The very first episode of Access-Ability, back before this was a weekly recurring segment with its own series name, was published five 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 a lot of progress our industry could, and should, be making to improve gaming accessibility for disabled players, as I sit here at the start of 2025, it’s clear that we have seen a LOT of improvements to the quality, and quantity, of accessibility seen in the average big budget AAA video games releasing from most major publishers.
While certain aspects of accessible video game design are still exciting and experimental new frontiers being explored by creatively ambitious developers, other aspects of accessible design are at this point either becoming fairly commonplace, or are being done at a consistent level of quality by those developers taking the time to implement them in their games.
So today, on Access-Ability, we’re going to be discussing the accessibility features that I think we need to see video game developers and publishers pushing to make standards in the video game industry going forward into 2025.
Now, to be clear, when I say that the following video game accessibility settings should be standards going forward, I’m not suggesting that every game developer down to the smallest indie dev should be forced to implement every one of these features starting today if they want to be allowed to release a video game. I’m also not saying that any accessibility feature that I leave off of this list isn’t important, or shouldn’t become a commonplace part of the video game industry eventually as the medium changes and grows.
Some accessibility features that I think are really exciting for our industry, such as sign language interpreter support and audio descriptions, are still in their infancy in the gaming space, and developers are still experimenting with proper implementation methods. Some accessibility settings come with time, technical resource, or financial constraints to implement them that will not be feasible for every single game developer. But what I do believe, however, is that the below list of features should be considered achievable best practices to strive for, and that if every big budget AAA video game developer was expected to do their best to implement them, this medium would be much more reliably opened up to a whole host of disabled players.
If a game developer or publisher is able to afford millions of dollars in marketing spending, they should probably be expected to hit the standards discussed in this video.
Subtitle and Text Standards
Starting off simple, addressing a complaint I’ve seen for years within the video game industry from disabled and non disabled players alike, the video game industry should be standardising minimum text sizes in video games, with customisation options for both in game text and subtitle text, to ensure that all in game text is legible on a first boot of a game, and can be set to a large enough size to be easily legible for partially sighted blind players.
With regards to subtitles themselves, video game developers should be ensuring that their subtitles are not only able to be set to reasonably large sizes, but should also feature support for opaque backgrounds for contrast, in non-stylised fonts, with support for alternative dyslexia friendly font options, with options available for including speaker names, customising text colour per character, and ideally introducing directional indicators for where speakers are in a scene.
In a perfect world, developers should also be offering closed captions, rather than simply dialogue subtitles, ensuring that non dialogue audio is conveyed to deaf players. This includes ensuring that music that is important to tone is described, and that licensed music is at the very least mentioned by name, even if limitations can make it difficult for the licensed song’s lyrics to be shown in subtitles. Sometimes there is a prohibitive cost associated with reproducing lyrics, but at the very least make sure you mention the name of a track that’s playing.
Subtitles should also be timed to appear on screen in line with when the corresponding line of verbal dialogue is being spoken, so that players with cognitive processing disabilities who use subtitles as supplement to spoken audio are able to follow both at the same time.
Accessibility Previews in Menus
This next accessibility standard requires minimal explanation. Settings options in game menus should ideally be presented alongside an in menu preview of the settings change in action, so that players can see at a glance if a new subtitle size, for example, is going to suit their needs without needing to go back into the game to check, then back to the menu to tweak it some more.
Multiplatform Accessibility Controller Support
Toward the end of 2022, we talked about the fact that former Nintendo of America CEO Reggie Fils Amie revealed in an interview that Nintendo had, at one point in time, been working on a multiplatform accessibility controller, inspired by the Xbox Adaptive Controller, that would have functioned on all of the major video game consoles available today.
Compared to when we published the 2023 version of this video, we are seeing progress in standardising accessibility controller availability on consoles. For the first time in the history of the video game industry, all three major video game console manufacturers, Xbox, Nintendo, and PlayStation, each have support for an officially licensed accessibility controller on their consoles. Each device comes with its own pros and cons, but every console has at least one option available aimed at supporting disabled players with customisable alternative controller solutions.
However, as much as I love the Xbox Adaptive Controller, it’s only officially supported for use on Xbox and PC. The Hori Flex for Nintendo Switch only works on Switch and PC. The PlayStation Access Controller only works as intended on PS5, or on PC through the use of unofficial support tools.
Each of these controllers is very much specific to its console. If one doesn’t work well for you, you can’t use an alternative from one of the other systems. If you want to game on all three major consoles, you’re going to need to buy multiple controllers which are more expensive than the standard controllers would be for those consoles.
While charities such as Special Effect exist and do great work creating custom controllers and financially supporting accessibility controller acquisition, right now we have a video game industry where accessibility focused video game controllers are, while more affordable and accessible than they used to be, still a pricey additional expense for disabled players, that cannot be used across consoles.
Whether we see a third party company like Hori create a controller with a switch for hopping between different console connection modes, or one of the major console manufacturers negotiates letting players use an existing accessibility controller across all three major systems, cross platform accessibility controller support for a singular modular controller base is a step that the industry feels overdue in taking.
When I produced the 2024 version of this video, I felt like this was a somewhat unrealistic request to make of the video game industry, but I’d argue in 2025 this feels considerably more plausible. In the past 12 months we’ve seen Xbox shift their video game exclusivity strategy to start porting many more of their games to PlayStation and Nintendo consoles, in a strategy that seems to be picking up speed. Given that we’re seeing titles like Forza Horizon 5 get multi platform ports announced, I feel like the idea that Xbox might one day allow either the use of PlayStation and Nintendo accessibility controllers on Xbox consoles, or the Xbox Adaptive Controller to be used on rival consoles, isn’t as unrealistic as it might have once seemed.
We’ve reached a positive point of progression with the release of the PlayStation Access Controller, the Hori Flex, and the Xbox Adaptive Controller, but we can still push for a better future where at least one device is available that works across the board on all consoles.
Nintendo Switch 2 Accessibility Controller Support
At some point in the next 11 months the Nintendo Switch 2 is due to be released to the public, and I want to be optimistic about it seeing accessibility support at launch, even if the company’s past track record suggests some caution should be applied on that front.
Let’s start with the basics – I would like to see Nintendo announce during their April 2nd 2025 Switch 2 Direct that either the Switch 2 will support the Hori Flex accessibility controller on launch day, or that Nintendo have been developing their own first party accessibility controller that will release alongside the console. Support for the Hori Flex seems likely given the system’s backward compatibility with Switch 1 software, but it would be nice to see it officially confirmed ahead of the Switch 2’s release. A new first party accessibility controller seems less likely, but might feel like a necessary request depending on features announced for the new system in April.
Hinted at in the system’s initial reveal trailer, and confirmed by recent patents, one of the key features of the new Switch 2 Joy-Cons is the presence of an optical sensor, allowing the controller to be turned on its side and used like a mouse input on PC. This does offer a lot of interesting potential as an accessible input option for some disabled players, but a sideways Joy-Con is considerably more thin than a standard mouse would be, and as such is going to be difficult for some disabled users to grip in that position.
One thing I would love to see available at the launch of the Switch 2 is a cheap housing to slot the Sideways Joy-Con into to make it more comfortable for disabled users to grip during play, for example.
Regardless of the form that support takes, I’d really like to see Nintendo catch up with their competition and openly discuss accessible input device options for players in the lead up to their next generation system releasing.
High Contrast Mode
Originally introduced to mainstream audiences in The Last of Us: Part 2, High Contrast Mode is a wonderful feature that’s hugely impactful for partially sighted blind players, as well as those with conditions such as ADHD or Autism who lose track of details within visual clutter.
While previously the near exclusive domain of PlayStation first party titles, 2022 saw the release of the rebooted Saints Row which featured its own custom implementation of the feature. While progress outside of PlayStation was slim in 2023, we did see a last minute announcement in December of that year that Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 was also getting high contrast mode support added.
In addition, The Callisto Protocol and Hogwarts Legacy also contained High Contrast Mode support.
2024 was a really solid year for new studios implementing high contrast modes in their games for the first time, with titles like Tekken 8 from Bandai Namco, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown from Ubisoft, Silent Hill 2 from Konami, Star Wars: Jedi Survivor from EA, PlayStation published Stellar Blade, the short lived multiplayer shooter Concord, and a whole bunch more titles launching with support for forms of High Contrast Mode.
Sony doesn’t own the concept of High Contrast modes in video games, and the sooner we see every major video game developer and publisher starting to adopt this technology to their games, the better. This is one of the best accessibility features available to disabled gamers today, and deserves to be placed on any list of future industry standards.
Co-Pilot / Controller Assist Mode
Controller Assist Mode, previously named Co-Pilot Mode, is a system level Xbox feature where two controllers can be registered as a single user, allowing for both to control the same character. This allows for controls to be split into more comfortable positions, an accessibility controller to be used in conjunction with a regular Xbox controller, or for a second player to assist with in-game actions that would otherwise be a barrier to progression.
2022 saw Controller Assist Mode implemented outside of Xbox for the first time, with the mode appearing in PlayStation exclusive Horizon: Forbidden West, showing that Xbox doesn’t exclusively own the feature.
In 2023, PlayStation implemented Controller Assist Mode support on PS5 on the system level, supporting the use of two DualSense controllers tied to a single user, or up to two Access Controllers and a DualSense at the same time.
While PlayStation’s implementation is slightly more limited, not allowing for independent button remapping of the two Dualsense controllers or reorientation of DualSense controller hold directions, it does largely allow the same sorts of accessibility positives that were seen on Xbox previously.
With Nintendo confirmed to be releasing the Switch 2 in 2025, I’d really like to see them catch up with Xbox and PlayStation in this regard and implement a Controller Assisit Mode equivalent on a system level on their next console, as it’s an incredibly useful accessibility feature.
If the Hori Flex is going to be supported for use on the Switch 2, allowing Controller Assist Mode functionality so that a one handed Joy-Con style control setup could be incorporated into an accessible controller setup, would be a really positive step forward to see.
Standardised Accessibility Store Tags
Sticking with Xbox and PlayStation for a moment, one of the most important yet under-discussed accessibility updates this console generation was Xbox’s implementation of Accessibility Tags on their digital game store, allowing disabled players to, at a glance, find out which accessibility settings options a game has, without having to leave their console dashboard.
What made Xbox’s accessibility store tags system so impressive was the way that it functioned. Microsoft has quality requirements to receive a tag on the Xbox store, and that requirement of reaching a quality bar to receive an accessibility tag allows for a degree of consistency and reliability for disabled players.
A game on the Xbox store in theory won’t, for example, get the subtitles tag simply for having subtitle support if those subtitles are small, inaccurate, and unable to be customised.
It’s not enough to have subtitles, you need to have good subtitles to get the store tag.
This system of requiring games to reach a set level of accessibility quality to receive those accessibility tags, as well as the presence of the tags themselves on the store pages for these games, allows Xbox players to find out if a game is going to be likely to be playable for them before purchase, without having to go onto Google and look for an accessibility review that hopefully mentions the piece of information that you’re personally searching for.
While we don’t have as much transparency from PlayStation on their process, they did implement their own version of this accessibility store tags feature in 2023. It’s unclear if they have the same kind of process for approval of tags, but the positives of the system remain intact.
In terms of the role that the tag system plays in informing disabled players about settings they’ll have access to, and encouraging quality of execution from third party developers, I think that the system is nothing but a positive, and should really be adopted sooner than later by Nintendo on their own storefront. They’re currently the only major console manufacturer not standardising the offering of accessibility store tags, and a new console generation would be a great opportunity to catch up to the competition.
Beyond that, we need to start seeing more third party game developers commit to seeking accessibility store tag approval for their games on these digital storefronts. Both Xbox and PlayStation see some third party use of the feature, but it needs to eventually become a standard.
In a perfect world, I’d like to see accessibility store tagging become an aspect of certification on consoles, ensuring that these tags are consistently available across game stores for disabled players.
Accessibility Setting Announcements
On a similar topic, while we have seen increasing numbers of games released by companies such as PlayStation Studios detailing their accessibility settings ahead of a game’s release, and providing early review copies to accessibility focused critics for pre-release reviews, accessibility settings reveals are still often being treated by the major video game studios and publishers the same way as other hype building marketing reveals, doled out by PR close to release, long after they’ve been locked in by development teams.
Accessibility settings support is not the same as other gameplay features, and shouldn’t be held back by PR in the same way. Knowing what accessibility settings a game contains determines whether a disabled player is going to be able to play certain video games, and the earlier that information is known, the sooner a disabled player knows if they should get excited to play a game too, or be aware that a game isn’t going to be playable for them.
The video game industry needs to standardise announcing accessibility settings ahead of release, and not holding that information back until the last moment before a game’s on sale.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown was perhaps 2023’s best example of this, announcing its accessibility settings the same day the game was announced, seven months prior to release.
Accessible Packaging
Another quick and simple one, one of the best things about receiving the Xbox Series X for review a few years back, for me, was seeing the steps that Xbox had taken towards making the console’s packaging more accessible to more disabled gamers.
From large stickers on the box that featured an unsealed edge tab for more easy gripping, to a minimising of things like twist ties used inside the box, thoughtfulness in packaging design went a long way to making the new generation Xbox console more approachable.
In 2023, the PlayStation Access Controller followed a lot of the same accessible packaging standards that had been seen with the Xbox Series packaging, a great sign that both console makers clearly do understand how accessible packaging is designed, at least in theory.
This kind of accessibility considerate design philosophy is important, and should really be an industry standard. We need to see Xbox and PlayStation start applying these principles outside of the narrow scope of accessibility focused hardware packaging, and Nintendo needs to show an awareness of these principles in general.
Colourblind Support
I talked about this five years ago in my very first accessibility focused video, but it bears repeating. We know that there are a handful of common types of colourblindness. It’s not that hard to check whether your game is accessible to players who are colourblind, and either to tweak your core visual design, or create settings options that apply different colours to certain elements, so that you can then check if the new design is friendly to colourblind users.
That said, I want to be more specific about this than I’ve been in previous years.
Colourblindness filters can sometimes be more useful than no colourblind support at all, but are often a substandard solution if you want to be truly accessible for colourblind gamers. At their most useful, they often destroy a game’s visual cohesion by changing in game elements to distractingly unnatural colours without thought for the experience of the colourblind end user.
If you’re going to use colourblind filters as your accessibility option of choice, offer them with a slider so that players can alter the intensity of the filter, to find a balance between visibility and alteration of the game’s intended art direction.
Additionally, make sure to avoid the biggest mistake I see developers making when trying to implement colourblind filters in their games – accidental replication of colourblindness for non colourblind users.
More than once in 2024 I saw game developers releasing what they claimed were filters to help make their game easier to see for colourblind players, when instead they had accidentally created a colourblindness simulator. This is part of why it’s so vital to get personally affected playtesters in to check the implementation of your accessibility settings, a room full of developers with full colour vision may not notice at first glance that what they think of as a fix is actually just recreating the issue for new groups of users.
Controller Remapping
Another quick and overdue suggestion, every video game should at this point be allowing players to customise their controls, and remap which buttons control which functions in a game. We’re thankfully in an age where most video game consoles have system level button remapping, but per game remapping options are still important for cases where a singular game requires its own unique remap to be accessible, or for players whose remapping needs vary on a game by game basis. This really should be a standard by now.
Accessibility on First Boot
Another aspect of game design I’ve talked about a lot on this show, that is thankfully becoming more common, we should in a perfect world be expecting video games to make their accessibility settings options easily available to players on the first boot up of a game.
A past example of this done right was God of War: Ragnarok, which allowed players to either go through a guided accessibility settings walkthrough on first boot, or skip past it to the game’s main menu. Then, there was a settings menu, and an accessibility menu, on the main menu screen before getting into any gameplay.
Titles where gameplay starts before you’ve had a chance to set up your settings are thankfully becoming fewer and further between, but this should be an expected standard by this point, and something we expect to become consistent across the industry.
Accessibility Presets
Continuing to discuss God of War: Ragnarok as an example for a moment, another thing that game did amazingly was its implementation of degrees of preset for accessibility settings, tailored to a selection of common categories of disability.
Players could easily set some, or all, available settings that were in the game, and likely to be helpful for their category of disability, to be activated with a few button clicks, avoiding a lot of digging through menus manually.
This kind of thoughtful grouping of settings into degrees of useful presets is the kind of streamlined onboarding that the games industry should aspire to, and something that I hope becomes a standard in the near future.
Audio Descriptions
While I generally try and keep this annual list focused on accessibility settings I feel are either long overdue to become standardised, or are on the precipice of that shift, I want to take some time this year to be a little more optimistic and forward thinking, and suggest that audio descriptions, at the very least for static prerendered cutscenes, should become a standard in the video game industry, and are a feature that is finally starting to gain some momentum.
Ubisoft made their 2023 summer showcase press conference available live with audio described trailers. When we released our 2024 entry in this video series, PlayStation had three first party games on sale at the time which supported Cinematic Audio Descriptions (The Last of Us Part 1 and Part 2 Remake and Spider-Man 2), and indie games such as Brok the InvestiGator in 2023 patched in support for the feature in a post launch update. Forza Motorsport on Xbox also supported the feature.
In 2025, I’d like to see a AAA studio attempt to implement audio descriptions into not only the cutscenes of their game, but also into gameplay moments to some degree. I recognise interactive moments in video games are less predictable, and as such harder to set up audio description timings for, but given that we know how to use invisible trigger points in games at unavoidable locations to activate conversations between characters, we should in theory be able to use the same sort of techniques to play audio descriptions during gameplay at points where we know no other audio is likely to play, and where the player’s location and current actions are a known quantity.
Audio Descriptions are more difficult to incorporate into gameplay in some genres compared to others, but they are starting to become more common in scenes where pacing and on screen information are predictable, and that’s a great step on the road toward another future industry standard I hope we one day reach.
Sightless Playability
Again, an ambitious forward thinking request to end on, but this year I’d also like to push for sightless blind player playability to make steps toward becoming a future industry standard.
We’ve over the past five years seen a number of high profile AAA game releases, from The Last of Us Part 2 to Forza Motorsport, make an effort to aim for sightless player playability in genres that for the longest time seemed like they would be eternally inaccessible to players without usable vision.
These releases were hugely exciting milestones for the games industry, but they are few and far between. I want to see these kinds of releases become more common than they currently are.
Sightless playability is in my opinion one of the most impactful accessibility hurdles that we could be tackling today as an industry, in terms of impact potential. It has the potential to truly mark a moment of growth for our medium in terms of inclusivity, and should be the goalpost we aim to see the industry striving toward.
And yes, I recognise it’ll be a lot of work, and a lot of experimentation. There’s a lot of gameplay genres we’ve never seen attempt to aim for this kind of accessible design. There will undoubtedly be missteps along the way, but I think it’s time we start taking bigger strides in this direction.
Audio Descriptions are amazing, but they’re going to need to come alongside navigation tools for sightless players to truly unlock their full potential.
While this list of accessibility settings standards is far from exhaustive, I think that it covers many of the accessibility settings right now that would make the most immediate impact if made into industry standards, while focusing on settings that seem to either be heading toward natural standardisation already, or that I suspect will explode in popularity as developers have time to implement them in projects that started development after their well received debuts in other recent titles.
The video game industry, while constantly becoming more accessible year by year, is inconsistent, and even games from the same publisher or development studio can’t always be relied on to be consistent. I think that the next major step for our industry in terms of accessibility will be standardisation, and that it is a needed step for this industry to grow and mature.
Disabled gamers deserve to be able to pick up a video game, confident that it will meet a baseline level of accessibility, and I think many of the ideas discussed in this video are promising candidates for that eventual standardised future.