Michelle Hinn is the current chairperson of the IGDA's Game Accessibility Special Interest Group, a

video game industry The video game industry encompasses the development, marketing, and monetization of video games. The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide. The video game industry has grown from niches to mainstream. , ...

advocacy group for creating mainstream games accessible to gamers with disabilities. She is involved with GameAccessibility.com, a game accessibility project funded by the Bartiméus Accessibility Foundation, and is the Vice-President of the Game Division of DonationCoder.com.

Education and career

Hinn has a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in music performance, a bachelor's degree in

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

, and a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

degree in

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradition ...

design from

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...

. Hinn's experience includes an internship at

Microsoft Game Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher and part of the Microsoft Gaming division based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, ...

, where she focused on piloting

usability Usability can be described as the capacity of a system to provide a condition for its users to perform the tasks safely, effectively, and efficiently while enjoying the experience. In software engineering, usability is the degree to which a soft ...

tests for

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the na ...

multiplayer games and ran playtests on Xbox games such as '' Halo: Combat Evolved'', '' Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee'', ''

Fuzion Frenzy ''Fuzion Frenzy'' is a launch title for the Microsoft Xbox. At its core, ''Fuzion Frenzy'' is a four-player party game featuring 45 different mini-games (not including the titular Fuzion Frenzy). A demo of the game was included with some other lau ...

'', and '' Amped: Freestyle Snowboarding''. Additionally, she has worked for

Computer Sciences Corporation Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) was an American multinational corporation that provided information technology (IT) services and professional services. On April 3, 2017, it merged with the Enterprise Services line of business of HP Ente ...

, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), and the

University of Nevada, Reno The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a public land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant institution. It was founded on October 12, ...

. Hinn was an instructor in the Department of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she taught game design courses and was the program co-ordinator and academic advisor for the Women in Math, Science, and Engineering (WIMSE) community. In September 2006, she was named one of ''

Next Generation Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to: Publications and literature * ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company * Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...

s "100 Most Influential Women in Gaming for her work in game accessibility. She is the co-editor of the book ''Visions of Quality: How Evaluators Define, Understand, and Represent Program Quality'' and is working with the IGDA's Game Accessibility SIG on an upcoming book. Hinn is on the editorial board of '' Computers in Entertainment'' magazine, and has authored several award-winning papers on the topic of universal accessibility from organizations. She was one of the three 2006 recipients of the IGDA's Most Valuable Player Award.

References

External links

IGDA Special Interest Group site

GameAccessibility.com

Bartiméus Accessibility Foundation

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library and Information Science

Women In Math, Science, and Engineering site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hinn, Michelle Human–computer interaction researchers American educators Women in the video game industry Living people Year of birth missing (living people)