Global Accessibility Awareness Day is an event that takes place in May every year, a day aimed at getting people talking, thinking and learning about digital accessibility.
It did not include any representation of games to start with, but has steadily grown. From a single games panellist on a multi industry panel in 2013 through to GAAD 2016’s six articles, two talks and four videos, including three as part of ID24, and of course the highlight being the unveiling of Uncharted 4’s well known accessibility featureset.
This year there was another huge leap forward, which I think is in line with the huge leap being taken forward in the industry in general. It is now getting to the point where it is hard to keep track of, but hopefully it is still fairly comprehensive!
Some of the events were private, but some are videos and articles freely available online, which make for a great set of new accessibility resources.
There were several internal awareness raising events, the first being at the BBC. They held a live streamed multi venue multi industry event, which included demos of switch-accessible preschool gaming:
And also had blind gamer SightlessKombat on hand, taking on challengers in Killer Instinct:
.jpg/?width=646&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale "SightlessKombat playing killer instinct against a new challenger")
https://twitter.com/OneSwitch/status/865202698504871936
Next up cross-industry accessibility consultancy Funka held a dedicated game accessibility awareness raiser at their head office in Stockholm, with 150 attendees:
https://twitter.com/FunkaNu/status/865106114655944704
Gaikai, makers of PlayStation Now, also held an internal event, sponsored by their new Accessibility Committee. Opening talks by Mike Olsen and Dave Perry, demo stations covering a range of game genres, impairment simulations and custom hardware, and a wide range of accessibility resources. And cupcakes.
https://twitter.com/Gaikai_Inc/status/865348441576058880
Sony HQ also held an internal awareness raising event, with similar demo stations to Gaikai, and talks from blind gamer Brandon Cole, accessibility specialist & DAGERS editor in chief Josh Straub, and AbleGamers founder and CEO Mark Barlet.
Josh Straub and Shuhei Yoshida
Ablegamers also had a twitch stream with BlindNewWorld, BlindGamerMisadventures, and BlindGamerDK:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/144830571
It was a busy day for AbleGamers, they had people visiting Google and Bungie too.
There were some other streams over the day, one from one handed gamer BatlerGaming, talking about his experiences:
https://twitter.com/BatlerGaming/status/865235948602314753
And one from Tanya DePass of INeedDiverseGames and myself, chewing the fat on accessibility in general:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQld5KGugBg&
The IGDA’s game accessibility SIG published all of the talks from #GAConf (a new conference dedicated solely to game accessibility) on Youtube for free:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVEo4bPIUOsmhxWT181OPVq9Z1P8Qjf19
And also spent the day tweeting out some of the best quotes from the conference:
https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=%40ga_conf%20%23gaad&src=typd
ID@Xbox put out two pieces of content, first showcasing the #GAConf videos:
https://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Level-Up/Episode-30-Game-Accessibility-Conference-with-Ian-Hamilton
And another on the recently added Xbox co-pilot functionality, together with recommendations of games to try with it:
http://www.idatxbox.com/2017/05/18/copilot-spotlight/
Apple produced as set of videos showcasing various areas of system accessibility, not specifically on gaming but featuring well known pro blind gamer Carlos Vasquez, who was the catalyst for the accessibility mode now present in Mortal Kombat X and both Injustice games:
Carlos competing at EVO
http://mashable.com/2017/05/17/apple-accessibility-videos-disability/#UMTaOvvN505A
Another video, this time from Jesse Anderson on design tips for low vision in VR third person games:
https://twitter.com/BGFH79/status/865218350552690690
Still on the topic of VR, Alice Wong posted an interview with Hannah Gillis of ILMxLAB on the accessibility considerations in their Star Wars VR project:
Zohar Gan released an early prototype of an accessibility plugin for Unreal:
https://twitter.com/techscouter/status/865077192996401152
Meeple Like Us wrote a really nice article covering both a retrospective on the first year of the project and some thoughts on the meaning and importance of accessibility in tabletop gaming:
http://meeplelikeus.co.uk/global-accessibility-awareness-day-2017/
Blind gamer Aser Tolentino wrote a piece on his experiences running RPGs, both remotely and in person:
http://www.theredactedfiles.com/?p=3321
SpecialEffect’s GAAD post showcased renowned accessibility leader and Abilitynet’s head of digital inclusion Robin Christopherson, and also the GAAD quiz – more on that a bit later.
http://www.specialeffect.org.uk/specialeffect-news/its-global-accessibility-awareness-day
Household Games announced a swathe of accessibility features for their upcoming game Way of the Passive Fist:
Demo of fully remappable one handed gameplay
https://twitter.com/HHGamesInc/status/865230486049783808
Mackenzie Eaton of Boat Rocker Digital showcased the design solution they adopted for colorblindness in Orphan Black:
https://twitter.com/Macktimus/status/865260648787214336
Bryce Johnson of Xbox showcased a PC Gamer article on a Minecraft server for autistic kids:
http://www.pcgamer.com/meet-the-dad-who-quit-his-job-to-run-a-minecraft-server-for-autistic-kids
UKIE ran their annual student game jam across global accessibility awareness day this year, with an award for most accessible game:
https://twitter.com/MrCallumJones/status/865261102938161152
Barrie Ellis blogged about Tar Heel, adapting first person driving videos into switch controlled cause and effect activities:
http://switchgaming.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/road-trips-tar-heel-gameplay.html
Barrie also put up a detailed pin guide for modding Xbox One controllers:
http://switchgaming.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/pin-outs
I posted a piece myself, on recent innovations and tools in the field of accessibility for blind gamers:
I also put up the aforementioned 20 question accessibility trivia quiz, some nice and interesting facts amongst it including some pretty rarely known ones:
https://goo.gl/forms/tgcD8ytfQQSrnTa72
Christer Kaitila had a quick reminder for devs of why considering colourblindness is important:
https://twitter.com/McFunkypants/status/865209895137591299
Chris AKA Phoenix AKA deafgamerstv took part in a11ychi’s GAAD panel:
