Enjoyment Levels of Youth With Visual Impairments While Playing Exergames

Background/Purpose: Studies have shown that youth with visual impairment (VI) engage in less physical activity than their sighted peers. One possible method to engage youth with VI in physical activity may be exergaming. The purpose of this study was to measure differences in the enjoyment levels of youths with visual impairments while using 3 commercially available Exergames.

Method: Participants were youth ages 9 to 16 years old (n=12) and were diagnosed as having a visual impairment. Participants were randomly assigned 1 of the 3 games on 3 separate nights and played each game for 10 minutes. Games played were Dance Dance Revolution Extreme 2 (DDR), EyeToy Kinetic, and Wii Boxing. After each game participants filled out an 18 question survey, The Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PAES) Analysis/Results: The PAES used 8 point likert scale. The scores were summed for final analysis with a highest attainable score of 144. A Friedman's ANOVA was used to analyze the data. Players of the three different games showed no significant difference in their enjoyment between games. The consistently high mean scores attained by all 3 of the Exergames (DDR = 129 (20.9), EyeToy = 127(23.4), Wii = 137.67(9.4)) indicate that the participants enjoyed playing these games. The lowest mean score, 127, still ranks in the 88th percentile on the enjoyment scale. Conclusions: This suggest that youth with visual impairments can enjoy being physically active through use of the Exergames.