[Mdabs] FW: [nabs-l] Someone looking for blind people to take part in a fun little study

Chris Nusbaum dotkid.nusbaum at gmail.com
Sat Jun 2 00:24:45 UTC 2012


Some of you may be interested in taking part in this study. If you are interested, please contact the study conductor directly.

Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Brandon Keith Biggs
Sent: Friday, June 01, 2012 4:52 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: [nabs-l] Someone looking for blind people to take part in a fun little study

Hello,
This is sort of off topic, but there is someone doing research for how blind people navigate Virtual worlds. He wants people that haven’t had much experience playing IF or Muds. His message is below:

Begin quote:
Hello! 

I'm doing research on text based online roleplaying games.  It is specifically about parameters of immersion for blind and sighted players.  If you are interested in participating in a small study about this, I would be happy, if you could aid me.  It would be good, if you wouldn't have too much experience in playing Interactive Fiction or Multi-User-Dungeons, though. 

The tests will be conducted throughout June and can be done at home, though with a skype or phone connection to me. The whole test shouldn't take longer than one and a half hour. 

If you are interested in participating, please drop me an email: katta at frimble.net and then we can sort out the specifics. 

Thanks in advance. 
katta 
End quote.

To move it more on topic though, I think playing IF and Muds as well as other audio games are the best way for one to learn the computer. I’ve often wondered why VI instructors try teaching Jaws doing these deathly boring exercises when all they need to do is set up VIP Mud and let the person go... In the process one learns how to use alt commands, moving using tab, moving through pages using the arrow keys, reading with both the page up and down, home and end keys and in order to get Jaws to sound like they want, it requires they explore the Jaws dictionary. Also when playing Muds it’s a given that players will develop the ability to type extremely fast and their knowledge of the keyboard will become so second nature they will be able to hit any key without thinking about it.
Playing Muds in particular also leads one to become more familiar with scripting for software which often leads to an interest in programming. Because the STEM fields are feared by many blind individuals, being able to have a first hand experience on how not scary software engineering is a fantastic way to guide blind students to garner a passion for computers.
Thank you,

Brandon Keith Biggs
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