By Thomas Westin, IGDA-GASIG co-chair
2016 has been a hugely significant year for accessibility in game development. The following is a compilation of articles, news stories and advances from throughout the year. Many are news stories shared on the IGDA Game Accessibility SIG’s mailing list, but there are also others included from other sources.
This is not an exhaustive list, but it should give a sense of the ever increasing pace at which accessibility in the games industry is advancing.
JANUARY
Global Game Jam, which had several optional accessibility challenges, taken up by thousands of developers: http://globalgamejam.org/news/ggj16-diversifiers-are
Rocket League and MLB: The Show win AbleGamers game of the year awards
https://web.archive.org/web/20160502003424/http://www.ablegamers.com/announcing-the-ablegamers-2015-accessible-game-of-the-year/
FEBRUARY
Gamecritics.com now includes info on controller options and whether the game relies on colour, in addition to audio access:
www.gamecritics.com/brad-gallaway/gamecritics-reviews-enhanced-information-on-accessibility
A demo walking through how blind gamer SightlessKombat plays Killer Instinct using audio cues and stereo separation alone, and some discussion of how community effort led to some blind-accessibility features making their way into the game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THbVXGulDUE
AbleGamers interview with another blind Killer Instinct player, Xavier Quintero:
http://www.unstoppablegamer.com/killer-instinct-and-accessibility-interview-with-xavier-quintero/
Heroes Of The Storm win D.A.G.E.R.S. diamond award:
http://dagersystem.com/2015-diamond-award-winner/
SpecialEffect’s new games room facility opened by a cross-party parliamentary delegation, including the UK Prime Minister
http://www.specialeffect.org.uk/specialeffect-news/david-cameron-officially-opens-our-games-room
MARCH
Record number of accessibility talks at at GDC 2016:
https://www.reddit.com/r/disabledgamers/comments/432m11/gdc_2016_conference/
Chad Johnson managed the GASIG roundtable at GDC:
https://igda-gasig.org/2016/04/19/ga-sig-roundtable-meeting-notes-gdc-16/
Record number of game accessibility sessions at CSUN 2016:
https://www.reddit.com/r/disabledgamers/comments/42qsp1/csun_2016_conference/
Article on VR accessibility by Katie Goode:
http://www.triangularpixels.net/cms/development/vr-games-for-all-designing-unseen-diplomacy-for-disabled-users/
APRIL
Sony employee builds a custom PS4 controller for a gamer with cerebral palsy:
http://www.engadget.com/2016/04/04/ps4-controller-for-cerebral-palsy-gamer/
IGDA-GASIG panel at Microsoft’s Ability Summit.
Unity announce development of new input model, including engine-level remapping functionality:
https://blogs.unity3d.com/2016/04/12/developing-the-new-input-system-together-with-you/
GDC sessions up on GDC vault, with most of the accessibility ones freely available without subscription. Great selection of topics and record attendance too, average of around 120 people per session:
http://ian-hamilton.com/gdc16s-accessibility-sessions/
UKIE Student Game Jam, which had accessibility advice and an accessibility award:
http://ukie.org.uk/content/brunel-university-announced-winners-2016-ukie-student-game-jam
One Click Jam, one button themed game jam held in various physical venues around South America:
http://www.oneclickjam.org/es
MAY
Overwatch and Uncharted 4 released, two of the biggest games of the year and both with a range of accessibility considerations, such as Overwatch’s sound design and per-class remapping, and Uncharted 4’s wide range of motor accessibility features:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-05-25-overwatch-fan-with-cerebal-palsy-thanks-blizzard-for-custom-controls
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls_CD4mB42s
One-handed Mode for Google Keyboard: http://thenextweb.com/apps/2016/05/03/googles-stock-keyboard-now-one-handed-mode/#gref”
24 hours of free online accessibility talks for Global Accessibility Awareness Day, including three on accessibility in gaming:
http://www.inclusivedesign24.org
Microsoft announce their ‘gaming for everyone’ initiative at E3, which includes commitments to accessibility:
http://news.microsoft.com/gamingforeveryone/
Accessibility interview with the developers of EVE online, including a request for public accessibility input:
https://www.themittani.com/columns/access-granted-accessibility-ui-interview-ccp-surge-part-1
https://www.themittani.com/columns/access-granted-accessibility-ui-interview-ccp-surge-part-2
Phil Spencer, head of Xbox congratulates Naughty Dog on their accessibility efforts in PlayStation exclusive Uncharted 4:
https://twitter.com/XboxP3/status/733701149916680192
AbleGamers invited to the White House:
https://twitter.com/AbleGamers/status/727492947357392896
JUNE
Ian Hamilton’s Gamasutra blog post on highlights from the previous month:
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/IanHamilton/20160620/275289/An_exciting_month_in_accessibility.php
Phil Spencer at Microsoft says: “We believe gaming should be fun for everyone”
http://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2016/06/13/gaming-for-everyone/#sm.0008b6cvy1a1ndkdy092b7jnzhwsr
Madden 17’s accessibility featureset for impaired vision announced:
https://www.easports.com/madden-nfl/news/2016/madden-17-accessibility
Karen Stevens of the Madden 17 team sets up twitter account and email address for public accessibility feedback across all EA games:
https://twitter.com/ea_accessible/status/741696820196343808
Final Fantasy XV wait mode announced:
https://twitter.com/FFXVEN/status/742846836386332672
AJ Ryan chosen as first recipient of AbleGamers Fellowship
http://www.trionworlds.com/en/news/2016/06/introducing-the-winner-of-the-ablegamers-fellowship-2016-alex-james-ryan/
The Great Steampunk Game Jam, which had accessibility advice and an accessibility award:
http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/great-steampunk-game-jam/
Cliff Bleszinski shares veteran encounter story:
https://twitter.com/therealcliffyb/status/744232111079571456
JULY
Surviving and thriving as a game developer with chronic illness:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/277037/Surviving_and_thriving_as_a_game_developer_with_chronic_illness.php
Xbox confirm wheelchair avatars are in development:
http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/5/12095890/microsoft-wheelchair-xbox-avatars
Launch of Pokemon Go, inspiring a huge amount of accessibility discussion not only amongst gamers but also disability organisation that had not previously taken an interest in gaming, for example:
http://www.afb.org/slide/pokemon-go-accessibility
https://www.abilitynet.org.uk/news-blogs/pok%C3%A9mon-go-are-incense-and-street-view-key-more-inclusivity-disabled-people
Article on VR accessibility by Brian Van Buren:
http://www.vrinflux.com/vr-accessibility-why-changing-head-height-matters/
7128 top sites awards:
http://www.7128.com/top25/topsiteslists.html
First iteration of a Game Accessibility Curriculum Framework was presented and published at ICCHP 2016, Linz, Austria
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-41264-1_68
AUGUST
Demonstration of Pokemon Go running with a single accessibility switch:
https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/05/teclas-tech-makes-pokemon-go-more-accessible-for-wheelchair-users/
One Button Jam, nearly 160 entries:
https://itch.io/jam/one-button-to-rule-all-jam#entries
Audiogame Jam, the best of which were showcased at Techshare:
http://jams.gamejolt.io/AGJam
Valve announce royalty free licencing for the lighthouse technology used in the HTC vive, opening up a path to accessible alternative controllers:
http://www.roadtovr.com/valve-third-party-lighthouse-api-steamvr-tracking-htc-vive-dev-kit-license-royalty/
Twitch partnership with Ablegamers, including a week of disabled streamers featuring on the Twitch homepage and a trial of new live captioning functionality:
http://kotaku.com/twitch-will-highlight-disabled-gamers-this-week-1785591255
Launch of Hue, which gained large amounts of media coverage of its colorblind support, simply through mentioning it in the game’s presskit:
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2016/08/03/vibrant-puzzler-hue-coming-soon-to-ps4-ps-vita/
Household Games hires Clint ‘halfcoordinated’ Lexa as an accessibility specialist
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/279775/Household_Games_hires_speedrunner_as_accessibility_advocate.php
SEPTEMBER
Apple add ‘hold at point’ functionality to switch recipes, making a huge range of iOS games compatible with accessibility switches:
http://switchgaming.blogspot.com.es/2016/09/ios-10-hold-at-point-aka-momentary.html
Microsoft publish high level guidance on game accessibility:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/gaming/accessibility-for-games
IGDA-GASIG Game Accessibility Conference
