From first person shooter games, to discovering the charm of an imaginary world; through clever thinking, game makers are making them all more accessible. Accessibility is not a one size fits all, but the good news is, games are becoming more and more accessible over time.
But first, what makes a game accessible?
For game makers, it’s all about providing choice and control for players to customise their experience. Many developers follow specific accessibility guidelines to ensure that everyone’s experience is fun.
Every player wants to connect and be immersed in the new world around them. So, if you’re wondering what to look for when selecting a game, we’re here to guide you through the key accessibility tags developers use.
Audio tags: Vision loss affects around 180,000 New Zealanders and more. So, audio cues are an integral part of dialling our Blind/low vision community into the world of gaming.
- Screen readers read text aloud on the screen and provide spoken guidance for operating the console and is highly underrated.
- Audio described – This feature allows players to hear the detail in cut scenes (helpful for immersing the gamer in the story).
- Spatial audio is a feature with audio cues allows players to identify where important sounds are coming from.
- Voice command pairs with screen reading and let’s players steer the controls and settings.
Visual tags: Over 200,000 people here in Aotearoa have some kind of hearing loss, so visual features are an important part of the immersive experience.
- Subtitles -pretty similar to what you’ll find on TV or any streaming platform.
- Sound visualisation captions is for our open world games. Sounds generally indicate something important is nearby, whether it’s danger or friendly. Some type of Visualisation like text captions is needed for our Deaf/hard of hearing (HOH)community.
- Controller vibrations paired within game sounds support tactile engagement with a digital game. It also triggers players when danger or something is nearby.
Game play, as in learning at your own pace: No one likes to be set up to lose. For anyone who takes a bit longer to process information, developers consider how they can customise game play for it to be fun and successful.
- Changing difficulty is an underrated tool to support people with different learning abilities.
- Adjusting the game speed is like tweaking the difficulty levels. By customising the game speed, everyone can participate, and players can take in information at a pace that suits them.
- Saving options prevent you from losing all your hard work. There's nothing worse than moving up a level and then having to start all over again. While this might vary for open-world games, most games save key check points and achievements.
Accessible hardware: This includes the setup of the console to the controls. We know a lot of our disabled gamers community skipped a few console generations due to the lack of accessibility.
- Control customisation, as in modifying the controls to suit your needs. This includes durables buttons. It has touch buttons, large buttons, small buttons or different types of triggers. Triggers that can be detached and reattached.
- Vibration intensity settings can be adjusted to what makes you feel comfortable.
You can read way more about huge wealth of accessible controllers and the ins and outs of consoles on our article launching you into gaming. Check out the different types of controller devices and what might best suit you!
Let’s play – but what are the fav accessible games?
We scoured the internet and came up with different types of accessible games that cross play against different consoles. We pulled them from a few websites that advocate for accessible gaming. Can I pLay that, Ubisoft, User way . Let us know your thoughts!
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The Last of Us Part II - Available on PS5 and PC
The return of Joel and Ellie, the last of us has over 60 accessibility features. With over 4 million units sold, it nails inclusive fun. It offers remappable controls, visual aids, text-to-speech, and adjustable difficulty settings—making sure everyone can join the adventure!
Naughty Dog teamed up with accessibility experts from diverse disability backgrounds to ensure their games are inclusive for everyone.
Check out this great review from Ben Bayliss on Can I Play That Deafness means that he has a focus on discussing captions, but with experience in consultancy and advocacy, he covers what bases he can.
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Assassin’s Creed Valhalla - Available on PS4, PS5 Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series
Assassin’s Valhalla had about 20 million players back in 2023. It lets you embark on a Viking adventure with robust accessibility options.
Accessible features include control remapping, ability to adjust gameplay, subtitles, sound visualisation captions, a colourblind mode, text to speech and other accessibility features.
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Forza Motorsport - Available on Xbox console or Windows PC
Forza Motorsport 8 is a high-octane racing game that's designed to be both challenging and super accessible. Forza sold 16 million copies from 2021 and offers various driving aids, a menu narrator, and audio descriptions. This allows our blind and low-vision players to experience the excitement of driving powerful cars.
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Minecraft - Available on Xbox One, Xbox Series S and X, PlayStation 4 and 5, Nintendo Switch
‘Business Insider’ reckons Minecraft had about 126 million users back in 2022. For our new gamers Minecraft is all about letting you dive into a massive, ever-changing world. You can explore, tinker with, and reshape the landscape made up cubed blocks. It's an adventure waiting for your creativity with accessibility in mind. Audio features include screen readers and text to speech for chat and you can set up voice commands.
It also offers sounds with subtitles, visualisation captions that fades away with time and small arrows to indicate which side of the player the sound came from. This is handy for tasks like finding caves.
- Super Mario RPG - Available on Nintendo Switch
In this fun RPG, Mario, Bowser, and Peach team up to fix the Star Road. We learned that the game has sold 3.14 million units back in February 2024. Super Mario RPG has a map accessibility with red flags marking objectives. An easy mode is available for smoother progress. And for our Deaf or hard of hearing community players will find all dialogue is text-based with speaker tags.
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Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 - Available on PS5
Spider-Man 2 is packed with fun gameplay features. You can tweak the difficulty level for various parts. Adjust enemy health, stealth awareness, game speed, and more. Everyone can play at their own pace. Achieve your goals easily. High contrast options and visual aids are available. There are screen reader audio descriptions, subtitles, and visual captions. Spider-Man 2 supports Blind, low vision, hard of hearing, and Deaf players. Dive in and enjoy the adventure!
The future of gaming looks bright, filled with inclusivity and fun for all as they bring joy to players of all abilities. Titles like Spider-Man 2 and The Last of Us Part II are leading the charge with amazing accessibility features.
So, grab your controller and enjoy the adventure! While these are some of our top picks, what's your favourite accessible game to play? Contact us at info@firstport.co.nz so we can share your advice with our community!