SIG Top Ten

Being more accessible doesn’t have to be difficult. With a bit of smart design we can we can make a big difference to people’s lives, reach wider audiences, and improve the experience for all players.

Knowing where to start with accessibility can feel overwhelming. So here are ten considerations that all make a significant difference to the experience of your disabled players, and if considered early enough in development, should not be difficult or expensive. The earlier you think about it, the easier and cheaper it becomes.

Produced for Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2021, by Ameliane Chiasson (Square Enix), Cherry Thompson (Ubisoft), Barrie Ellis (OneSwitch), Fran Court (Spash Damage) Ian Hamilton (independent), James Berg (EA), and Tara Voelker (Xbox).

Can your game be understood without hearing? On mute? In a noisy room?

Subtitles are used by most players, for a wide range of reasons. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey’s subtitles were on by default, 95% of players left them on. Even in Assassins Creed: Origins where they were off by default, 60% turned them on. Also consider flexible subtitle presentation, captioning important audio/musical cues, and ways other than text to reinforce audio information – Fortnite’s audio visualization is a great example.

I also have industrial deafness with added Tinnitus, so hearing people talk is a challenge to me too. [Apex Legends’] ping system and the voice to text really helps me feel more ‘normal’ in-game.
– Draxonfly

Do your systems account for cognitive load?

Give careful thought to how much information is presented at once, how systems like inventory, economy, and progression are presented and communicated, and multiple pathways for learning. These can all reduce load. Cognitive load can contribute to barriers for all players with disabilities

I got SO overwhelmed by the inventory management, tiny UI and cognitive load of knowing what to do when/where that I quit.
– Cherry Thompson

Could your controls be simpler, more flexible, less demanding?

Complex controls fixed to a specific layout or specific input device can block play. In-game remap is one of the most commonly requested accessibility features. Try to require less buttons too, Uncharted 4’s one stick control scheme option was used by ⅓ of their players. 

Simultaneous or frequent presses, precise timing, mandatory motion controls, complex/precise gestures, long holds, or moving a cursor with a stick can also exclude – is that exclusion necessary? Could they be optional?

I have arthritic hands. I have chronic tendinitis. The mechanics make assumptions about gamers my body can’t support. How could it have been improved? Reduce the number of buttons required to do shit.
– Andrea Chandler

Does your visual information work across all screen sizes and levels of visual acuity?

Small text / interface is the most common accessibility complaint across the whole spectrum of gamers. In 2018 the global average screen size was 43”, and the average living room viewing distance was 10 feet, but games are rarely tested in this environment. And varying levels of vision loss mean some of your players may need even more contrast, even larger sizes or bolder outlines and cues, especially in fast paced or dark environments.

With how small the text is in games like GTA V, everything turns out blurred and unclear. I accidentally spent $4,500 on a car because of that.
– Africa_whale

How intense is too intense?

Different people have different thresholds for sensory load. Overload can be caused by too many bright and flashy effects, too many simultaneous sounds (without separate volume controls), or camera movements that are not controlled by the player, including screenshake. Overload can mean discomfort, abandonment, and even lead to pain and injury. 

I don’t think I’ve ever experienced anything as terrifying as my first seizure. It’s something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.
– Cathy Vice (Indie Gamer Chick)

Does your gameplay or UI depend on seeing colours?

Avoid using colours alone to communicate or differentiate information. Wherever possible, use something else too – icon, shape, pattern etc. And check for contrast issues (e.g. black on red is low contrast for people who have difficulty seeing red) using a tool like colororacle. If you can’t avoid some elements relying on colour (e.g. team colours), let players choose what colours they want those elements to be. 

Time and time again I’ve seen games make unnecessary decisions in color usage that outright prevented me from playing the game due to my colorblindness.
– Aerothorn

What difficulty level do you want your players to experience? Easy? Hard? Impossible

Difficulty is relative! What’s easy for one player can be hard or even impossible for others. So try to accommodate a wide range of players in your design, and help them learn & grow the skills they need. There are many valid approaches, think about how you want your players to feel, what may get in the way of experiencing that, and whether those barriers can be avoided. Either by default, or through options. If options, offering some difficulty pre-set is useful but don’t just rely on that – give players control over the individual variables too. 

Having a one-button mode (Easy Automatic) in Bayonetta didn’t make getting Pure Platinum any easier. It didn’t ruin your experience. It did make myself and others on the team receive many comments from new Bayonetta fans who could have never otherwise enjoyed the game.
– JP Kellams, Platinum Games (formerly of)

Is your text both legible and readable?

How text is presented and complicated language are both considerable barriers to a wide range of players. For readability, use short and active sentences where possible (Word can check this as part of its spelling/grammar tool). For legibility, consider: size, contrast, clear sans-serif fonts (in sentence case, not full caps), and pay attention to line and letter spacing. Keep lines to 70 characters per line. Don’t auto-advance text; give players as much time as they need. And reinforce text with audio or imagery where you can too.  

14% of adults in the USA and UK have a reading age of below 11 years old.
– NCES / BIS

Are you sure you know what your players need?

There are three core approaches to understanding accessibility; existing good practice advice, advice from specialists, and working directly with the players you want to reach. You can get input directly from disabled gamers through playtesting/user research, workshops, focus groups, beta questionnaires, forum posts, social media callouts, and more; the earlier the better. There can be stigma involved, so go out of your way to make players feel their feedback is both relevant and wanted – and bear in mind some audiences may be less likely to be users of social media or forums.

Nothing about us without us.
– Disability rights mantra

Do your players know that your game is accessible?

After putting in the work, you don’t want it to go to waste because players don’t know they have been actively included in your design considerations.. Players also need to make informed purchase decisions; if they can’t play the game this is simply a waste of money and hurts loyalty.. So, shout about what you’ve done through social media, blog posts, trailers or dev videos, storefront listings, loading screen hints, presskit feature listings. Do it as early as you can – your disabled fans want to get in on the hype, pre-orders and early access too!

We exist, and we want to buy your games.
– Silas Humphreys

Several of these are available as a set of posters