Over the past few years, interest in the field of video game accessibility has grown. Developers of all sizes have incorporated accessibility features into their games, whether in indie darlings like Tunic or major AAA releases like God of War Ragnorok. As for hardware, Xbox released its adaptive controller in 2018 and PlayStation more recently announced Project Leonardo, which will be the company’s effort to bring more accessible controllers to the PlayStation 5. The conversation about who’s included in video games and how people play video games, has never been more relevant.
Behind these glowing releases is the work of accessibility advocates who consult and advise on these games, paving the way for games that are more disability-friendly and accessible to a wider audience. Sometimes companies also hire particular organizations to act as consultant during hardware development, and/or talk about issues as they arise. And now, an awards show recognizes that work when it happens, celebrating accessibility in video games.
Enter the Gaming Accessibility Conference Awards.
The awards were launched by the Game Accessibility Conference, a conference expressly dedicated to video game developers wishing to deepen their knowledge of accessibility in games. The awards – which recognize the work of those who “raise the bar for accessibility” – cover 18 categories and celebrate work in different areas such as academic research, publishers leading work on accessibility and representation.
This year, God of War Ragnarök has won awards in the AAA Excellence and Best Deaf/HoH accessibility categories. Nominations are shortlisted by a panel with the final choices chosen by a combination of public and jury voting. To learn more about the awards and what the future of gaming accessibility looks like, Polygon interviewed Tara Voelker, Co-Director of The Game Accessibility Conference Awards and Senior Accessibility Manager for Xbox Game Studios. The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Polygon: How do you judge what makes a game accessible? (I imagine it’s hard and complicated.)
Tara: Judging what makes a game accessible is both simple and complicated. At its heart, a game is accessible when gamers with disabilities can play it. However, different players have different needs and different obstacles that prevent them from being able to play. A title may be incredibly accessible to deaf/hard of hearing players, but completely inaccessible to those who are blind. This is the complicated part.
To properly assess whether something is accessible to a group of gamers, you need to understand their needs and verify that those needs are being met. For example, to make a game accessible to people with color blindness, you ensure that no key information is displayed by color alone and that it is supported by shapes, patterns or text. Honestly, it’s still very rare that a game is truly accessible to everyone simultaneously.
Image: Santa Monica Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment
What makes an “accessible game” accessible?
An accessible game is a game that has thought about unintended barriers that may prevent players with disabilities from playing, and avoids them altogether or provides the option to remove them. As a game developer, you know what experience you want to give players, and the goal is to make sure people can get that experience.
For example, the challenge of a racing game is to roll your car down the track as fast as possible. The challenge isn’t supposed to struggle with pressing the right trigger button on a controller, as you have limited dexterity in your hands. This extra challenge can be removed by allowing the player to remap the gas to the A button. No more trigger button issues and you can get racing.
I understand this is a nebulous idea, and how it manifests may be different by title.
How have you seen the field of gaming accessibility evolve over the years?
The field of accessibility in games has grown considerably over time. When I started in the game, there were no full-time accessibility jobs in the game. At all. And now there are several at the studio and publisher level. When accessibility started to pick up, developers were rewarded and praised for things like colorblind filters, but now they’re expected, and you’ll get a lot of complaints when you don’t have them.
Accessibility in games is on an exponential growth path, and the surge in accessible titles we’ve seen in recent years has been truly amazing. The most exciting thing is that the idea of accessibility is evolving earlier in the game development process. For many years, accessibility has been modernized. A game would be built, then developers would see how many accessibility “holes” they could fix. Some of these holes were not fixable for reasons decided much earlier in development. Now we completely avoid creating these holes.
Image: Digital Devolver
Why is it important to celebrate the work being done in this area?
While accessibility is growing, it’s still a largely defender-focused space. In many situations, it can still take tons of emotional labor to ensure accessibility is a concern during development. It’s a real job. We want everyone who works for accessibility to know that they are appreciated and have a moment to see the impact they have had for celebrated players. Not only will this lift their spirits and recharge them for the next fight, but it will be easier to win next time when they can point fingers and say, “Well, look at that award and that recognition…”
Is there anything else you would like to share with us today?
The game has so many benefits and is truly a part of pop culture. Gamers with disabilities deserve to be part of the gaming space, and our games only improve when we consider their development needs. Accessibility features aren’t just used by those who identify as disabled, they’re used by gamers around the world.
The easiest way to ensure a game is accessible is to simply get feedback from gamers with disabilities. There are many who want to play your games and will tell you why they can’t. Talk to them!
