If you couldn’t tell, I’m still pretty obsessed with Bridge Command, a live interactive theatre experience / Video Game / LARP event in London where players take part in group starship bridge crew simulations inspired by media like Star Trek.
A couple of weeks ago I published an accessibility review of Bridge Command, based on my experiences visiting on a couple of occasions. Since then I have had a series of conversations with a Bridge Command Accessibility Coordinator, as well as with other disabled attendees, and experienced more sessions of Bridge Command, and have gotten a better sense of some of the additional accessibility accommodations that are available at Bridge Command, as well as additional barriers that exist, and accessibility improvements that the staff at the event have planned to work on for the future.
This is somewhat of a part 2 video to my accessibility review of Bridge Command – You can find my initial accessibility review linked here.
Thank you again to People Make Games, who permitted the reuse of their Bridge Command gameplay footage for our accessibility coverage of the event.
Perhaps the best place to start – as mentioned above, Bridge Command does indeed have at least one dedicated accessibility coordinator on staff, Ewan Bagshaw, which was amazing to learn about. He acknowledges that accessibility accommodation information was somewhat lacking on the Bridge Command website, and that his contact information could have been easier to locate. He is happy to be reached out to directly at the email address Ewan.bagshaw@bridgecommand.space with any accessibility queries that people have in advance of attendance. He is also looking into expanding the accessibility information offered on the Bridge Command website to make information about some of their available accessibility accommodations more easily accessible.
To update some specific points from my previous Bridge Command accessibility video that Ewan was able to clarify:
It is possible to remove the captain’s chair from its raised plinth and to bring in a ramp for wheelchair users to take on the captain’s role on its raised position, if Bridge Command staff are given advance notice.
The Captain’s platform doesn’t have any raised edges at the edges of it or rails around it, so a wheelchair user would need to lock their wheels once in position at the captain’s desk.
British Sign Language Interpreter support can be provided at no additional charge to support Deaf or hard of hearing attendees, with a caveat.
This BSL support is provided by staff members at Bridge Command who have a mix of level 1 and in some cases level 2 BSL experience.
While they are not fluent or registered as BSL interpreters, they can help to assist with translation for those who might otherwise not be able to interact at the event.
Bridge Command does request advance notice if BSL support is needed, so that they can schedule staff for that specific session who have BSL experience.
Ship positions other than Comms (due to its layout of a keyboard and headset) can be moved to other stations on the ship, again ideally with advanced notice. This could, for example, allow a wheelchair user who wants to be captain on the ship but is uncomfortable with the raised platform to instead captain from a floor level desk position.
This may also be helpful for a wheelchair user captain who struggles with the fixed height of the captain’s screen on its podium.
Volume on the ship can be altered, manual sparks and manual smoke can be disabled, and calm walkthroughs of the ship before a mission begins can be arranged in advance for anyone who would find it less stressful to be able to understand the space before beginning their mission.
Some additional accessibility barriers that do exist at Bridge Command that I didn’t go into detail on in the previous video, there are some accessibility barriers that exist at present at the venue, particularly for some colourblind users.
The engineering corridor and manual engineer positions involve a lot of colour recognition tasks such as replacing crystals, flipping switches, and replacing OCP units when lights on them change to red. This position would obviously be best avoided by a lot of colourblind users, particularly those who are red green colourblind.
The bigger potential barrier: Door access panels. Many doors in Bridge Command are opened using hand panels which must be held down until they turn blue in order to lock a door open for multiple people to walk through at once. There is an audio cue for the door locking into place, but I do feel like there’s also room for the light to do something like flashing on and off once it’s locked to make that lock visually identifiable for those who can’t see the changes in colour accurately.
Additionally, one access barrier that I experienced recently during a run of campaign missions was that some paperwork we were provided to look through for clues was written in a custom font that was challenging to accurately read for a number of our group members, both those with and without dyslexia. The stylised font made several letters tough to discern from each other, and created a barrier for us attempting to solve a puzzle.
This has been raised to Bridge Command Staff, and they are going to in future provide these types of documents in an alternative and easier to read font. I do not know whether this will be replacing the custom font, or will be offered alongside the custom font documents as an accessible alternative that can be requested.
One additional piece of praise that I would like to send Bridge Command’s way, their staff did a fantastic job during a recent visit of checking in on the emotional comfort of players after a particularly tricky mission.
Myself and this video’s editor Jane had a mission where we were serving as Captain and First Officer together, and both of us to varying degrees had some difficulty in those roles.
Without going into specifics, both of us were teamed up with players who were actively resistant to following instructions, in ways that made it difficult for us to meaningfully engage with our command roles on the ship.
After that mission a member of staff came at a quiet moment to ask us how things went, how we were feeling, and if we’d had an okay experience. We were given space to express that some players had made it difficult for us to be in control of our element of the gameplay, and they made it clear that they had been aware of the rough time we had experienced.
We both got promoted to Lt on that mission, and I do wonder how much of that was an acknowledgement of how hard we’d had to work in order to get through that mission and establish our role as the people in charge of some of those decisions.
That kind of post adventure debrief and emotional check in with players who they’d witnessed had experienced a difficult time during a mission was hugely appreciated, and it showed even further that Bridge Command’s staff are really well trained in being supportive of players in many different regards.
I must say, since writing the first Access-Ability episode about Bridge Command, I’ve been continually impressed the more that I have seen and learned about this event’s approach to accessibility. They have members of staff who are very experienced in accessibility concepts, dedicated staff who have clearly thought a lot about the subject, and solutions for barriers that I wouldn’t have expected.
Again, it’s not a fully accessible event for every kind of disabled attendee, but the speed with which they have responded to accessibility feedback when provided, their enthusiasm for finding solutions to problems, and their desire to keep improving Bridge Command’s Accessibility is the kind of thing that’s rare to see.
I’ve more than once brought accessibility topics to staff at Bridge Command and never felt like I am imposing or intruding. They are consistently open to hearing feedback and not taking it personally, and honestly it’s really rare and refreshing to see an event do this well at taking on this kind of feedback.