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Making Video Games Accessible: Business Justifications and Design Considerations
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Features
Previous
You Are A Gamer |
And You Are In This Scenario |
|---|---|
With no vocal impairment |
You are playing a game that requires spoken commands to control your characters and you can't play because you don't have a microphone. |
You are playing late at night and you don't want to disturb anyone so you can't use your communicator. |
|
Who has a speech impairment |
You are playing a game that requires spoken commands to control your characters and you can't play because the game can't recognize what you are saying. |
Who is unable to speak |
The game you are playing requires speech input so you are unable to play. |
The online game you're playing expects you to coordinate strategy via the communicator so you cannot play effectively. |
Fortunately, there are some easy fixes that can make your game usable and enjoyable for these gamers.
- If a game uses speech recognition, provide gamers with an option to choose commands from a menu or button combination.
- If your title also supports online multiplayer, give gamers the option of a customizable macro with either audio messages or (even better for those with hearing impairments) text messages. Providing keyboard support for chat is also an option.
Conclusion
At this point, you might be thinking that you couldn't possibly accommodate all of these gamers in all of these scenarios. And even if you were to implement every suggestion in this paper, you couldn't ensure that a title would be completely accessible to everyone. But by following these accessibility guidelines, you can make your title much more appealing to the accessibility community. And that can only increase sales.
To make a title more accessible, developers and publishers need to find people with various types of disabilities to usability test their games. This approach provides first-hand information about whether or not a game is accessible for a certain audience. As an added benefit, having diverse development and testing resources can offer additional insights that can improve game play for all gamers. Most importantly, engage the accessibility community and get to know these potential customers. Hold a game bash for your title at a local deaf service center, children's hospital, or veteran's center. Encourage developers and testers to volunteer with local organizations that work with the disabled, to take a sign language class, or to sign up for accessibility-related newsletters to keep up with the community. Solicit feedback on previous titles from disabled-gamers at local schools and colleges.
No one likes feeling an outsider. By including the accessibility community in game testing and design, you will be able to market your title to a much wider audience and do the right thing for the community and your bottom line.
More Resources
There are a number of web resources available that discuss video game accessibility, as well as a number of companies that focus on disabled gamers. In addition, the Accessible Technology Group at Microsoft can be contacted with PC-related accessibility questions at: ablecat@microsoft.com. Xbox-related accessibility questions can be sent to: xaccess@microsoft.com
General Disability sites:
- Game Accessibility
- IGDA Game Accessibility Group
- Microsoft's Accessibility Site
- MSDN Accessibility Information
Auditory Impairment Sites:
Visual Impairment Sites:
Mobility impairment Sites:
Speech Impairment Sites:
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