Informatics PhD student Olive Wang has been awarded a minigrant by AccessComputing, an organization that supports people with disabilities in computing. The $5,000 grant will support Wang's work on the video game Loadouts, which teaches players why accessibility is important. In the game, players learn why video games are inaccessible for players who are low-vision and how accessibility features such as high contrast, auditory cues, and multimodality can be effective.
"This grant lets me compensate participants, which includes those learning about accessibility as well as those co-designing the game," said Wang. "Future iterations of Loadouts will improve upon the player experience of the game and also expand to more categories of accessibility features."
Wang's research interests are in human-computer interaction, with a focus on accessibility. Wang is exploring sound and music as modalities of conveying information to make technologies more accessible. Their broader interests include games, physical computing, embedded systems, and AR/VR. Wang holds bachelor's degrees in computer science and music theory.
Originally published on the School of Information Sciences News Feed.