ACCESSIBLE EDUCATIONAL GAMES: structure and investigative practices

Abstract

Digital games are interactive multimedia products that are embedded in contemporary culture and are relevant, both in economic and social terms. Due to their attractiveness and ability to engage, digital games are increasingly present as a teaching strategy and several educational games are developed, made available and used as part of the teaching strategy. However, for marketing and, mainly, cultural reasons, digital games are developed to serve the most representative and profitable audience. In this way, most games are developed without accessibility features, due to the lack of knowledge of their producers or because they do not consider people with disabilities an eligible target. In this text, we present the principles of development of accessible educational digital games, defending the importance of considering such aspects from their planning to their development, whether in development companies or in projects developed in the classroom. Thus, we seek to break the paradigm of digital games as capacitatism and excluding products, directing them to be potentiators of the development of an inclusive culture. For this, in addition to presenting an overview of games and game design, this article highlights accessibility guidelines that can and should be assimilated in the development or adaptation of digital games for educational purposes.