SEGA-ARM: A Metamodel for the Design of Serious Games to Support Auditory Rehabilitation

Hearing impairments are widely recognized as one of the most common disability that affects many people. There are several works addressing the design and development of systems for the rehabilitation of users with disabilities, as well as for the definition of models to express their capabilities and disabilities. Unfortunately, when we want to develop interactive systems to assist hearing impairment therapy, knowledge of analysis and design, typical of the methodologies is absent. In this paper, we introduce SEGA-ARM: a metamodel to support the design of serious games for auditory rehabilitation, considering concepts related to speech therapy sessions, user capabilities, the context of use, and concepts related to serious games design. The proposed solution is provided using a semi-formal UML notation. Two game prototypes are presented to validate the viability of the application of the metamodel for serious games development and to point out its reutilization and extension.