DEAFNESS, HARD OF HEARING

Effects on gaming:
– Cannot get audio cues such as speech, footsteps, gun shots etc.
– Cannot follow cutscenes.

Possible solutions:

– Provide closed captioning.
– Provide a “radar” style screen to localize sounds.
– Flag dangerous or important situations and events.

LEARNING DISABILITIES

Effects on gaming:
– Difficult to read or understand the manual.
– Difficult to solve some puzzles because they require mathematical or reading skills.

Possible solutions:
– Add a tuturial mode.
– Easy to understand manuals.
– In-game advisors to assist a player.
– Alternative solutions for puzzles requiring differnet skills.

MOTOR SKILLS DISABILITIES

Effects on gaming:
– Cannot use a standard controller at all.
– Slower reaction speed and reflexes.

Possible solutions:
– Support alternative controllers.
– Scale difficulty levels to make it possible to support standard controllers.
– Allow remapping of controls.
– Provide control over game speed.
– Provide assistance in the game, such as auto-targetting, etc.

COLOR BLINDNESS, LOW VISION

Effects on gaming:
– Cannot see visuals on the screen.
– Cannot see visuals without high contrast.
– Cannot distinguish certain colours.
– Cannot see small visuals.
– Cannot read text.

Possible solutions:
– Provide audio cues about events, items and characters.
– Allow the player to control contrast, brightness, color schemes and font characteristics.
– Provide audio descriptions of make the game usable with third party screen readers.
– Allow magnification of visuals and fonts.