Accessibility is one of the big topics in the world right now – many parts of life aren’t as accessible as they could be, and this makes it hard for people to participate in everyday activities. Video games, a source of constant joy and comfort for many, are just one example of an industry which is slowly growing more accessible, and it’s a welcome sight to see.
The world of gaming can be a wildly different experience based on the genre of game that you play. More casual RPG titles are often easy enough to navigate and can be approached leisurely, with time to make decisions in abundance and plenty of other tools for success. However, action-oriented games are often much harder for people with disabilities to use.
Accessibility is evolving slowly to meet the needs of modern gamers – things like adjustable audio and subtitles have been a mainstay of big titles for years. However, being able to do things like remap control schemes or get audio descriptions for games is still notably lacking for many studios. It’s a shame to see because most people with disabilities like playing games as much as the next person, and not being able to access the titles they want is hard.
As disability support workers Gold Coast, we know that it’s not easy for a lot of people to play video games. They struggle with being able to process information quickly or enjoy the titles they love with accessibility issues. We recognise that some video game titles, by their very nature, are hard to turn into successful and accessible titles, but we also encourage developers to try.
Every game should have basic accessibility options, like the ability to change text size, put captions on character dialogue, and also change the size of things like the HUD. This doesn’t strike us as something which should be difficult to do, but it makes such a big difference for people who do have disabilities.
What a lot of people don’t realise is that it isn’t just about accessibility so much as it also means a lot with regards to being thought about. Accessibility speaks to inclusivity and helps people who have disabilities to feel like they’re being included in the world. When disabled people see that they can remap the control scheme to suit their needs or have captions for dialogue or even get audio descriptions for cutscenes, it’s easy to see why they’d be happy with the game.
Accessibility is a growing concern for video games, but there are slow signs that the industry is starting to make changes. Ultimately it’s important for people to be able to feel like they’re being represented across media, and things like this are vital for that. Accessibility may seem like a small or even trivial thing for a lot of developers, but we’ve seen it make a big difference. At the end of the day, we need to see the industry grow and develop.