"Accessibility Challenge" - A game show investigating the accessibility of computer systems for disabled people

Abstract

A professional live theatre event in the form of a game show has been designed to raise awareness of the challenges computer technology provides to older and disabled people and the advantages and disadvantages of various accessibility options that can be found within some software. It also demonstrates one way in which theatre can be used within HCI research and development. It is designed to be a stimulating event with a serious purpose. A pilot version of the event proved successful as a plenary "social" activity at a recent conference on Computer Science education, where very positive evaluation results were obtained. It has since been modified to focus particularly on HCI issues of accessibility.