Levelling the Playing Field: Enhancing Gaming for People with Disabilities

As video games are becoming mainstream, it is essential that all players including people with disabilities can be engaged and participating fully to have an immersive experience. Making game inclusive involves integrating diverse accessibility requirements along with adaptive technologies to address various needs.

The commitment to inclusivity is reflected in the rise of accessibility-focused guidelines and resources. Although there’s no yet set standards like WCAG which caters to digital accessibility, there are standards established by the organisation like Microsoft such as the Xbox Accessibility Guidelines and the Accessible Player Experiences (APX) framework by the IGDA. These initiatives help developers with best practices and guidance to create more inclusive games.

Despite of gaming being made significant strides in recent years, there are several challenges that still persists. In this talk we will also have a glimpse of few of the core challenges that developers pose, it could range from roadmap for accessibility, budget constraints, accommodating different requirements keeping a balance of gameplay to lack of knowledge or awareness.

We will also go through some simple but impactful changes based on different users groups such as color requirements, visual cues, adjustable font size, customisable level of difficulty, subtitles, re-mappable keys/buttons, simplified user interfaces, tutorials and so on. This would give the gaming enthusiasts a starting point to embed accessibility within the games they design or develop.

It is also important to note that along with development, it is also required to verify the implementation via testing with a diverse group of users to help identify any potential accessibility challenges and improve the overall gameplay for everyone.

By prioritising accessibility, the gaming industry not only opens its doors to a broader audience but also enriches the gaming experience for everyone. This session will help to spread knowledge around gaming accessibility to the gaming enthusiasts.

About the speaker

Fahad Lambate is an Associate Accessibility Director at BarrierBreak! He is a Certified Professional in Web Accessibility (CPWA) with an experience of more than 8 years in accessibility space. He is passionate to make technology inclusive. He work determinedly to ensure that he provides the required guidance to the team to make digital space accessible. Fahad brings an approachable leadership style to the team, emphasizing the importance of accessibility. In his role, Fahad collaborates with various teams to make sure the digital offerings are equitable usage, experience along with ensuring the quality expectations and standards are met as per the organization.

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