Something Special

Published by: One Switch on 26th Sep 2011 | View all blogs by One Switch

"Something Special" (on-line and free) from the BBC

To celebrate the 100th episode of children's Makaton based television show, Something Special, the BBC have just launched a fantastic accessible on-line area.

It includes UK signing, symbols, songs, art activities, stories and of course games!

Almost all of the games work nicely in a cause and effect manner. Some are switch accessible, some for the keyboard, some eye-toy like for using the web-cam and some point and click accessible. That covers all the main input devices so far as I can see.

The most accessible of these games are in the Something Special: Out and About section, being Balloon Pop, Spotty Bag, Dress Up Mr Tumble and Tumble Faces.

Hugely recommended for very young kids, and anyone with an interest in Makaton, which is a reduced version of British Sign Language created to support learning disabled people.

Update: For anyone interested in the creation of the Something Special games and their highly accessible nature take a look at the following links:

BBC Internet Blog overview and design principles plus senior designer Ian Hamilton's own page on this work.