Written by Shawn 2022 Cohort
“It is the nature of everyone to love playing, and everyone should have the right to enjoy the game.”
Some particular groups of players are physically disabled due to congenital disabilities or accidents. Still, they do not give up the game, or they enjoy the joy of exploring freely in the game. Unlike ordinary players, they more or less encounter various obstacles in the process of playing; accessibility design can help them better experience the game, with the recent years of game manufacturers for “accessibility” design research so that “the game belongs to everyone” dream is being realized.
The trend of game makers willing to put more time and effort into accessibility has become more pronounced in recent years. Some manufacturers are trying to provide assistive features in their games for players to find the right way to play, while others are assisting people with disabilities by redesigning their gamepads.
According to the World Health Organization, more than 1 billion of the world’s 8 billion people have some form of disability, about 15% of the total population, a massive group of people whose voices and demands need more attention from the industry.
Many organizations are working to drive this progress. CAN I PLAY THAT, a gaming media company that serves gamers with disabilities, specializes in accessibility reviews of different games? They will make a detailed review of the accessibility menu of a particular title, and also carefully state the advantages of varying accessibility features and what could be enhanced, and then finally give an accessibility score. More and more game makers are also taking this into account during the game development process rather than waiting until the game is about to be launched or after the launch to follow up on the development of additional features.
We may never be able to empathize with the difficulties these gamers with disabilities face when playing games. Still, we can help them experience the joy of gaming as much as possible. When a player with a disability sees a new game released and can play the game with assistive devices and in-game accessibility, rather than not even being able to play the game, that’s when “everyone can enjoy the game” is genuinely achieved.
No one deserves to be left behind in the world of games.