Almost 1 in 10 males is colorblind, compared to less than 1 in 100 females, but the disorder that involves altered color vision is often diagnosed only in adulthood. Finding out that you suffer from it, therefore, is not a ‘child’s play’. But it can become one thanks to ColorFit, a table game created by the University of Milan in collaboration with the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, as part of the Game4CED project launched in 2023 to offer new tools for a school practice of greater accessibility for colorblind children. The initiative is coordinated by Alessandro Rizzi, professor of Multimedia Project and Colorimetry at the Department of Computer Science UniMi, and involves for the University of Milan the research fellows Carlo Alberto Iocco and Daniele Aurelio, together with the researchers of the Department of Education and Human Sciences of UniMoRe.
“In evaluating and comparing the different levels of accessibility for colorblind players – explains Rizzi – we realized that often a person discovers they are colorblind at a relatively advanced age, sometimes even after twenty years of age, and we therefore asked ourselves why many colorblind children are not recognized, for example during primary school where the teaching activity is very often centered on color. The possibility of diagnosing colorblindness in children, also thanks to ColorFit, aims to lead to a better understanding of this condition, improve their well-being and reduce the risk of discrimination”.
“Over 5 years ago – says Rizzi – we wanted to investigate the level of accessibility to modern board games by colorblind players”. In fact, “the sensitivity of board game publishers, who address a market that sees more than 5 thousand new titles produced worldwide in 2020 and” records “exponential growth, is starting to consider colorblind players in the development of new games. An audience of potential customers that is just under 10% among males and less than 1% among females”. This is how ColorFit was born, also presented during the first Board Games Research Meeting that took place on July 18 at the Statale. A moment of discussion that involved the community of board game professionals in various ways, the university reports in a note.
“Board games are not just a moment of leisure – Rizzi points out – but they are also an extremely effective tool for transmitting knowledge and for attracting attention to important and delicate topics. In fact, they are proposed as an alternative to video games with characteristics that are sometimes diametrically opposed, regarding the involvement of people, the type of attention they generate, time management and the resulting socialization”.
Other products in development include Color Catch, a team game where cards are obtained through the addition of colors scheme; Mushrooms Forest, where players compete to collect colored mushrooms; and Colorology, where players compete to create the correct color chain without being able to communicate with each other.
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