Uncovering Visually Impaired Gamers' Preferences for Spatial Awareness Tools Within Video Games
Vishnu Nair, Shao-en Ma, Ricardo E. Gonzalez Penuela, Yicheng He, Karen Lin, Mason Hayes, Hannah Huddleston, Matthew Donnelly, Brian A. Smith · 2022 · Proceedings of the 24th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS '22) · doi:10.1145/3517428.3544802
Summary
This paper investigates how visually impaired players (VIPs) gain spatial awareness within 3D video games by comparing four leading spatial awareness tool (SAT) approaches. The researchers built Dungeon Escape, a 3D third-person adventure game using Unity, featuring four dungeon levels where players must find keys to clear obstacles and reach goal checkpoints. They implemented four SATs representing a broad range of design approaches: a smartphone-based touchscreen map (derived from tactile map research), a whole-room shockwave (inspired by echolocation, emitting expanding sound waves that announce objects they hit), a directional scanner (based on NavStick, allowing joystick-based directional surveying of surroundings), and a simple audio menu (a list-based interface of points of interest). Nine visually impaired participants — eight completely blind and one with light perception only, all male, aged 18-45, recruited from the AudioGames.net forum — played all four levels with each tool in a counterbalanced Latin square design. The study addressed two research questions: what aspects of spatial awareness VIPs find important within games (RQ1), and how well each SAT approach facilitates each aspect (RQ2). The researchers defined six types of spatial awareness from prior literature: area scale, area shape, position and orientation, presence of items, arrangement of items, and adjacent areas.
Key findings
Position and orientation was ranked as the most important aspect of spatial awareness by participants (median importance: 5/5), yet none of the four tools communicated it effectively — all received mediocre ratings of around 3/5 for this aspect. Scale and shape of areas were ranked least important (median: 3), which contrasts with physical world navigation research where these are considered crucial. Each tool excelled at different aspects: the directional scanner best communicated item arrangement; the simple audio menu perfectly communicated item presence (5/5 with zero standard deviation); the smartphone map best communicated area shape; and the whole-room shockwave best communicated area scale. The combination of directional scanner plus simple audio menu was the most preferred pairing, covering four of the six spatial awareness types. Critically, the simple audio menu — while efficient — undermined the game experience by removing exploration and discovery, with participants completing levels much faster (mean 17 seconds for key collection vs. 84-105 seconds with other tools) but reporting less fun. Participants highly valued the ability to customize and filter SAT information, comparing this to screen reader settings. The whole-room shockwave, despite being derived from echolocation, was found overwhelming by many participants, even those experienced with echolocation in other games.
Relevance
This study provides game designers with evidence-based guidance on which spatial awareness tools to prioritize when making 3D games accessible to blind players. The key insight that position and orientation — the most valued aspect — is poorly served by all current approaches identifies a critical gap for future research and development. The finding that VIPs may sacrifice spatial information for a better gaming experience challenges the assumption that more information is always better, suggesting that SATs should be designed with the gaming experience in mind, not just information completeness. The three design implications — build purpose-built tools for position/orientation, combine directional scanner with audio menu for broadest coverage, and embrace customizability — give developers concrete starting points. The research also has implications beyond gaming: the spatial awareness taxonomy and tool comparisons could inform physical world navigation aids, accessible virtual reality, and indoor wayfinding tools. The emphasis on customizability aligns with broader accessibility principles — users need control over what information they receive and when.
Tags: game accessibility · visual impairment · blindness · spatial awareness · audio navigation · 3D audio · sonification · echolocation · tactile map · user study