SIGHT IMPAIRED STUDENTS FACING A GAME MAKING ENVIRONMENT: A “MAGICAL ” CHALLENGE

In a logic of inclusive education, equal opportunities to all students should be guaranteed and the accessibility of ICT educational tools is then to be considered a major issue. This paper presents a case study conducted in the context of MAGICAL (Making Games in Collaboration for Learning) a research project aimed at introducing game-making in formal education as an innovative educational approach. Actually, MAGICAL is a multilateral European project that investigates the viability and potential added value of Collaborative Digital Game Making (CDGM) for learning, especially for supporting learners ’ transversal skills such as collaboration, creativity, problem solving and ICT literacy. In the framework of this project, a specific game-making environment called MAGOS was designed, developed and deployed in different educational contexts with a variety of learners. The case study proposed in this paper deals with one of the learners involved in these experiments; in particular it discusses around the suitability of the interface of the adopted game-making environment in respect to the “special needs ” of a student with visual impairments. G. is an eleven years old boy with albinism. His pathology affects, in particular, the visual apparatus, with reduced visual acuity, sensitivity to light and nystagmus. As well as all sight-impaired students, he ha