Game accessibility

Video game accessibility problems can be grouped into three categories that correlate to a specific type of impairment:[6]

• Not being able to receive feedback from the game due to a sensory impairment. Examples include: not being able to hear dialogue between game characters or audio cues, such as an explosion, because of a hearing impairment or unable to see or distinguish visual feedback, such as different colored gems in a puzzle game due to a visual impairment such as colorblindness.
• Not being able to provide input using a conventional input device due to a motor impairment; for example, users who rely upon using switch controller or eye trackers to interact with games may find it very difficult or impossible to play games that require large amounts of input.
• Not being able to understand how to play the game or what input to provide due to a cognitive impairment. People with learning disabilities may have low literacy or a combination of complex needs, for instance an individual might also have Ataxia or limited coordination. For example, real-time strategy games require a lot of micromanagement, which may be too difficult to understand and to perform for someone with a learning impairment.

Over the past decade, small companies and independent game developers have developed numerous games that seek to accommodate the abilities of players with the most severe impairments and which has led to the definition of the following accessible game categories:

• Audio games are games specifically for gamers who are blind. These games can be played without visual feedback and instead use audio-based techniques such as audio cues or synthetic speech. The audiogames website provides a comprehensive overview of available games.
• One-switch games are games that can be played using switch access and which accommodate the abilities of users with severe motor impairments or cognitive impairments. The oneswitch website provides an overview of available one switch games.
• Games for people with a learning disability, people with a Learning disability, may have low literacy or a combination of Complex Needs, for instance an individual might also have Ataxia or limited co-ordination. A detailed description of gaming with a learning disability.
• Universally Accessible games are games that offer multiple interfaces to support different impairments. An overview of universally accessible games can be found here.

These games are not only great examples of accessible games, but also drive innovation in game design. In recent years, game accessibility has been actively researched, for example in student projects .[9] The unique limitations of the target group make such projects interesting, instructive and challenging for students.

There have been several attempts at composing a set of game accessibility guidelines similar to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

Several advocacy organizations and groups have been formed to raise awareness within the game industry of the importance of making games accessible.

In 2003, the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) introduced the Game Accessibility Special Interest Group, founded by Thomas Westin. In 2006, the Bartiméus Accessibility foundation initiated the Game Accessibility project, a project which focuses on creating awareness and providing information for game developers, researchers and gamers with disabilities, led by Richard Van Tol. These two major groups work together as advocates within the game industry for increasing the accessibility of video games for gamers with disabilities.

In 2004 two gamers with disabilities, Mark Barlet and Stephanie Walker, founded AbleGamers.com, set out to further advance game accessibility in the AAA gaming space. Some of their efforts include: pressuring NCSoft to remove Game Guard from the game Aion and discussing with game developer Blizzard the addition of color blind friendly enhancements to the game World of Warcraft. In 2009 AbleGamers.com started 501(c)(3) nonprofit The AbleGamers Foundation to facilitate their work.

In 2010 the Accessible GameBase was launched by the charity SpecialEffect. This was a site that aimed to develop a welcoming, all-encompassing gaming community.

In 2012, a group of games studios, specialists and academics came together to create the Game Accessibility Guidelines which won the FCC's Chairman's award for Advancement in Accessibility. This website has many tips for game developers as to how to make their games more accessible to those who have disabilities. They raise awareness about the need for accessibility and the ease of which some features can be implemented.[18]

Despite these, and other initiatives, the situation is far from perfect: Many game developers are still very much unaware of game accessibility. Developers who acknowledge the importance of game accessibility and want to use it in their designs often don't know how to do so. Games developed in research projects usually consist of small demos ("proofs of concept") which lack the quality and (re)playability of mainstream games. This is usually also the case with games that have been developed by small companies and hobbyists. Knowledge about accessible game design that is gained in such projects often fails to get documented. In recent years, game accessibility has become a topic of increasing interest to the academic research community. It is recommended that collaborating with people who have disabilities can vastly improve the results of accessibility initiatives.[19]