Publication & Research

Humans take for granted of board games without realizing that they could nurture higher order thinking skills (HOTs). Not being able to see, or being blind and visually impaired, would unintentionally discriminate the opportunity to cultivate HOTs through board games. The question in mind is how to give the same opportunity of developing HOTs to the blind and visually impaired through a game only the sighted can play. With the mission to make the board game “visible” to the blind people, B-Goolee is developed. This study went through multiple cycles of designing, developing, integrating, and testing all elements necessary to make B-Goolee an assistive educational game technology. The context consists of the board with sensors, the 3D printed game pieces, the mobile device with installed AppsGoolee connected to the board with Bluetooth technology, and the manual book printed in Braille. With this ecosystem, the blind and visually impaired individuals could enjoy the game while challenging their cognitive skills, and the tests results have proven it. The actual performance metrics from the user evaluation results quantifies the major findings from this board game usage and usability to the users. This contributes to the assistive technology that leads to the educational outcomes for the blind and visually impaired individuals.