May 18 marked the twelfth annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), a day to rejoice and lift consciousness for accessibility throughout various industries. Not solely does it assist to focus on new improvements, it additionally repeatedly reinforces the notion that disabled folks want assistive tech to thrive. For video games, studios commonly refine and create new choices and design practices in search of to eradicate as many boundaries as attainable.
2023 is already off to a robust begin, with choices and design practices pushing accessibility past a few of final yr’s greatest hits. It’s shortly changing into obvious that disabled gamers not have to hope for accessibility to be included in a recreation, however reasonably can comfortably be a part of within the pleasure of recent titles. But past including options, a lot of 2023’s bulletins and releases reveal the need to discover new varieties of accessibility and even open whole techniques to a big group of disabled gamers. To rejoice GAAD, let’s discover a few of my favourite accessibility highlights from the previous 5 months.
Access Controller
In January, throughout PlayStation’s CES convention, the studio revealed Project Leonardo, an adaptive controller designed for bodily disabled people. With roughly eight customizable buttons, a management persist with three totally different styles and sizes, and even 4 3.5mm AUX ports, PlayStation lastly addressed its lack of accessible {hardware}.
This is my most anticipated launch, and arguably, my favourite announcement from this yr. Despite the software program accessibility that PlayStation studios like Naughty Dog, Sony Santa Monica, and Insomniac Games commonly incorporate into their titles, I’ve by no means been in a position to play a PS5 recreation. And a number of years after the discharge of the PS4, I misplaced the power to carry customary controllers, which means that I haven’t been in a position to expertise PlayStation’s accessibility efforts, even in video games like The Last of Us Part II. The Access Controller is what I’ve been wanting, and fairly frankly needing from a studio that actively shut bodily disabled gamers like me out for years. While it’s nonetheless too early to know info like value, and even button and stick sensitivity, its announcement is indicative of PlayStation’s steady development in accessibility.
Dead Space
Motive Studio’s remake of the unique Dead Space contains frequent accessibility choices like customizable controls, subtitles, and colorblind settings. Yet, the intensive content material warnings and censors are why I’m selecting to focus on this recreation. Content warnings in video games aren’t new – Arachnophobia Modes in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and Grounded, warnings of self-harm and suicide in Doki Doki Literature Club, and even Chicory: A Colorful Tale lets gamers skip scenes that cope with despair. But Dead Space seamlessly integrates psychological well being accessibility whereas nonetheless sustaining the core themes of isolation and concern.
Traumatic photographs and themes might be censored, like suicide, and even particular phrases that cope with self-harm in textual content logs. Yet, Isaac Clarke nonetheless should survive throughout the deserted halls of the USG Ishimura. What makes Dead Space stand out amongst extremely accessible video games is the truth that it chooses to include and spotlight psychological well being accessibility in a manner that doesn’t diminish the concern that gamers really feel. Horror, like all genres, might be accessible for these with various psychological well being disabilities, and Dead Space demonstrates how horror might be each entertaining and accessible.
Forza Motorsport
Xbox not too long ago introduced a brand new set of accessibility options for its flagship racing collection. Blind Driving Assists supply quite a few audio cues and steering assists that search to take away boundaries for blind/low imaginative and prescient gamers when racing. Whether turning, driving on straightaways, and even when altering speeds, every motion is conveyed by means of aural messages.
Forza’s accessibility efforts are according to the larger accessibility motion. However, blind/low imaginative and prescient gamers nonetheless can’t totally take pleasure in most titles on this trade. What makes Blind Driving Assists one in every of my favourite reveals of this yr is that it opens a brand new style to a bunch of disabled gamers. Despite my incapacity, I nonetheless have my most well-liked franchises. I can often buy a brand new recreation and full it with out help. Blind/low imaginative and prescient accessibility nonetheless looks as if it’s in its infancy regardless of the continual rise and acceptance of accessibility on this trade. While we nonetheless don’t know the way efficient Blind Driving Assists might be for disabled gamers, Turn 10 Studios’ makes an attempt to eradicate unintentional boundaries is worthy of point out.
The Last of Us Part I Remake
On March 28, PlayStation launched The Last of Us Part I on the PC. Not solely was it the primary within the collection to turn out to be out there to PC gamers, but it surely additionally featured intensive accessibility settings. When discussing accessibility, we regularly ask questions pertaining to software program. How are studios implementing accessible choices and designs? What settings are crucial for gamers with bodily disabilities? A key side that’s usually neglected in these conversations are talks about {hardware}. For the primary time for the reason that unique launch in 2013, I used to be in a position to play The Last of Us.
Yes, the port was crammed with quite a few bugs, even these affecting accessibility. In my playthrough, I consistently encountered key binding points that completely elevated my bodily exhaustion. And sure, I steadily witnessed visible bugs that had been commonly shared on social media websites. Even although it’s a disgrace my first expertise with The Last of Us collection was marred with baffling glitches, I used to be lastly in a position to expertise an iconic recreation for myself.
Global Accessibility Awareness Day shouldn’t be a singular day simply to focus on new bulletins. We ought to rejoice by inspecting the trade’s successes all year long. It must also be a day to remind the larger gaming trade that disabled folks exist. Disabled writers and reporters, content material creators, and builders are lively individuals alongside disabled customers. It’s one factor to have the ability to play video games, however to have the ability to unapologetically be ourselves in an trade that’s nonetheless uncertain of how you can correctly deal with disabled folks is proof that extra work is required. If something, this GAAD demonstrates that accessibility is a steady journey, one which will get much more thrilling with every passing yr.
Grant Stoner is a disabled journalist masking accessibility and the disabled perspective in video video games. When not writing, he’s often screaming about Pokémon or his cat, Goomba on Twitter.
