The options menu is always the first thing people look for when it comes to game accessibility. Whether it’s customizing controls, adjusting subtitle sizes, or even enabling various colorblind filters, these settings help remove inaccessible barriers that may appear. has become a major topic when examining the overall accessibility of titles. Players with disabilities praise and criticize developers on social media platforms. Also, content creators and even publications release videos and articles showcasing menus to help players with disabilities make informed purchases. But options alone don’t make for an accessible game.
Before I go any further, I’m not advocating removing accessibility settings. I regularly go through the menus to find features that suit my needs. Rebind keys, increase mouse sensitivity, and toggle actions like aiming and dashing. I understand the importance and need for innovation, especially with groundbreaking settings like voice-written cutscenes. But this idea that a game’s accessibility is based solely on what’s or isn’t in a menu ultimately hinders the larger accessibility movement.
Exploring inclusive design
The experience of people with disabilities is incredibly multifaceted. Even people with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type II, who is disabled like me, have varying levels of strength, endurance, and general mobility. Certain accessibility features are essential for me to play the game, but some options may not be useful or not good enough for other players.This is where inclusive design practices thrive.
A strategy game like Total War: Warhammer, which can be played using only the mouse, is a great example of inclusive design.
Inclusive design is a game development concept that explores opening up games to players with disabilities without rich menus. For years, designers, consultants, and developers like Ubisoft’s Lead Accessibility Designer, Aderyn Thompson, have championed teams creating titles by layering accessibility throughout the development process. If all information can be understood without a specific color, does your game need a colorblind filter? Do you need essential quick-time events to tell a story? Does your title need a complex control scheme? , or can you entertain people with relatively little input?
The process of implementing inclusive design is nothing new. Strategy games like the Total War: Warhammer series can be played completely and efficiently with just the mouse. Most recently, the Dead Space remake added modern accessibility tools, but also reintroduced linear his levels, so players with physical disabilities needed less energy to land an accurate shot. had. First released in 2008, the Dead Space series is characterized by closed spaces and frighteningly atmospheric situations.
My Experience with Inclusive Design
I’ve been criticizing and analyzing game accessibility professionally since 2019, but I grew as a player long before I learned how to properly examine the functionality of features. And in a time when complex menus were just a dream, I had to rely solely on gameplay accessibility. As a result, I gravitated toward turn-based games and titles with heavy multiplayer elements, resting between turns and having friends and family protect me while I recuperated. This need to find a game that suits me eventually led me to discover what remains my favorite franchise: Pokémon.
Although decades old, early Pokémon games were accessible due to their simplicity.
It’s no secret that I adore Pokémon. From collecting cards to playing hundreds, if not thousands, of hours across every generation, my love of gaming was formed largely because of Pokémon. I’m obsessed with collecting all the monsters, fighting with friends, creating unique team combinations, and even recently looking for shiny variants. While I love the traditional gameplay loop of taking you out of the game and making them fight each other, it’s the simple controls that keep me invested. I often have trouble using sticks or making quick movements. The grid-based traversal of the old Pokémon games made it comfortable to play with one finger for long periods of time. Combine that with turn-based combat and there was no need to rush. Even when the series moved into his 3D space in Gen 6, the controls and core gameplay allowed you to play at your own pace with just one finger.
Action games like Kingdom Hearts are also among my favourites, simply because they follow the same simple control pattern as turn-based titles. Yes, I’m rapidly mashing up attacks and zooming through levels, but since it’s perfectly possible to use the left stick for movement and use the camera (I like to call it single-stick movement design), so you can focus on managing your energy for combat. Many of these design choices were created years before the mainstream accessibility movement. Still, I can enjoy them.
The future of accessibility
Game accessibility should coexist seamlessly with the user experience. Instead of throwing dozens of options in a menu and calling out what’s accessible, players with disabilities expect their game to be playable, use options as needed, and fix by design. We need to reduce the barriers that we cannot. As a reviewer, it’s a question I always ask when considering a new title. Can I play with most of these options removed?
By talking about inclusive design, I don’t think it’s possible, and I don’t think the entire gaming industry will change their minds when it comes to discussing accessibility. After all, it’s only recently that studios have actively used consultants to open games to audiences with disabilities. Rather, I hope it starts a conversation that considers all aspects of accessibility rather than how many settings there are in the menu. Certain games such as The Last of Us Part II, God of War Ragnarok, and Dead Space Remake offered great options for opening up these worlds to players with many disabilities, but we mainly We praised the features and even the number of options included in the final product. .
Dead Space Remake has a lot of accessibility options, but there’s a lot more you can do at the core game design level.
The game is completely unique, just like the diverse and personal nature of the disabled. And it’s easy to question overall accessibility when a release doesn’t contain the elaborate settings of competing titles. , if the latest game isn’t The Last of Us Part II, we’ll be forever disappointed.
