Michelle Hinn is the current chairperson of the

IGDA The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is a nonprofit professional association whose stated mission is to "support and empower game developers around the world in achieving fulfilling and sustainable careers." The IGDA is incorp ...

's Game Accessibility Special Interest Group, a

video game industry The video game industry is the tertiary industry, tertiary and quaternary industry, quaternary sectors of the entertainment industry that specialize in the video game development, development, marketing, distribution (marketing), distribution, ...

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

in music performance, a bachelor's degree in

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

, and a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) 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. Those admitted to the degree have ...

degree in

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms, such as Text (literary theory), writing, Sound, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single presentation. T ...

design from

Virginia Tech The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

. 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 based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, spun out from an internal Games Group, fo ...

, 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 softw ...

tests for

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...

multiplayer games and ran

playtest A playtest is the process by which a game designer tests a new game for bugs and design flaws before releasing it to market. Playtests can be run "open", "closed", "beta", or otherwise, and are very common with board games, collectible card games, ...

s on Xbox games such as '' Halo: Combat Evolved'', '' Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee'', '' Fuzion Frenzy'', 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 The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) is a unit of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and provides high-performance computing resources to researchers in the United States. NCSA is currently led by Professor Bill ...

(NCSA), and the

University of Nevada, Reno The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada, United States. It is the state's flagship public university and prim ...

. 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 Game design is the process of creating and shaping the mechanics, systems, rules, and gameplay of a game. Game design processes apply to board games, card games, dice games, casino games, role-playing games, sports, Wargame (video games), war ga ...

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 ''Computers in Entertainment'' was an online academic journal and magazine that featured both peer-reviewed articles as well as news content covering entertainment technology, products, services, and notable people. The editor-in-chief was Newton ...

'' 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)