2019 was a year of huge change in the accessibility field, with progress across every corner of the industry - post on that coming soon. But public discourse was dominated by just a few topics – text size, difficulty options (and off the back of that how accessibility relates to creative vision), and subtitling.
Below are a few things gamers and developers have said over the year that stood out for me, covering those topics but also some others too. It's a long page, but an easy read. Some of these quotes are inspiring, some are thought provoking, some have practical advice – and some are a wake-up call.
It’s also a handy list of awesome people to follow on twitter!
A few of the lovely people quoted in this post, image courtesy of GAconf
Text size
ME AT 15: “I want video games to have the best graphics and biggest explosions and deepest stories and coolest characters to show that this is truly the art form of the future pew pew pew” ME AT 35: “I want video games to have an option to make text bigger.”
Mike Drucker
My father can legally pass a drivers vision test but can't see the UI of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey in the bright day light
Avry Satos
I can't really play games that require reading on consoles anymore mostly because I can't change the font size. It's not just a couple of games. It's almost all of them.
Nick Stahl
I moved my TV to about 1 metre away from me for some games and it still hurt my eyes trying to make out the text. It's a problem in almost every new release!
Jade Pickering
I'm legally blind and everytime I play a new game font, colour of text and text size is my first thought before even starting a game. Seeing this stresses me out a little because when I strain my eyes too much the pain is unbearable sometimes
Yumii
[text size] affects lots of different groups including autistic users where tiny text and lots of distractions makes it really hard to keep focus!
Jamie Knight
I was born with congenital cataracts. I've had significantly impaired vision since I was born. The larger resolutions get, the more & more difficult it becomes for me to read text. Scalable text should be standard by now.
Michael O’Connor
My wife made fun of me for being old the other day when she saw me going through conversation options while standing 4' from the tv instead of on the couch.
hypnovirus
I’ve literally been playing for 30 mins & can already feel the beginnings of a migraine behind my right eye. It was the same with FE3H. I couldn’t play that portable at all. This is such a simple thing to look over!! Fuck your aesthetics!! Let me read ur goddamn text!!
xCharIes
I've had to sell off so many ps4 games because they turned out to be unplayable. I buy retail versions specifically so I can at least get rid of them again when this happens. The fact fonts keep getting smaller isn't helping.
RenderB
Tiny font is the sole reason I am not a gamer.
Caroline Liu
Why have so many AAA UI designers collectively decided that we should all sit one foot from our TV to read on-screen text? It's often a reason I stop playing a game. Accessibility options are often lacking as well.
Niels Bross, Glitcheart
Supporting Large Text isn’t a feature. It’s a fundamental part of functionality. Some users *only* use their devices w Large Text! That means if you don’t support it, they can’t use it!
Sommer Panage, Apple
If I'm going to achieve one thing in life I want to make text bigger in games
Mark Friend, PlayStation
I'm a UI artist and Sony and Microsoft used to be super strict on font sizes when TVs weren't so good. They should overhaul their requirements to include accessibility options as mandatory.
Hayley Joan, Rocksteady
Every game dev everywhere comes in to the office each day to design UIs on multiple massive screens two inches in front of their face and then go home, turn on the tv across the room and complains how they can’t read text in anyone else's game
Innes McKendrick, Hello Games
Configurable difficulty
Disabled gamer here. I’m about to stop playing a game I’ve been hyped for because my nerve damaged hands can’t keep up on “normal” and there’s no easy mode, just normal and hard.
laukidh
I have had to stop playing games without easy mode as well, because hands affected by my degenerative arthritis can’t handle the speed and/or button combos required by a game. Easy Mode makes it much easier on my hands, as well as my brain fog.
samwise
Telling disabled people to "git gud" is the bad take. I'm still recovering from 10 years of tendinitis in my right arm, my reflexes aren't great anymore and probably won't be great ever again, but I'd still like to play games.
Nowak
Every video game should be presented with accessibility options so disabled people can play them I'm tired of buying games only to figure out "ITS PERMA HARD MODE NO EASY SETTING FOR YOU!" Meanwhile I can barely move my arms most days
Callie Joestar
I promise when I played 'God of War' on easy I died just as much as my friends who played it on hard. My joint pain and fibromyalgia make up the difference. Difficulty modes matter for people with disabilities.
Lizzy Lynn Garcia
I for one adore the fact that there's a very easy mode for death stranding and I can’t wait to be able to actually complete a game for once. I hate games that like, make fun at you for using easy modes. Fuck those games. You have any idea how hard it is for my dyspraxic ass to play fast paced shooter games?
Loki
Gaming is supposed to be fun, and easy difficulties, cheats, and accessibility settings make games fun for me. It’s not “fake gaming”, it’s literally achieving the primary goal of the activity.
Liz King
Playing by a set of rules provided to you by the game is not cheating. A game's purpose is to be fun, whatever that means to you.
Nick Gregory, Pixelnicks
‘Git Gud’ is toxic trash.
Cherry ‘cherryrae’ Thompson
Lots of 1337 gamers coming out of the woodwork to somehow take offense at the difficulty level I choose to play MY games at. This is like being offended by gay marriage - it doesn’t affect you in any way so just shut the fuck up. Fortunately my mute button is set to VERY EASY.
Garry Whitta
Jedi Fallen Order very much validates Jim Sterling's position on difficulty options in Soulsborne titles. The accessibility was there but it did not stop me from playing at any level of ass-kicking difficulty I decided to punish myself with.
Danny DeMent
I'm going to begin calling it "Equal Mode" where the options are in place so that I game can be made difficult, stay with the artist's "vision" and still allow people to play the way THEY HAVE TO. Equality means FAIRNESS. Easy for you is not easy for someone else.
Steve Spohn. AbleGamers
Some folks have a knee-jerk response to gaming accessibility discussions, fearing that we're trying to take away their complex or difficult games. We're not! Accessibility isn't about lowering the technical ceiling, it's about options letting more people into the building at all.
Clint “halfcoordinated” Lexa
We've added rules-option tweaks post-launch, because we had a few players who just plain weren't ever winning. If a game is impossible for someone, there's a fair chance they're not experiencing it the way it was intended. Giving them options FIXES that, instead of breaking it.
Tess Snider
In regards to easy modes: Over 80% of XCOM players choose our Easy and Normal modes. 80%! Play the game the way that’s fun for you. Period.
Jake Solomon, Firaxis
Having a one-button mode (Easy Automatic) in Bayonetta didn’t make getting Pure Platinum any easier. It didn’t ruin your experience. It did make myself and others on the team receive many comments from new Bayonetta fans who could have never otherwise enjoyed the game.
JP Kellams, EA (formerly of Platinum)
I keep seeing some people apologize for playing on Story Mode. Please don’t. There’s no shame in playing on whatever mode you feel comfortable with. It doesn’t make you less of a player than anybody else.
Jason De Heras, Respawn
Feeling challenged is a critical component to playing XCOM. But challenge is not objective. My only regret is that we didn't implement MORE difficulty levels.
Jake Solomon, Firaxis
To my friends who are feeling beat up and demoralized after this week's difficulty dust-up, know that the vast majority of publishers and developers I talk to get it... from indie to AAA. Because, once explained, very few want to reduce access to their works arbitrarily.
Accessibility Vs vision
Accessibility has never and will never be a compromise to my vision.
Cory Barlog, Sony Santa Monica
If your argument is “don’t force devs to add accessibility options to games,” allow me to state loud and clear, that I am not being forced. I WANT as many people as possible to enjoy the games I work on. If your argument is about artistic vision, my vision is EVERYONE playing.
Glenn White, Epic
Yes I want the games I work on to be experienced and enjoyed by as many people as possible and not like a tiny subset of people who get mad online when someone plays a game on storymode. Why is that so foreign to you.
Hazel Monforton, Arkane Studios
UI developer here; accessibility features can be supported without undermining the vision for the game, and we have even done as much in multiplayer games over here where it is significantly harder.
Tom Gantzer, Splash Damage
Hi, I'm a game dev. I want to make experiences that are enjoyable for everyone. The end.
Xander Ashwell, Rare
My creative vision as a user interface dev, in AAA games, includes accessibility options. I want more players to have the ability to love and enjoy the games we make.
Reb Palacios, Rocksteady
I make games so people can enjoy them. The more who can enjo
