Abstract
Technical Report:
My capstone project is making an iPhone app with three of my classmates. The app is an educational augmented reality (AR) app that teaches the history of UVA, especially around the Rotunda and the Lawn, essentially giving a virtual tour of the area. This was partially motivated by recent attacks on the University Guide Services (since renamed to Virginia Guide Services) by the Jefferson Council. Our goal is to provide meaningful information about the history of UVA that does not censor any of the darker parts, such as the use of enslaved laborers for the construction of UVA. Due to time and scope limitations, we chose to focus on just a few aspects of UVA’s past, specifically on the Lawn. The majority of the tour focuses on Catherine Foster, a free Black woman who lived and worked at the university. We talked about the hardships that she experienced and the abuse she faced as a Black woman in pre-Civil War Charlottesville. Then, the tour moves on to the construction of Old Cabell hall and a Confederate monument that was supposed to be built there but was ultimately canceled due to the Rotunda fire. This information is displayed in an engaging way, using AR combined with 3D models and historical photos of the Rotunda and the Lawn; this showcases different ways that AR can display information, with one being a display of the proposed Confederate monument, and another being an overlay of the Rotunda fire over the actual Rotunda.
STS Thesis:
The topic of digital accessibility has been relevant since the advent of the internet. A multitude of users have disabilities that may limit their ability to interact with different sites or webpages in certain ways. Although there are some standards that have been created, like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, these are frequently not met, which makes navigating the internet a challenge for a lot of people.
It has been common today to dismiss criticisms of accessibility when it comes to video games; some say that not all games need to be accessible to all people and that if a game is too difficult, that they should pick a different one to play. However, I argue that it is important to address this because disabled people engage with video games, and as a larger part, the internet, every day, and I think that everyone should be able to have equal access to these games and resources.
This paper focuses on finding out how game developers incorporate accessibility into their game design and observe feedback and backlash from the players. To conduct this research, I reviewed public threads on Reddit and Steam, interviewed disabled gamers, and directly played and analyzed the accessibility features of a variety of video games, focusing on Celeste (2018) and Hollow Knight: Silksong (2025). I found that accessibility features are sparsely included in games, and among the communities of many different games, there is a hostility towards such features and a tendency to see them as an “easy mode” rather than an aid for disabled players. A deeper understanding of video games from this point of view will allow developers to create games that can be enjoyed by all people, irrespective of differences in ability. Expanding this perspective to digital accessibility as a whole will undoubtedly create an internet that is more easily navigable by everyone.
