Q.
What’s been the game or
announcement that’s moved the cause for greater accessibility forward over the past year or so?
Forza in pole position for accessibility features, it seems
SightlessKombat: One big success story of last year was Forza Motorsport, as it set the bar for an accessible racing game with its blind driving assists and other narrated information provided to players. It was great to be amongst time, even with the steep learning curve.
“Forza Horizon will inspire developers to realise that, if they really try, their games probably could be made accessible in ways they’re not considering”
Laura Kate Dale
Laura Dale: Historically, technical sim racing titles have very much been a genre that feels like it prides itself on being a little unapproachable, and as such it’s not uncommon to see companies who are otherwise pretty up on accessibility avoid attempts to be ambitious when releasing these kinds of games. Forza Motorsport being developed from the start with the help of blind accessibility consultants like Brandon Cole, and ultimately managing to make the newest game playable by sightless blind players using nothing but audio cues, was a huge step forward to see. We’ve seen other genres of game in recent years pushing for increased blind player accessibility, but seeing racing is something else entirely, and I think will do a lot to inspire other developers to realise that, if they really try, their games probably could be made accessible in ways they’re not considering.
Cari Watterton: For me the biggest movement for accessibility in the past year has come from Forza Motorsport’s blind driving assist. Rather than focusing on automation mechanics like autosteer or auto accelerate, this feature delivers feedback audibly. This provides all the same information that sighted players have access to through audio, meaning players with sight impairments can enjoy the game as well.
Stacey Jenkins: There have been so many fantastic innovations in the past year or so, it’s almost impossible to choose! We’ve had some fantastic accessibility by design in games like Hi-Fi Rush with their wonderful audio and rhythm visualisation. Forza showed that it’s possible to make blind accessible games (and that it
pays to include disabled consultants when designing those features!), while Hi-Fi Rush proved that it’s possible to embed accessibility into your world by default, in a way that feels super natural. Both of these games have driven a ton of conversation around accessibility, and approaches we can take as designers.
Laura Dale: Beyond Forza Motorsport, I’d say that the release of the PlayStation Access Controller was hugely exciting, as its release accessibility focused controllers at the same time (Hori Flex, XAC, PS Access). Lastly, 2023 was the year we truly started to see companies outside of PlayStation adopting their own versions of High Contrast Mode visuals in their games, something I truly believe is on the verge of becoming an industry standard feature across studios and publishers.
Ian Hamilton: For me what has moved the needle the most has been games that have been doing new things, which is not only important for the games themselves but they act as proof of concepts and exemplars for the whole industry to learn from. Games like Mortal Kombat 1 with its event-based audio description, Forza Motorsport’s blind-accessible racing, Stories of Blossom’s illustration of how a micro-indie can be industry-leading, Dead Space’s content warning and hiding system, Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores’ thalassophobia setting.
SightlessKombat: If I could just mention a couple of others as well, then it would have to be Sea Of Thieves adding audio-based aiming cues and Diablo 4 which implemented menu and UI narration into an existing franchise that relies heavily on menu screens for inventory management and other similar aspects. These are all solid developments in accessibility for those across the spectrum of sight loss, even if these titles weren’t fully accessible in certain cases.
April/May 2024 MCV/DEVELOP | 19
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