Tech Grove Connect - Practical Magic: Applying Guidelines to Serious Game Accessibility

Watch the recording from this months webinar!

While there are widely recognized guidelines for web content accessibility, few exist for serious games which are increasingly being used for training. Many recognize serious games should be more accessible but there are practical barriers to overcome. The most used game development engines render them inaccessible to assistive technologies, budgets are often lower than what is needed to meet accessibility requirements, and there are no clear design guidelines.

Join us as we discuss with our guest speaker – Jenn McNamara of BreakAway Games – the work captured in the I/ITSEC 2023 Best Paper Nominee in Education on adapting web content guidelines and other design approaches to serious games for more inclusive accessibility.

Meet the Speaker

Jenn McNamara is VP of Serious Games and Strategic Products for BreakAway Games, Jenn acts as an advocate and liaison between market leaders, clients, and the BreakAway creation team driving strategic product direction. Starting on the DARPA DARWARS Training Superiority program and continuing through 20 years of game production and research collaborations, Jenn’s work has contributed significantly to the body of knowledge of what games offer for learning, training, practice, and assessment, as well as novel approaches for delivering accessible games.  She’s worked with clients across defense, healthcare, homeland security, education, and corporate organizations.

Jenn is a strong advocate for the serious applications of games. She is a frequent speaker at industry conferences including I/ITSEC, Serious Play, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Game Developers’ Conference, Games for Change Festival, and ATP Innovations in Testing. She serves the conference committees of I/ITSEC as the director of the Serious Games Showcase & Challenge and ATP Innovations in Testing as the Innovation Fast-Pitch Coordinator.

Jenn holds a B. S. in Cognitive Psychology from The Pennoni Honors College at Drexel University and M.Ed. in Instructional Systems Design and Development from the Pennsylvania State University. She is an adjunct professor of learning game design at Harrisburg University.