You are invited to take part in a study undertaken at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Before you decide whether to take part, it is important for you to understand why the study is being done and what it will involve. Please read the following information carefully and if you have any queries or would like more information, please contact Luke Child at UWE Bristol via luke.child@uwe.ac.uk
The PhD researcher is Luke Child under the supervision of Dr Natanya Ford and Dr Thomas Mitchell .
This research study seeks to engage with gamers to understand the use of interaction with sound as an accessibility tool in video game environments. The primary research questions are:
We are interested in gaining information about your experience of playing video games and utilising sound as an access tool. Our discussion will ask you about these things. The purpose of the questions will be to understand sonic interaction and accessibility from a lived experience perspective. This will provide a foundation for developing novel implementations of sonic interaction design in video game environments.
You do not have to take part in this research. It is up to you to decide whether or not you want to be involved. If you do decide to take part, you will be given a copy of this information sheet to keep and will be asked to sign a consent form. If you do decide to take part, you are able to withdraw from the research without giving a reason. However, a point of no return is reached once the final discussion around validating our conclusions is undertaken. This date will be discussed with you during the initial discussion. If you want to withdraw from the study within this period, please write to luke.child@uwe.ac.uk . Deciding not to take part or to withdrawal from the study does not have any penalty and will not affect progress or assessment of the PhD student’s work.
If you agree to take part, you will be asked to take part in a discussion in a format of your choosing. This will be conducted by the student researcher. It is anticipated that the discussion will take approximately 30 minutes to 1 hour.
The subject and focus of the discussion will be your experiences playing video games, the access barriers you have encountered, and the way sound and sonic interaction have improved your access to video games. Your answers will be fully anonymised.
During the discussion, you will be provided with a unique identifier that will be used to re-identify you if you choose to withdraw from the study within the period. At the point of text transcription, your voice/video recording will be deleted. Your data will be anonymised at this point and will be analysed with discussion data from other anonymised participants.
You will be invited to discuss the questions provided in the ‘Questionnaire Sheet’ provided alongside this document. You will be asked to reflect on your experiences with sound interaction in games, the way sound has provided access to parts of a game and access barriers you encounter within games. We will also discuss around how sound could begin to alleviate the identified barriers.
You will be providing the foundation for future research studies in accessible sonic interaction design for video game environments.
We do not foresee or anticipate any significant risk to you in taking part in this study. If, however, you feel uncomfortable at any time you can ask for the discussion to stop. If you need any support during or after the discussion, then the researcher will be able to put you in touch with suitable support agencies. The researcher’s Director of Studies and supervision team is experienced in conducting and supervising discussions and will support the student to conduct the research sensitively. The discussion has been designed with these considerations in mind.
All the information that you give will be kept confidential and anonymised at the point of transcription. The only circumstance where we may not be able to keep you information confidential is in the event of safeguarding or legality concerns. Hard copy research material will be kept secure in the researcher’s office and digital data will be stored on the University’s secure OneDrive system to which only the researcher and their supervision team will have access in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and General Data Protection Regulation requirements. Voice and video recordings will be destroyed securely immediately after anonymised transcription. Your anonymised data will be analysed together with other discussion and file data, and we will ensure that there is no possibility of identification or re-identification from this point.
A PhD thesis will be written containing the research findings and submitted to the University. A copy may be displayed in the University library. If you are interested in reading a copy please contact Luke Child via luke.child@uwe.ac.uk.
The anonymised results may also be used in conference papers and peer-reviewed academic papers. Anonymous and non-identifying direct quotes may be used for publication and presentation purposes.
The project has been reviewed and approval is given by the College of Arts, Technology and Engineering Research Ethics Committe.
Any comments, questions or complaints about the ethical conduct of this study can be addressed to the Research Ethics Committee via Researchethics@uwe.ac.uk
In the event of any concern, you can contact the Director of Studies and supervision team via the following email addresses:
If you would like any further information about the research, please contact either:
Thank you for agreeing to take part in this study. You will be given a copy of this Participant Information Sheet and your signed Consent Form to keep.
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