- About 20% of the population has a disability.
- The objective of accessible design is to eliminate barriers and ensure equal opportunities in gameplay.
- Accessibility is particularly crucial for players with disabilities, visual impairments, hearing loss, or injuries.
- Different players have different needs and preferences, so there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Therefore, a customizable heads-up display (HUD) is also beneficial.
Visual elements:
- Individuals have varying visual impairments, screen sizes, and viewing distances. Therefore, it is important to allow players to adjust the text size.
- Approximately 300 million people have color vision deficiencies, so essential information/feedback should not rely solely on colors.
- Moreover, contrast should be individually adjustable for players. This is particularly important because elements in dark games may be difficult to recognize in bright lighting conditions.
- Including haptic feedback, such as vibration or acoustic cues, is also helpful, as it can assist players with visual impairments. By conveying feedback through different senses, accessibility is improved.
- For subtitles, care should be taken to ensure appropriate speed and length, with no more than 37 characters per line.
- Subtitles and captions should be large, a simple font should be used and contrast with the background.
- Additionally, subtitles should be individually adjustable in terms of size and color.
- For the hearing impaired, it is important to subtitle sounds, such as the footsteps of an approaching opponent.
- For individuals with epilepsy, there should be an option to disable flashing lights and repetitive patterns.
Auditory elements:
- Once again, it is important to provide visual or haptic feedback in addition to audio feedback to enhance the gaming experience for the hearing impaired.
- Separate volume controls for music, speech, and sound effects should be offered, as this allows hearing impaired individuals to adjust the audio elements accordingly.
- Background noise should be minimized when dialogue takes place in the game.
Controls:
- When it comes to controls, offering as many options as possible is advantageous. This includes controller, mouse and keyboard, eye-tracking, voice control, etc. Different people with physical impairments can then choose the control option that suits them best.
- The control of individual game actions should also be individually adjustable.
- The movement radius and sensitivity of the mouse should be changeable in the settings.
- For individuals with disabilities, alternative options to quick-time events where certain keys need to be pressed repeatedly should be provided.
https://uxdesign.cc/accessible-video-game-design-7f54c583a470
https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/the-last-of-us-part-ii/accessibility/
