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Shesh17 karma

I concur with ladie_au_pair, people may have particular games in mind but in general the work Microsoft, EA Sports and Naughty Dog are doing is an inspiration to me. As per the accessibility features I’d love to see implemented on every game I’d say: - Subtitles (adjustable font size, background, speaker name, captions). These positively affects a lot of deaf/HoH players and people in situational conditions (on a train without headphones, with a baby sleeping nearby, etc.) - Colourblind-friendly or the option to tweak the colour palette of important UI elements. Because 8% of males are colourblind - Full control remapping on all platforms. Because this helps players with mobility impairment find the best layout for them Beyond those there are plenty of other options, but if all games implemented the three above as standard practice it would be a good starting point to build up on.

Shesh15 karma

Step 1: Raise awareness about accessibility. Often it’s not that people don’t want to implement accessibility features, it’s just that they never heard or thought about them because they don’t reach their own environment.  Step 2: For implementation to become standard, you need a company-wide initiative. This is what we’re trying to do at Ubisoft (you can read more about it on this blogpost (https://news.ubisoft.com/article/how-ubisoft-is-putting-the-spotlight-on-accessibility). It’s important that you get the buy in from top management so they support the initiative and communicate that it is something they want to support.   Step 3: Give as much support as you can to the people who will have to implement the features so they can get it right the first time around such as sharing best practices. Find ways to evaluate their progress and give suggestions (e.g. through user testing). Find teams who can develop features in-engine so it takes less time to implement. Create a space where people can share (e.g. intranets) so everyone learns quicker, etc. Although we are at the early stages of this process, we can already see improvements and lots of good will towards making all our games more accessible at every stage of the company. 

Shesh13 karma

I started by inviting an expert in the field (hi Ian) to give a talk at our studio and meet with members of the dev team to discuss the details of game mechanics on specific titles in development. We got his advice on how to make our games more accessible for players and his feedback helped fellow developers better understand what we’d need to implement. We then got the Core Team to buy off which led to individual meetings with the Leads of every team involved in developing the features (i.e. UI, Audio, Design, Engine, Localisation, etc.), in order to determine what we would be able to implement in the final game. I then collaborated with everyone on these teams (Hi Franck, Aiko, Mai, JC, and all the others) in order to support them, make sure their tasks were well prioritised and generally make sure they wouldn’t be forgotten once we were all busy shipping.

Shesh12 karma

I see the biggest challenge as time and resources (as with everything). In the past we’ve implemented accessibility towards the end of a development cycle but we’re now thinking about it earlier to avoid time crunches and retrofitting cost. As for company support, we want to make games for everyone. So the more people who are able to experience our games the better.

Shesh12 karma

I’d recommend using gameaccessibilityguidelines.com as reference for best practices and prioritised features to implement. Print (at least) the basic ones and keep them posted near you to ensure you never break them. Talk about accessibility with your colleagues, managers, etc. Spread the word and find buddies to work on it with you. That’s how it all started on Assassin’s Creed Origins. Also, put accessibility features down in your production planning so you can monitor progress, just like you would do with any other feature.