Today, I’m going to be talking about a topic where you might not expect accessibility to show up; in video games.
That’s one of the best parts about playing video games to me: we’re all having fun either talking about or playing these games together. Therefore, gaming communities are, in my experience, some of the most inclusive groups I have every had the pleasure to be a part of, where people of all different backgrounds and interests can come together, forget about any kind of judgement, and just play work together to beat that raid boss, or the enemy team.
However, there is of course one inherent problem that arises for those with disabilities, and that is of course the issue of accessibility. Just like with any other technology, for every disability, there are a host of different issues that hamper the ability to play the game for people with that disability. For example, because video games do require quite a bit of manual finesse, there are obvious ones like for people who don’t have full motor control having to use a controller which might demand too much dexterity to use, especially in faster paced games. On the less obvious side of things, there are also issues of color contrast, or audio descriptions for menus and maps for those with visual or hearing conditions. Unfortunately, these kinds of issues prevent an estimated 9% of people in the US who say their gaming experience is hampered due to impairments. Consequently, the inclusion of the disabled community is often (at least historically) an afterthought for many video game designers. Disabled people are already pretty heavily excluded in many other social activities. Video games, though, as a place where all the freaks and geeks of the world can finally find a place to fit in, should not be one of them.
However, things have been getting a lot better recently as the world has been shifting to become a lot more inclusive and sensitive to the different needs of different people recently. As I’ve been learning a lot more about the world of digital accessibility at the DCP, I’ve learned a lot about these issues, but I’ve also learned a lot about some of the ways people are combatting them. Specifically, I heard about this charity called AbleGamers, develop custom controllers and setups for people. From controllers that are custom made to be used with only one hand, to implementing an eye tracking device to turn your character in the direction you are looking, and even a controller that can let even quadriplegics join in, they have some really cool custom technology, that they all set up and give away for free.
And just looking at some of the testimonials from their website, you can really start to see what good gaming can do for people, especially those who might be more isolated or confined due to their disabilities. I started reading about people remarkably similar to me, who wanted to play games to relax or socialize, but what I took so easily for granted was something not very easily attainable for these people due to disability. However, thanks to this charity, they were able to enjoy themselves a lot more, or even get a chance to play for the very first time and discover the incredibly vast world of gaming.
Outside of just charity as well, there have been some efforts to raise awareness in mainstream gaming. In fact, if you are into speedrunning, there’s this really cool streamer named Halfcoordinated who has hemiparesis , meaning that the entire right side of his body is weaker (especially his right hand). However, didn’t stop him from pursuing what he loved in video games, and now, he uses only his left hand to perform feats of speed in games that I couldn’t do with twice the number of hands. Pretty neat, huh?
Even just this weekend, I had the pleasure of playing The Division 2 from Massive Entertainment, and I noticed this in very beginning:
Look at how many different accessibility settings there are! They really thought of everything, from different contrast for the background of the captions, to very flexible ability to remap controls, and much more. It’s really great to see that big game companies are becoming more inclusive in this way to give players so much flexibility. And as we like saying in the office too, these options don’t just increase inclusivity, but anyone and everyone does indeed benefit from more flexibility. Other than obvious examples like Just as a single example, I was able to switch my captions to be written in Japanese, but keep the spoken and menu language in English so that I could learn more vocabulary through matching what was spoken to the captions, as well as learn more of how casual Japanese is written, which was pretty fun and informative.
While video games have been coming a bit more under fire in recent times, I think it’s also important to highlight some of the positive impact that comes from what they can do for us. They really are a way to break down social barriers and isolation, and level the playing field to where anyone can make friends and participate. When you have a body that limits certain capabilities, being able participate just the same as everyone else and to run, jump, and fly around in an infinite world where the sky and your imagination are the limits can change your life forever. And who knows, maybe the gaming community can even stand as a shining example of what the world might look like if we all worked to enable everybody. We can all benefit from more inclusivity.
For more on AbleGamers charity, I highly recommend their website, where they show off lots of the work they’re doing, and you can read about the differences they're making in people's lives.
For more on accessible game design, you can check out this concise list of guidelines put together by many game designers and accessibility consultants, as well as this neat YouTube series put together by a Youtuber I like that talks a lot about game design.