Accessibility is the practice of making your games, apps or websites usable by as many people as possible.
Accessibility in Video Games
Accessibility in video games refers to the design of video games and game interfaces that make them usable and enjoyable for people with a wide range of abilities.
This includes people with disabilities, such as visual impairments, hearing impairments, mobility impairments, cognitive impairments, and more.
Accessibility can also refer to the difficulty of a game, for example, some players might find games developed by From Software to be extremely difficult.
Making video games accessible benefits not only players with disabilities, but also players without disabilities who may have difficulty using certain game features or interfaces. By designing games with accessibility in mind, game developers can create more inclusive and enjoyable experiences for players of all abilities.
Accessibility in Web, Apps and real-world
Website accessibility has been around for decades, one example of website accessibility standards as WCAG.
Examples of accessibility issues in Video Games
- Game is too difficult for new players to the genre or game
- Text is too small on the screen
- Using a font that is hard to read
- The contrast between background and foreground is not high enough
How to improve accessibility in your Video Game
Visual
Allow the user to select a Color Blind mode, some examples are
- Protanopia (red impairment)
- Deuteranopia (green impairment)
- Tritanopia (blue impairment)
Allow the user to reorganize/rearrange the UI elements
Allow the user to apply specific filters to help blind or partially sighted players
Allow the user to change the size of HUD elements. For example:
- Text Font Size
- The actual font of the text
- The color of the text or background
Reading speed
In the fantastic games from Tell Tale Games, the player is presented with a scenario, most of the time, the user has to respond in a predetermined time frames. This might cause anxiety in some slow readers.
Audio
Motor or physical impairments
This normally requires some form of hardware, but allowing a player to remap controls is also a viable option for most players.
The Xbox Adaptive Controller is an example of an accessible game controller.
The detachable Nintendo Switch controllers is one of my favourite controllers,
Difficulty
Allow users to select different difficulty levels. This might not always be possible, especially some games, like the Souls Bourne games.
The difficulty of these games are the main selling point for From Software