The gaming community, developers and publishers are beginning to embrace accessibility as a core part of the business and hobby, but there is a long way to go. A report on the needs and habits of disabled game players in the U.K. suggests that millions worldwide face difficulties in how they play, buy or otherwise enjoy games.
The study was conducted by Scope and Eurogamer contributor Vivek Gohil, and it found that over one thousand people are disabled in the gaming world.
The availability or affordability of technology is one of the barriers in gaming. Many people say they have avoided buying games because of a lack of accessibility options, or have been unable to play games they bought which lacked such options.
People with disabilities are more likely to engage with various platforms and buy in-game items. There are 14 million disabled people in the U.K., and yet they are rarely considered a demographic worth advertising to or including in-game.
It seems that accessibility options make games better for everyone, as more developers realize. The Last of Us: Part II, The Last of Us: Clank, and the new Ratchet & Clank are just a few of the major titles that have a wide variety of accommodations.
Microsoft's Xbox adaptive controller has been a huge hit for people who can't use traditional controllers, and better hardware is on the way as small companies produce assistive devices for lots of different needs.
The company hosted an inclusion-focused tournament.
Special Olympics and Microsoft hold the first gaming for inclusion event.
They will be the first to admit that more needs to be done. The Scope study found that in-game chat is horrible when people with disabilities join in. The most common priority was to do more to tackle negative attitudes about disability online. More and better representation of people with disabilities in games and more affordable assistive tech were rated as important.
The need for better accessibility in the gaming world is clear, but difficult to quantify, so studies like this one are particularly valuable. The full report can be read here.
