Inaccessible through oversight: the need for inclusive game design

Abstract

Games are an important part of modern culture. The nature of most video games is such that it can be difficult for individuals with impairments to enjoy many titles. In many cases, this is not due to the games themselves presenting an impossible challenge, but because the games have been left inaccessible through the omission of common features. Mainstream titles are often accessible and inaccessible by turns. This strongly suggests that the resultant inaccessibility is an oversight rather than conscious design. Awareness building is an important process in improving the inclusivity of game titles. This in turn is important in ensuring that all members of society have an opportunity to enjoy a valuable recreational form. To this end, the essay discusses both the types of disability that could be supported and some common mechanisms by which this can be done. A short overview of several prominent game titles is included to provide real world context for the discussion. In this essay, the author argues that ensuring accessibility need not be a costly or an onerous task, and that great strides can be made by, simply adopting the existing good practice that is currently spread across mainstream titles.

A case study into the accessibility of text-parser based interaction

“…Many of the accessibility issues that are encountered within video games occur as a result of oversight rather than as deliberately exclusionary design decisions [6]. For many game developers, it's simply not a topic that is considered due to the intense focus on the development of the ludic and narrative elements of complex projects.…”

“…Usually these keys are those that are being used regularly -jump, crouch and use. Mashing keys at all can be difficult for those with physical impairments [6] but an additional problem comes from a bug within the game itself. If those keys are bound to a nonkeyboard element, such as a dedicated gaming mouse, no matter how hard they are mashed they won't be recognized within the game.…”

“…More frustrating still, this is only true of some remapped combinations and so it may take some time for the player to realise that the problem is with the reconfigured controls, not with their speed at mashing. Being able to remap controls and offload them onto dedicated input devices is a key compensation for disabled gamers [6] and this particular flaw requires the player to rapidly remap keys back to their original settings for some portions of the game.…”

“…The relatively unhappy status of accessibility in video games is now academically understood [1] [17] but not well addressed in mainstream game titles [6] [17]. We are however now at the stage where disabled gamers and their advocates make representations at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) and the Game Developer Conference (GDC) as well as other gaming events.…”

Open Source and Accessibility: Advantages and Limitations

“…A tool designed to identify double click errors for example is unlikely to be able to do so accurately if it cannot tell the difference between a word processor and a computer game. The accessibility issues within computer games (as discussed in [43]) will require their own specific adaptations that cannot be easily generalised to the rest of the system.…”