By The very first episode of Access-Ability, back before this was a weekly recurring segment with its own series name, was published three years ago, in January of 2020, and since then a lot has changed for the better with regards to accessibility in the video game industry. While there’s still
Game of the Year Accessibility Awards
So, another year is now over, and with the new video game releases basically finished until 2023, we here at Access-Ability thought that we should get with the times, and organise our own accessibility focused Game of the Year Accessibility Awards show. While this year’s awards will be focused largely
Why don’t we talk more about cognitive accessibility? – Eurogamer
https://www.eurogamer.net/why-dont-we-talk-more-about-cognitive-accessibility I was recently interviewed by Eurogamer as part of this article about cognative accessibility and video games. As someone whose disabilities often impact memory and mental processing, a lot of the accessibility tools I value are often not thought of as acessibility tools at all.
How Wayward Strand V1.0.1 Became “The Laura Update”
I was not a formal accessibility consultant on Wayward Strand, but I was still able to help improve the game’s accessibility settings all the same. In Wayward Strand, an indie game which just released at the time of posting this article, players take on the role of a 14 year
Gaming and Aging: How Accessibility Impacts Everyone Eventually
Often, when I publish episodes of Access-Ability, I’ll get someone either in the YouTube comments, or on Twitter, responding to the episode by saying something like “this is really interesting, but doesn’t affect me personally”. That’s not necessarily surprising, but I think it overlooks the fact that for many people, your current level of gaming ability will not last forever, and accessibility support that doesn’t impact you today may in the future.
Video Games Need Accessibility Standards
While the overall industry has been making positive strides forward in terms of more games becoming more accessible, as an industry we can’t so much as guarantee a game will definitely feature accurate subtitling for deaf and hard of hearing players, let alone any consistent application of more intensive accessibility support.
Forspoken’s Intriguing Accessibility Options
At the time of writing this review, a handful of hours before the official release of Forspoken, I had not had a chance to play the final game. Review embargo for the title lifted at the moment the game was made available for purchase in Australia, but mere hours away
Melatonin Nails Music Rhythm Accessibility – Access-Ability
As a gamer with a couple of disabilities that impact my hand-eye coordination and my sense of rhythm and timing, I have a bit of a mixed relationship when it comes to playing Music Rhythm games. I love the idea of the genre. I’m someone that loves listening to music,
PS5’s Project Leonardo: Accessible Controllers Exist For All Console Gaming
Around a week ago, on January 4th 2023, PlayStation made a surprise announcement during CEX, the Consumer Electronics Expo, debuting images of Project Leonardo, a brand new accessibility focused modular controller due to release some time in the future for use on PS5. The controller features 3.5mm input ports for
Video Game Accessibility Has Come So Far
I’ve been publishing weekly episodes of Access-Ability for around two and half years now, with over 125 videos / articles published in this series so far, and in that time period alone, it’s undeniable that we’ve seen incredible strides forward in the quantity, and quality, of accessibility settings options available
“The Devil in Me” and Supermassive Games’ Inconsistent Accessibility Support
If you’re a fan of interactive horror games, you’re probably aware of Supermassive Games, the studio behind the development of Until Dawn, The Quarry, and The Dark Pictures Anthology, a collection of games focused on making narrative choices and reacting to sudden gameplay prompts, in order to survive various horror
Street Fighter 6’s “Button Mashing” Dynamic Control Scheme
A few months ago, back in the summer of 2022, we here at Access-Ability took a trip to Capcom’s offices in London, to go hands on with Street Fighter 6’s new, more accessible, “Modern” control scheme, which reduces the series’ traditional input complexity and allows most of the game’s core
Shiny Hunting’s Accessibility Downgrade in Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
Back in January of this year, Pokemon Legends Arceus was released, bringing with it a whole host of changes to the Pokémon formula that, in my opinion, were largely to the series benefit. From the addition of a Pokédex that required actual research to complete, to overworld encounters that allowed
