation and mobility issues and found that participants needed additional support to gain confidence in their use of echolocation in the VE. Our findings suggest that with proper support, echolocation has the potential to improve access to VEs for people who are blind or visually impaired by revealing features that would be otherwise inaccessible.

As virtual environments—in the form of videogames and augmented and virtual reality experiences—become more popular, it is important to ensure that they are accessible to all. Previous research has identified echolocation as a useful interaction approach to enable people with visual impairment to access virtual environments. In this paper, we further investigate the usefulness of echolocation to explore virtual environments. We follow a participatory design approach that comprised a focus group session coupled with two fast prototyping and evaluation iterations. During the focus group session, expert echolocators produced a series of seven design recommendations, of which we implemented and trialed four. Our trials revealed that the use of ambient sounds, the ability to place landmarks, directional control, and the ability to use pre-recorded mouth-clicks produced by expert echolocators improved the overall experience of our participants by facilitating the detection of openings and obstacles. The recommendations presented and evaluated in this paper may help to develop virtual environments that support a broader range of users while recognising the value of the lived experience of people with disability as a source of knowledge.