It is no secret that the gaming industry is mostly composed of white, cisgender and heterosexual men who, consequently, make games for this same audience, which constantly raises very valid debates about the need for more diverse people during development and also within games, as a form of representation.
These discussions are very important for the growth and improvement of the industry, but a specific social group is, most of the time, forgotten about this discourse: people with disabilities.
Unfortunately, talking about disabilities and people with disabilities is still treated as a stigma, which makes it harder for important issues like accessibility to penetrate bubbles like game development.
For starters, if you’re a developer: do you think about accessibility when making your games? What decisions do you make to make your games more accessible? If you are a gamer: what do you know about game accessibility? Ever wondered if your favorite games might also be the favorite games of someone with a disability?
“Oh, but does accessibility really matter?
You might be wondering, and the only possible answer to that is a resounding “YES”, but calm down and I’ll explain why.
Looking at the human side of it, the structure of our society is neither inclusive nor accessible, everyday people with different types of disabilities face difficulties. They shouldn’t do things that for us, people without disabilities, are done without any effort, all this due to the lack of visibility and concern for accessibility. If we can change that, even a little bit, by worrying about making the games we create more accessible, why not take the trouble?
I haven’t convinced you yet? And if I tell you that according to the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) in 2010 23.9% of Brazilians have some kind of disability? I say even more, according to the WHO (World Health Organization) in 2011, 1 billion people were living with some type of disability in the world, and this data is already old considering that researches that include PCDs are scarce. Do you know what that means? That you are failing to make your game accessible to a sizable portion of potential consumers, failing to make money from it.
“But don’t I need super equipment and a lot of investment to make my game more accessible? Is it worth it?”
It’s all too common to believe that accessibility only happens with expensive gear like the Xbox Adaptive Controller, for example, but in fact a lot of accessibility within games happens with simple design and UX decisions.
Choosing to use subtitles with legible fonts, large enough, with good spacing between the words and the option of outline, for example, is a simple decision, completely doable and cheap that already makes your game more accessible.
When we think of people with disabilities and accessibility, it is common to think only of very extreme or very specific cases, such as people who use a wheelchair or who do not have 100% vision, but in fact there is a huge variety of disabilities, each with its specific difficulties, and when developing more accessible games we should think about reaching as many people as possible with some kind of disability.
Another thing to think about is that when we talk about accessibility we are not necessarily talking about disabilities. A non-disabled person can struggle with the usability of a game or app and this makes it less accessible, just as a lack of feedback or design choices can make it difficult to use. More accessible choices most of the time will not only cover people with disabilities, but make the experience for all users better and more accessible.
Unfortunately this does not mean that with few resources we can reach everyone in our games, but it is important to live, listen and research people with different types of disabilities to understand what their pains and difficulties are, and as good designers we find accessible solutions to facilitate their lives within the games.
As we open our minds to the importance of creating accessible games it is important to note that testing games with people with disabilities is critical, especially if you are a non-disabled person. Even if you study and know techniques and good practices, your experience will always be different from that of a person with a disability and, therefore, it is very important that the tests take place with the most diverse people.
When proposing to make games more diverse and accessible, research about different types of disabilities, look for games with good accessibility options and understand how each small decision can change your game, features and player experiences. Good practice won’t always make sense within your game mechanics, so explore and question yourself how to make each element more hassle-free for all types of users.
If you want to understand and study a little more about accessibility, I recommend taking a look at the following sites:
Also remember that the best way to make games more accessible is to employ people with disabilities in your studio and listen to them as players. A diverse team is much more predisposed to creating diverse games than a homogeneous group, but also celebrates every small step to the inclusion of accessibility in your games, within its limitations. Every little step is important for everyone to feel welcome in the gaming world.
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Imagens por Arek Socha e Manfred Steger no Pixabay
