Tag: games (Page 1 of 2)

SCMS 2022: The Serious Business of Accessibility in Playful Community Spaces

This is a summary of the work presented at SCMS 2022. This is cross-posted on Medium: https://medium.com/p/d8ebbe436fa2


Play happens everywhere and is a universal human experience. However, questions of accessibility still challenge many playful spaces. As diverse as people are, there are a diverse set of needs in order to access an activity, interaction, or experience. We find, though, that disabled individuals are often not accommodated in playful places.

I turn particularly to online playful spaces where some disabled people may find the primary source of their interactions. These online spaces become community places, where people with like-interests congregate, form relationships, and have fun. For playful communities, creating access means both grappling with platform design, including appropriation and modification of technology, and iterating on community norms and expectations to accommodate community members.

In this presentation, using data from ethnographies from two different playful communities, I will explore how the platform and community values are entangled and impact not only the playfulness, but also the accessibility of the space [3,6].

Methods

For both the case studies used in this work, I used ethnographic methods where I was embedded as a participant observer in the community for an extended period of time. In each community, I collected data from my own observations, public social media content, and community produced content. This work is qualitative and while I use some mixed methods, such as surveys, I mostly use that to triangulate what I am already finding in my qualitative work. This means that this work goes very deep into some community spaces and narrows in on specific aspects of my work. In order to preserve the safety of the community members, everything is paraphrased, abstracted, or anonymized as appropriate.

I identify as disabled scholar and activist, which means I approach most of my research with a critical disability lens. I look at spaces through a lens of deconstructing ableism that is occurring there, as well as trying to better understand communities from the perspective of making members feel safe, included, and cared for.

Autcraft

The first ethnography was conducted in a community centered around the video game Minecraft — Autcraft — was founded to create a safe space for autistic youth [5]. The Autcraft community uses various methods including modifying game software, leveraging other social media platforms, and adhering to a strict code of conduct for members to address not only the needs of autistic youth, but to accommodate other access needs [3].

The Autcraft community uses a variety of technological platforms in their community, but it is centered around the video game Minecraft. They use plug-ins and modifications to the software in order to make the game more accessible for the players. There are many different ways the community creates “access” through technological means and many of these technological implementations have been iterated on over time.

a screenshot of a Minecraft world with a person’s avatar centered in the middle of the screen. In the lower left corner is a large semi-transparent overlay of the text chat. The text in the box is white and close together.

The majority of communication in the game world happens via text or through avatar interactions, which are quite simplified compared to some other multiplayer games. This was another intentional choice by the community. If the text in the image above were happening live, it could be moving up the screen fairly quickly. While this is still preferred to other modes of communication, it has its challenges and takes some getting used to.

A text chat where the lines are spaced apart by dashes and the title are in different colors, one player’s name is highlighted in yellow.

After learning of a player in the community who was losing their vision, they added a new plug-in to the game in order to make the text chat more accessible. Now the different lines are separated by a symbol of the players choice, such as the dash. Specific titles and the player’s name is also highlighted in different colors. In making this change, the community ended up making text chat more accessible for many of the players.

The reason many people join the Autcraft community is because they had difficulty fitting in, finding friends, or, more broadly speaking, getting access to the play in a Minecraft space. Therefore, for many on Autcraft, being helpful and supportive is one of the most important parts of their sociality. The community has found it important enough to write into their rules and actively encourages this behavior through rewards, such as special titles such as member of the week.

Community describe hanging out with their friends on the Autcraft community much in the same way other youth online have. They spend time with their Autcraft friends online by interacting through forums, instant messaging, and “hanging out” in the Autcraft virtual world. And although not typically physically collocated, these youth on Autcraft consider these relationships to be meaningful friendships.

BTS’s ARMY

The second, ongoing ethnography is being conducted within the ARMY community, the fandom for the Korean musicians, BTS [4]. Much like the Autcraft community, the ARMY community is global. Unlike the Autcraft community, ARMY is a community made of loose-ties and more porous boundaries for community membership [2]. Therefore, how the community engages in play and accommodates access needs of members is notably different from the Autcraft community, as there are no central individuals making decisions about accommodations.

BTS posing with their diplomatic passports in blue suits
BTS posing with their diplomatic passports that they received as envoys to South Korea’s president to attend and give a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2021.

Additionally, because ARMY tends to use public social media platforms, the amount of control they have over the technology is very different from Autcraft. One way the community creates access is by smaller sub-communities using whatever platforms work for them. Smaller groups of ARMY, then, might be found on a modified Discord server or in a group chat. BTS, and the band’s use of various social media platforms, might also dictate what platforms are the most popular among ARMY.

More often, the social infrastructure is altered and iterated upon in order to create access. Specialized accounts to create spaces for disabled or Deaf — or any other subgroup — exist to help foster support and push for more access. For example, as a disabled ARMY, I have been pushing for more alt text to be incorporated in community members’ posts on social media. This also means asking the social media platforms to create more access for users as well.

This sort of activity is important because much of ARMY’s play are fan edits, parody accounts, threads of music and videos, art, and commentary about BTS. In fact, ARMY and BTS often play together, each creating content, communicating via various social media platforms, and share the same goals. The play is very referential, often including layers of inside jokes. For example, there is a plethora of content that explicitly references BTS’s known love for chicken [1].

Selfie at a stadium with a woman with a purple face mask and purple shirt on next to a purple colored chicken badly photoshopped in
Selfie of me with the BTS ARMY chicken at the Permission to Dance On Stage concert in Los Angeles, CA in November 2021.

Like the Autcraft community, ARMY are mindful of social justice issues, especially with regard to access. In both communities, we see how play is both a playful activity, but also an important mechanism for more serious endeavors. This might look like an Autcraft member creating a series of YouTube videos of their game play as an anti-bullying campaign. Or this might be a member of ARMY creating a thread of edited BTS content to highlight the international sign the band used in their Permission to Dance video.

BTS dancing in Permission to Dance music video making "dance" sign
BTS doing the sign for “dance” in their Permission to Dance music video.

Both communities are also doing the work of correcting misconceptions and pushing back against stigma about themselves. These misconceptions occur because outsiders do not understand the community (often harboring sexism, misogyny, racism, and ableism towards both communities). Particularly, because these are communities of play, they are also often dismissed as ultimately inconsequential by outsiders. This is something both communities would vehemently protest, and do.

Creating Access to Play

Together, these studies show how communities leverage their playful qualities to appropriate and modify the technological and social make-up of the group in order to accommodate a diverse set of community members. From this, we are mostly left with more questions about “play” and “access.” Where is play taking place and can we support ideas of play for the sake of play at the same time play is also being used for more serious business? How is access being created in these various social spaces and what can communities do when they are at the mercy of the technology available to them?

In both communities, we see play being the platform for serious, even life-impacting, interests of community members (e.g., anti-bullying campaigns, grappling with both community-wide and individual trauma). With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, these communities became that much more important for its members, as they became the only means of socializing and forming relationships with people outside their homes and places of work. These playful communities were not just a place of leisure or a creative outlet. They are also a place to form meaningful connections with other people.

At the same time, these playful communities are addressing various questions of access. In this talk, I started to illuminate some of the ways communities accommodate disabled community members. The work these communities are doing should be noted because how communities play and what that play is doing for members of communities can be a starting point for understanding these otherwise marginalized groups.

And you can watch a pre-recorded version of the presentation here:

References

1. @bock_twt. 2020. Bantam Seoyeondon: BTS ARMY Shenanigans. In 2020 Rhizome Connect Virtual Conference and Convention. Retrieved September 5, 2021 from https://rhizomeconnect.com/2020/expo-hall/shenanigans/

2. So Yeon Park, Nicole Santero, Blair Kaneshiro, and Jin Ha Lee. 2021. Armed in ARMY: A Case Study of How BTS Fans Successfully Collaborated to #MatchAMillion for Black Lives Matter. CHI 2021: 14.

3. Kathryn E. Ringland. 2019. A Place to Play: The (Dis)Abled Embodied Experience for Autistic Children in Online Spaces. In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300518

4. Kathryn E. Ringland, Arpita Bhattacharya, Kevin Weatherwax, Tessa Eagle, and Christine T. Wolf. 2022. ARMY’s Magic Shop: Understanding the Collaborative Construction of Playful Places in Online Communities. In Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.

5. Kathryn E. Ringland, Christine T. Wolf, Heather Faucett, Lynn Dombrowski, and Gillian R. Hayes. 2016. “Will I always be not social?”: Re-Conceptualizing Sociality in the Context of a Minecraft Community for Autism. In CHI 2016.

6. Tanya Titchkosky. 2011. The Question of Access: Disability, Space, Meaning. University of Toronto Press, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Awarded UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship

Amidst all the quarantine madness, I realize I hadn’t yet announced what I’ll be doing for work next year! I’ve been award the University of California President’s Postdoc for this coming year. I’ll be working at University of California Santa Cruz in the Computational Media Department.

The UC President’s Postdoc is awarded to a limited number of applicants each year with the hope of improving diversity within tenure track faculty ranks in the University of California system. For the 2020-2021 cohort, there were 1032 applicants and they offered 37 awards. I am extremely honored to have been chosen!

I am transitioning to this new position at the beginning of July and I’ll be working remotely for the present, but I’m looking forward to continuing my research with disabled folks, play, games, and equity! I’ll be posting more in the future both about my experiences on the job market thus far and my plans for future research projects. Stay tuned!

A photo of a close up of a banana slug, “looking” at the camera.

Keeping Safe: Children Online with Social Media and Games

Large statues of Minecraft characters stand on a hill in the game Minecraft.
Statues of the administrators in Autcraft, screen shot from my field work, 2014.

Content Warning: Discussion of child abuse, online harassment, ableism.

Cross-posted on Medium: https://medium.com/@kateringland/keeping-safe-children-online-with-social-media-and-games-9ca60c168cfa

Today, two different items crossed my twitter feed. First, there was an incident involving a player on Autcraft. Second, a research blog was published showing there is no link between the quantity of tech use and mental ill-health in adolescents. I’ve been thinking about both of these postings much of today and I wanted to share some thoughts with you.

Social media and multiplayer games (such as Minecraft that they play on Autcraft) are by design extremely social spaces. That’s the point of them, to interact with other people. This can be a boon, especially for people who are isolated for one reason or another. But, as with anything that has the human element, there can be darkness as well. Games and social media have had their fair share of citations for toxic behavior.

Autcraft was created as a safe haven for autistic children. For the vast majority of community members, it has worked — see any of my other research posts about it. But today, the story broke that it did not work for one child. This child was targeted by another member, who clearly joined the community for malevolent reasons. It’s horrible and tragic and, honestly, I’m continually horrified by the things people intentionally do to one another. Throughout history children have been the target of violent behavior, especially those who are marginalized. Online platforms have just given perpetrators a different means of finding their victims.

Research continues to show that it isn’t the platforms or the hardware (think screens) that causes a problem for youth (and adults even). What continues to be a problem is malevolent people.

So what can we do?

  1. Hold social media and games companies accountable for creating better safety features on their platforms. There’s still lots of room to grow here.
  2. We need more research to study how to keep kids safe in these online spaces, especially marginalized youth. For example, Autcraft is being forced to ban all private messaging between players because of this incident. Is this really the best way to assure player safety? We need more research to find out. This includes funding this research and having the human resources. This sort of work will not only take trained researchers (and/or researchers in training), but also community partners, such as the one I’ve been fortunate enough to have with the Autcraft community.
  3. Better educational sources for both parents and children. Social media literacy is inherently a part of online safety. Children need to understand who they are talking to in these online spaces. Parents need to know who their child is talking to and playing with. It’s okay to not fully understand a game, but basic literacy is essential. Children are playing in what are essentially digital 3-D spaces and feel very physical. Even if these children are never meeting other players offline, there can be real psychological harm.
  4. Create policy. I realize the current political climate is awful. But we need up to date policies to keep our privacy and safety a priority. Right now the tech companies are calling an awful lot of the shots and I promise they only care about the welfare of children if it’s impacting their bottom line. (Also see point 1). Policy can happen both locally and nationally. Call your representatives. Write letters. Run for office.

It’s going to take a village to keep our children safe on the internet. The answer is not to ban screens or games. There’s so much positive happening there. I just hope with a concerted effort we can make more safe spaces for our children to play.

‘Mock’ TV Interview

For this week’s blog, I thought I would share my “mock” TV interview that I did through the RSG program at Medill School of Journalism. Over the next couple of blog posts, I plan on distilling some of the lessons I’ve learned about doing interviews and talk about my experiences – both with this TV interview and the podcast.

Sneak preview: you should have at most 3 core ideas or things you want people to remember no matter the kind of conversation or talk you are giving. If someone is at a BBQ tomorrow and telling other people about their conversation with you (or the talk they heard you give or the interview they heard of yours), what do you want them to be able to remember and relay?

Without further ado, here is my very first live-to-tape TV interview!

New Blog: Community Generation

“The concept of community is ever-evolving. With the influx of technology and the change in the ways we interact, this discussion is relevant today more than ever. What is equally true is that we carefully construct the communities around us, because in most cases, we need them to survive. They are places where we can form our ideas and dreams. Places we can go for advice and support. People we can look to when we are feeling conflicted. We can rely on our community members to challenge us, support us, love us. When these spaces are safe, they help us to flourish and achieve our goals. And when they are toxic, they severely limit our human potential. Annie remembers first joining the Dwarf Fortress family, and how it wasn’t the complexity of the game that really fascinated her, but rather the massive fan base that really took her breath away. “

Read more on our Medium post!

New Blog Post: The Fortress is for Everyone

ASCII map in Dwarf Fortress.

On March 13, 2019, the announcement that Dwarf fortress was coming to Stream and itch.io with graphics hit the web. Within 12 hours, the teaser trailer on YouTube amassed over 100,000 views. Dwarf Fortress is the “most incredible and impressive video game you’ve probably never played.” News spread across the internet that the creators, Zach and Tarn Adams, normally quite private about their personal lives, made the decision to release on commercial platforms to create a more stable source of revenue for themselves. Their reason? The need to be able to afford healthcare. Lack of access to affordable healthcare, and societal stigmas surrounding health, negatively impact people’s lives every day. With Zach and Tarn’s backing, we are writing a series of blog articles to help raise awareness about these issues.

To read more please visit my Medium page…

“Autsome”: Fostering an Autistic Identity in an Online Minecraft Community for Youth with Autism

Preview: Autism is a medical diagnosis that has attracted much attention in recent decades, particularly due to an increase in the numbers of children being diagnosed and the changing requirements for getting the diagnosis. In parallel online communities around autism—both those supporting individuals, families seeking treatment and those supporting embracing the autism identity—have grown. Other work has shown support groups can be useful for those encountering hardship in their lives. In this paper, I illuminate the tension in claiming the autistic identity within this community. The walls of the community work to keep community members safe, but also set them apart from others on the internet. I see that the Autcraft community goes beyond being a support group for victims of targeted violence, to one that redefines and helps community members embrace their own autistic identities.

What is autism and what impact does the label of autism have?

Autism has been the topic of much public concern in recent decades, especially since the sensationalized “autism epidemic” swept through the media. As a medical diagnosis, autism focuses on challenges for individuals; such as whether they are verbal, make eye-contact, or are sensitive to change. Often, as a label, autism is given to youth in order to gain accommodations in school, or for medical treatment. Autistic youth often experience various ways in which this label is used to disempower and disenfranchise them.

This is the case for many youth that are a part of an online community, “Autcraft,” a community centered on a Minecraft virtual world for autistic youth. While those with autism are often the target of harassment and violence in online spaces, the Autcraft community has been actively engaged in making themselves a safe space for youth with autism. Beyond simply keeping bullies out, however, the community has taken the label of “autism” and turned it into something positive—a label worth identifying with.

In the Autcraft community, I have found that the label acts both as a target and as a way for community members to redefine their identities.

Targeting Autism

Concerns over safety of children is an ongoing concern for parents and other caregivers. This is particularly true of those with autistic children, as those with autism tend to be targeted both by their peers and by strangers [32]. Much like other marginalized groups, “autism” is used as a derogatory term. Further, threats of violence can be found across the internet, including in the comments section of YouTube videos, a site used by Autcraft community members. This is especially meaningful as other related work has shown the embodied experience in these online spaces can be as impactful as in physical spaces [29]. Unfortunately, these threats of violence can also result in actual physical harm.

Harassment, threats of violence, and comments about autistic people killing themselves can have a large impact on those targeted, such as additional stress and other psychological harm [22]. The harm, however, does not stop with verbal and written threats. Like other marginalized communities, those with autism face the very real threat of violence against them [14,15].

Here is a video related to these threats of violence in the autistic community at large.

Redefining Autism

There is evidence throughout the Autcraft community of those who are expressing their autistic identity. Autcraft community members may be learning to understand and accept themselves or their child as an autistic individual, but they are also learning to deal with challenges found outside the Autcraft community where they may not find themselves accepted and face opposition.

[alt-text for embedded tweet picture: autsome, adjective, Having autism and being extremely impressive or daunting; inspiring great admiration. “My autsome child makes me proud everyday!” synonyms: breathtaking, awe-inspiring, magnificent, wonderful, amazing, stunning, staggering, imposing, stirring, impressive; informal extremely good; excellent. “The band is truly autsome!”]

Adopting “autism” and various forms of the word—as seen in the name of the community “Autcraft”—lends to a sense of identity with others who have the same or similar medical diagnosis. Aside from using “aut” or “autistic” in their user names (i.e., the names that are displayed with their avatars and forum posts, rather than a real-world name), the Autcraft community displays this acceptance through the creation of autism-centric words, such as “autsome.” According to a community post, “autsome” means, “Having autism and being extremely impressive or daunting” and “extremely good; excellent.” Scholars have described how those with disability are often held to a higher standard and those who are “extreme” tend to be held up as inspirational. This type of “inspiration” frames disability as something to be overcome, while achieving difficult objectives. However, I argue that having language such as “autsome” is meant to be inspirational not for others looking in to the Autcraft community, but for the autistic children who are otherwise dealing with a barrage of negative language about autism. This reframes autism as an identity that is worth embracing, rather than overcoming.

Autcraft community members actively work to reshape the mainstream dialog about autism. First and foremost, members try to lead by example, following a set of tenets set out by community founders that encourage and promote good behavior. Community members also engage in outreach to both educate others and to make their own expressions of their autistic identities more visible to others. Members of the Autcraft community engage in activities—much like creating memorials for victims of violence—that purposefully shed light on the hardships they have faced. These efforts are examples of how those with marginalized identities fight back against oppression. As scholars, by listening to these community members and understanding their activities, we can begin to elevate the voices of those who have long been silenced.

For more details about our methods and findings, please see my paper that has been accepted to iConference 2019 (to appear in April 2019). Full citation and link to the pdf below:

Kathryn E. Ringland. 2019. “Autsome”: Fostering an Autistic Identity in an Online Minecraft Community for Youth with Autism. In iConference 2019 Proceedings. [PDF]

Acknowledgements: I thank the members of Autcraft for the warm welcome to their community. Thank you to members of LUCI for their feedback and special thanks to Severn Ringland for his diligent editing. I would also like to thank Robert and Barbara Kleist for their support, as well as the ARCS Foundation. This work is covered by human subjects protocol #2014-1079 at the University of California, Irvine. This work is supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (T32MH115882). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.

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