2018 Game Accessibility Conference (GAConf) announced
The second edition of the Game Accessibility Conference, GAConf, has been announced for March 19th 2018, at the Children’s Creativity Museum, San Francisco, CA, with early bird tickets now on sale.
GAConf is a one-day conference hosted by the IGDA’s game accessibility SIG, dedicated to making games more accessible to gamers with disabilities. The event features talks and networking for all disciplines of the games industry, exploring recent and future advances in game accessibility.
Attendees can expect a wide range of topics from all sectors of the industry - indie to AAA, academia to accessibility specialists - and leave with inspiration, new contacts, and practical tips to ensure any game can reach as many people as possible, so no player is unnecessarily excluded from everything that games have to offer.
“Literally the most informative conference I’ve been to in a very long time!”
– David Tisserand, UR Process Manager, Ubisoft
“ The game accessibility conference is by far the most interesting conference I have ever been to. I love being a game dev.”
– Jacqueline McGraw, Creative Director, Strong National Museum of Play
Awareness of the importance of game accessibility has increased hugely in recent years, with 2017 seeing ever growing numbers of developers making it part of their work. Attendees will take home practical knowledge of how to ensure their vision can reach as wide a range of players as possible, allowing more of those players to benefit from the access to culture, recreation and socialising that gaming brings.
Topics include publisher level accessibility initiatives, the deaf & hard of hearing gamer community, streaming as a means of inclusion, how AAA fits with accessibility for blind gamers, and the results of considering accessibility from the earliest stage of indie game development. Speakers confirmed so far include:
· Tara Voelker, Mixer
· SightlessKombat, blind gamer & advocate
· Kevin Keeker, PlayStation
· Ian Hamilton, accessibility specialist
· Karen Stevens, EA Sports
· Jason Canam, Household Games
· Samuel Thompson, Naughty Dog
Many more still to come!
Tickets are now available at an early bird rate from www.gaconf.com .
About IGDA-GASIG:
The IGDA Game Accessibility SIG is a special interest group of the International Game Developers Association. The IGDA-GASIG volunteers have worked since 2003 to aid the game industry in making games accessible to all players, regardless of impairments or other limitations. For more information, visit http://www.igda-gasig.org .
