Not Built For You: Experiencing Accessibility Barriers Through Game Design

Not Built For You is a serious game designed to promote awareness of accessibility challenges and needs within multi-level buildings. The game simulates navigating a university building as a wheelchair user by implementing a custom physics-based wheelchair movement system, exaggerated architectural obstacles, and a real-time level modification system. These mechanics and systems allow players to experience how inaccessible designs can create barriers which affect daily activities for individuals with mobility impairments. Through iterative design and development informed by playtesting feedback, the game evolved from a linear navigation experience into a simulation of accessibility barriers that can be faced by wheelchair users in educational environments. The initial design focused on navigating a longer, linear obstacle course in order to reach an objective, which was expanded into a full week simulation of a wheelchair-using student attending classes and modifying their environment to make it more accessible. Playtesting results showed that players were able to recognize the importance of accessible architecture. This project demonstrates the potential of serious games as a tool for increasing awareness of accessibility challenges.