There are few things which are, on the surface, as accessible and engaging as video games. Not a lot of industries can claim to bridge the generational gap with such ease, but there is seemingly one section of society, which doesn’t get the representation that it should do when it comes to video games, and that is people with disabilities.
Now, we want to be absolutely clear when we say that this is not about a lack of diverse characters in video games because there are plenty of people with disabilities who are portrayed in video games these days, and society is becoming better at these portrayals. Instead, we’re talking about the lack of video games made for people with disabilities, taking into account specific needs regarding visual or auditory impairments.
If you’ve picked up a modern game in the last decade or so, it’s not exactly difficult to spot that they’re pretty geared towards non-disabled players. It’s a mess of visual and auditory cues that work in tandem with one another, with text flying all around the screen and large amounts of information dumped on the player in just a few minutes. Unless you’re prepared to invest time and be alert, you’ll likely miss key facts or action prompts.
The only real exception to this in recent times has been The Last of Us, a dystopian horror game with a wealth of accessibility features like proper audio and text reading tools. It’s a pretty good example of how a video game should be and just goes to show how far behind the rest of the industry is when it comes to things like accessibility.
As disability support workers Gold Coast, we understand and recognise the need for a new way to approach video games. We can’t make games which don’t cater to disabled people because that’s just not fair or representative of the way society is now. People have a right to feel like they can access games regardless of their physical or mental disability.
There are definitely strong attempts to bring that type of experience to the world, as is the case with things like The Last of Us, but it’s taking a while, and progress is slow. Ultimately, we need more game studios to put inclusivity further up the list of priorities when designing content, otherwise, there won’t be any real way for the industry to grow and change.
It’s definitely going to take a while, and there is no guarantee that it will be a quick and easy process, but if there are more inclusive video games designed, it will be better for everybody. At the end of the day, it’s important to be able to try and make an experience that works for disabled people as well as those without disabilities. There can’t be any shortcuts taken either – it needs to be a legitimate effort for people to thrive.