Cognitive & Neurodiverse needs

• Allow the game to be started without the need to navigate through multiple levels of menus

• Use an easily readable default font size

• Use simple clear language

• Use simple clear text formatting

• Include tutorials

• Allow players to progress through text prompts at their own pace

• Avoid flickering images and repetitive patterns

• Include contextual in-game help/guidance/tips

• Indicate / allow reminder of current objectives during gameplay

• Indicate / allow reminder of controls during gameplay

• Include a means of practicing without failure, such as a practice level or sandbox mode

• Employ a simple, clear narrative structure

• If using a long overarching narrative, provide summaries of progress

• Ensure no essential information (especially instructions) is conveyed by text alone, reinforce with visuals and/or speech

• Give a clear indication that interactive elements are interactive

• Provide an option to turn off / hide background movement

• Support voice chat as well as text for multiplayer games

• Provide gameplay thumbnails with game saves

• Provide separate volume controls or mutes for effects, speech and background/music

• Ensure sound / music choices for each key objects / events are distinct from each other

• Include an option to adjust the game speed

• Provide a choice of text colour, low/high contrast choice as a minimum

• Highlight important words

• Include toggle/slider for any haptics

• Provide an option to disable blood and gore

• Provide pre-recorded voiceovers for all text, including menus and installers

• Avoid any sudden unexpected movement or events

• Allow all narrative and instructions to be replayed

• Use symbol-based chat (smileys etc)

• Provide an option to turn off / hide all non interactive elements
  

1. Simulate a virtual avatar that assists the user throughout the VR/AR/AI experience - Navigating a space alone can be a daunting experience and some users would prefer assistance that is more human-like than a simple textile or auditory description. The avatar can repeat instructions, point the user in the right direction, and become the narrator for important plot points. By pairing this technology with AI techniques, such as speech recognition, the assistant can reply intelligently to the user’s needs. Overall this technique is to provide comfort for the user, and to reduce the cognitive load of first learning how to use a new experience.

• “Interaction through avatars, rather than face to face, provides a sense of anonymity and reduces the stress and sense of risk that can occur during direct interaction with another person…By reducing the level of threat in communication, and by bringing people who may be widely JoDD 126 Danilovic dispersed together, CVE1 s function as an assistive technology to improve communication and reduce isolation and the sense of social exclusion for people with autism” (Smith, Swanson, Holverstott, & Duncan, 2007, p. 398)”

Example of this method

2. Cartoon or lower resolution faces: Some users with hypersensitivity to facial features. The ability to alter a character's face to one with more smoothed textures, and a focus on primary facial features allows the user to visually understand the character.

• “Autistic users are not burdened with the requirement to read complex emotional cues in other avatars.”

3. Customizable and Personalized Experiences in Virtual Worlds - With the ever increasing advancements in graphical technologies, the ability of telling a story through a highly realistic and interactive digital world has become staple for digital medians. Customization and personalization of a digital scene is a way to make users feel more accepted and engaged in the digital median. The following concepts improve accessibility:

• Different users express how they would like to be portrayed in a virtual world. Make sure they have the ability to choose:

“hiding certain real-world manifestations of their disability or freely expressing them via their Second Life avatar becomes a personal choice dictated by real-world experiences and motives.”

• Allow for the customization of 3D objects, characters, special effects, text, and sounds. Features are experienced differently from each user, and having the ability to change the features can make the experience more accepting to different users. An example is to change your characters in the scene to be cartoon-like, pixelated, or realistic.

• If multiplayer is involved, give the user the ability to have privacy. Allow the user to choose when they would like to engage in the social activity.
  Furthermore, the interactive component of the scene is highly important, and the following are examples of fully interactive and customizable scenes that currently exist in VR/AR.

Example of a Customizable Virtual Reality Space: Mozilla Hubs - One emerging technology is the existence of digital worlds such as Mozilla Hubs, where users can digitally meet, talk and create within a digital world. This technology is free to use, and allows users to join the room in a wide range of platforms, such as PC, phone, and virtual reality devices. Users can freely design their own rooms, and invite their friends into the experience a full 3D sound experience, sound quality equivalent to the quality of Microsoft Team or Zoom, and the full independence to move freely within the spatial representation of the digital world.

Example of a Customizable Augmented Reality (AR) Space: Spatial - is an AR chat room that allows users to experience an interactive experience where other users and digital objects are simulated and overlaid in the real space. An example of this technology can be represented in the photo below, where the user sees an animated representation of a person in the chat room in their office. Much like Mozilla hubs, the user can place, customize and interact with 3D objects, directional sound, and 2D graphics, however the world in this case is in the real space.

4. Hologram Technology in Augmented Reality (AR) - The following technology showcase is the produce of real-time photogrammetry being streamed to an augmented reality such as the Microsoft Hololens:

Virtual 3D Teleportation

Holograms can also be pre-recorded as an animated character of a real person that is simulated in the real space:

Example of Pre-recorded Hologram

Overall this technique is used to add customizable avatars in the virtual experience, which is known to highly benefit the general interest of persons with neurodiverse needs to feel welcomed, and participate in a virtual space.

5. Use of Symbolic Information - Sometimes text or audio descriptions in a virtual scene can be replaced or accommodated with simple to understand symbols. These symbols allow for the user to understand the basic requirements of the task, and will improve their ability of first engaging an activity. Example of sample symbol provided in the images in section below.

6. Use of Simple Language - Avoid the use of complex vocabulary, and reduce the word count on captions/audio descriptions to represent the most important information. The following guidelines should be considered when designing the overall structure of a virtual exhibit or game:

Plain Language Checklist

1. Vibro-haptic seating - A calming experience that allows the user to experience audio through an array of vibration coils found within a seating arrangement. Mimics the same sensation of a massage, and works as a passive cognitive de-escalation station. Can simulation direction cues in audio soundscapes, and represent music through tactile vibration pulses.

Example of this method

2. Passive Haptics - Physical Interactable 3D Objectives in Projector Virtual Reality. Use of physical 3D objects that interact within the virtual world.This technique enables the user to interact with the digital environment with their hands acting as the controller, and minimizes the cognitive load required to participate in a virtual world. This technique is most commonly used in projector virtual reality.

For additional work on this field, please refer to the following company website: https://borderless.teamlab.art/

3. Physical Environment in Virtual and Augmented Reality

By mapping virtual simulations to the physical bounds of the real world, the user can experience the tactile representation of the space. This creates a nature bound to the scene, reducing the cognitive load of understanding the scale and position of objects. Additionally, this technique enhances the experience for users with visual impairments, with the use of physical landmarks.

An example of this technique is using a table top to host the MineCraft experience in augmented reality.

4. Tangible User Interface (TUI) - is a user interface in which a person interacts with digital information through the physical environment. This display is refreshable, and can be set as deformable (panels move), or static (panels do not move).

Example of this method : MIT Tangible Media Lab

The format of this information is known as Baurelief, or 2.5D. Example of a Baurelief can be seen in the images section below.

5. Fabric Conductive Textiles - The use of a wearable or stationary fabric interface is to act as a controller for the digital experience. The fabric in this case is embedded with sensors that detect pressure, and when pressed, the fabric sends a command that interfaces with the digital world. In the AR/VR field this technology has been trialed in wearable armbands, controllers, and clothing.

Example of this method : Tactile Musical Keyboard from MIT