The Top 10 Things That Can Help To Make Games More Accessible

[freshfeeling]

[It was decided in roughly November of 2023 that GameFAQs once-loved Top 10 Lists feature was being phased out. I had written a few lists between 2009 and 2012 and generally engaged with that community a fair bit, so I figured I would cross-post my lists on this site over ten years later, backdated. You may still be able to view the original version here.]

In my current line of work, I meet with young people with different kinds of disabilities. Governments and advocacy groups are making a big push for accessible media and web design so it's a good line of work to be in. I happen to be the computer guy around the office, so it's pretty natural that I often end up talking about games with people with disabilities. Amazingly, I know several intelligent individuals who happen to have severe difficulty with reading and/or math who regularly play World of Warcraft, League of Legends, Minecraft, StarCraft II and other current games.

I fell in love with the original Final Fantasy at about age 8. Recently, perhaps because of my work experience, I was thinking about what it would be like for a person with ADHD to play the original Final Fantasy. What a terrible experience that would be! Certainly it could be even worse for those with a learning disability, hearing loss, vision loss, or difficulty using their hands.

I know that accessibility in games matters to a good part of the population. Drawing on knowledge from my work, education and personal experiences I thought of several things affecting the accessibility of modern video games. It's hard to know whether to write as a gamer or a professional in the field of disability so this article is a bit of a mixture. I acknowledge that this list may not appeal to everybody's interests, but if you're into learning about issues affecting gaming you should be able to enjoy this. As another caution, I'm not a Ph.D in the field or anything; I'm just another gamer who happens to have some knowledge and concern about this subject matter. And, finally, as with any GameFAQs Top 10 List, this is all my opinion.

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#10: Good HUD Design

Some people, perhaps as the result of a learning disability, have poor mathematical reasoning and can miss the sigificance of a quantity and a total. Some people have difficulty making judgments and decisions based on visually-presented data. In either case, many people are able to compensate for one impairment using their strength in the other.

Good: A well-designed heads-up display (HUD) should display all of the important information in a way that can be easily understood - if the game designer is unable to do this with both a graphic and a value, they should use a graphic and the meaning of this graphic should be clear. High contrast would be a good idea. What would be even better is allowing the player to customize the HUD.

Some Examples of Accessible HUD design: Fallout 3 (Multi), Super Mario Kart series, God of War (PS2), Deux Ex series (Multi)

Bad: A poorly-designed HUD might give all of the information as numbers, especially if the numbers don't have any maximums or context - Final Fantasy 8 comes to mind.

Some Examples of Non-Accessible HUD design: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Multi), Goldeneye (N64), Final Fantasy 8 (PS), Secret of Mana (SNES)

Controversial: Some of the HUDs that typically get praise include those from the Metroid Prime subseries and the Halo series, where it is designed so that you actually see the information the character sees. They look cool, they present the necessary information, and they're also tied into the gaming experience. I think the majority of gamers, including myself, love these... but they're controversial with many gamers also saying that the HUD covers up too much of the field of vision and just makes the game awkward. Dead Space is a similar case, and arguably the coolest HUD ever, although some information can actually be pretty hard to read.

#9: Voice Control

Speech recognition technology has come a long way in the last several years. Voice sample passwords are not uncommon anymore. Dragon NaturallySpeaking dictation software is inexpensive and can really help people to write or control their computer who otherwise may not be able to. Controlling games with voice could help someone who has poor fine motor skills or is otherwise uncoordinated, has lost the use of their hands, or perhaps has a visual impairment. And really, if it was done right, it could just help people play in a fun new way.

 

Good: It's fun to use voice control in the DS games that use it, like Ace Attorney, although that doesn't mean these games are more accessible. There are some cool applications that add voice control to other PC games that work reasonably well. Try looking up "Say2Play", which adds voice control for several functions in a good variety of modern FPS games (and more).
  

Bad: Well, voice control hasn't exactly caught on, so it's hard to name bad examples. Sometimes my Nintendog misbehaves, but so do real dogs.
  

Controversial: I didn't like the use of voice control in Mario Party 7. It didn't work very well - I'd be shouting "right" and my dude would keep going left. It didn't help that I was playing with friends who would keep yelling "left". But this isn't a real complaint and I'd like to see more games try to take advantage of this technology. I'm excited to see how Mass Effect 3 does with it.

#8: Motion Control

Many called it a gimmick, and many loved it when it was new whether they thought it was a gimmick or not. I think it's safe to say, however, that motion control in video games is here to stay, although it may not be for the hardcore gamer. Here are some people it definitely is for: a number of people prefer kinesthetic experiences, and their memory or responsiveness improve when associated with movement. It can also help for people with an attention deficit or people unable to use traditional controllers for whatever reason. And, yeah, the kids love it.

 

Good: Good motion control should make use of the player's body to replace another form of action. It doesn't mean everyone has to be standing up to play bowling or leaping around the room to play tennis, but that there's a natural link between the physical action of the player and what takes place in the game. And although movement is the whole point, to really be accessible it should also be useable by someone who is sitting down.
  

Some Examples of Useful Motion Control for Accessibility: Wii Sports (Wii), The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii), LostWinds (Wii), WarioWare series (Wii)
  

Bad: The bad thing was when many developers decided to put motion controls in every game because it's there. When I have to shake a Wiimote to do what is normally done by pushing "A", that's stupid. This has nothing to do with all of the low-quality games featuring motion controls, it's a criticism of the useless motion controls that were added to games for novelty's sake without any real benefit. Some games also require an absurd degree of precision to control them.
  

Some Examples of Not Useful Motion Control for Accessibility: Mario Party 8 (Wii), Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Wii), Bomberman Blast (Wii), Kinect Star Wars (360)

#7: Difficulty Levels

It seems like such a simple thing. Although it was certainly around for ages before the movement for accessible media gained speed, having the option to reduce (or increase) difficulty is hugely helpful to open any game up to more users. In addition to being useful as a training tool or scaffolding for any player, there are many people who, because of a deficit in their processing speed or perhaps a lack of fine motor skills, simply won't be able to play some games as well as others... at least not at first.

 

Good: The right way to do difficulty levels is to reduce the impact of the difficult aspects of a game. This can mean reducing the number of enemies, making opponents' AI less effective, slowing down the opposition, or removing certain obstacles all together. Even simply granting extra lives can be hugely useful in a platformer or a shooter.
  

Some Examples of Difficulty Levels Done Right: Mega Man 10 (Multi), Wolfenstein 3D (Multi), Rock Band series (Multi), Devil May Cry (PS2)
 

Bad: The wrong way to do difficulty levels is to deprive the player of the experience of the game. I feel good about beating a game's hard mode, but that doesn't mean someone who isn't as good shouldn't be able to enjoy the game. This idea takes me back to the original Golden Axe on Genesis, where on the easy mode that I was playing (at the age of 7), the game would end after only a few (fairly trivial) levels. This is not to say that there shouldn't be an achievement or some worthwhile bonus content for people who can step up to the higher difficulties, but I think punishing someone who isn't as good at the game isn't the right idea. And in other games, like Street Fighter IV, even the easy mode gradually becomes ridiculously challenging. I guess that isn't wrong per se (and like I said, I like hard games: gimme Super Ghouls n' Ghosts!), but it's annoying.

  

Some Examples of Difficulty Levels Done Wrong: Golden Axe (Gen), Twisted Metal II (PS), Castlevania (N64), Double Dragon II (NES), Valkyrie Profile (PS)
  

Controversial: I think a controversy with difficulty levels is when games take pity on the player. It's noticeable with Devil May Cry and WarCraft III where the easier difficulty levels open up if the player is unsuccessful. In general I think it's a good trend: players take the risk of trying a normal difficulty level before taking it down a notch, if they need to. Having not unlocked these lower difficulty levels remains as a prize for particularly skilled players. That goes for single-player experiences, at least: I think Nintendo really gets this one wrong with the use of blue shells and free final smashes in competitive games.

#6: Subtitles

This one is obvious, I suppose. Subtitles are just a good idea; lots of people play with the volume low. Furthermore, lots of people have hearing loss or simply don't retain all of the auditory information they receive.

 

Good: Just use a clear font and subtitle dialogue and other significant audio cues. It hasn't been hard for long time. Heck, for a long time this is all there even was in games with dialogue.
  

I don't need to list games that do this right and I don't need to discuss how to do it wrong. Just allow the option to read what characters speak in-game. Test every game with the sound off. Let me know if I hit a switch and it caused something to rumble behind me. Simple stuff. It's mostly been perfect for ages. When I think of an early game that would've been terrible without subtitles though, I think of Hexen: Beyond Heretic (Multi). Raven Software did it right, even way back then.

#5: Memory Aids

There are a lot of games where memory aids aren't a big deal. I mean, there are lots of things that are useful to remember in fighting games, but I'm more speaking about important plot details. This applies mostly to RPGs and adventure games, as well as any large sandbox game. Lots of people have trouble remembering what has happened so far in these kinds of games and it adds some degree of difficulty for them. It could be caused by a brain injury, a processing deficit with their visual or auditory memory, or perhaps they just have difficulty paying attention to the game's content.

 

Good: So what am I even talking about when I say "memory aid"? Something that helps you to remember the events of the game so far. This can come in many forms: the earliest I remember is the "Memo" feature in Final Fantasy Legend II. Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen also introduced a feature that would play back the last few significant events that took place when you haven't played the game for more than two days. In a number of current gen games, you have the option to rewatch the FMVs or other noteworthy scenes to refresh yourself, or at least some form of quest log.
  

Some Examples of Games with Useful Memory Aids: Final Fantasy Legend II (GB), Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen and newer (GBA/DS), Diablo II (PC)
  

Bad: This isn't exactly a mainstream idea right now, so there are too many bad examples to name. Just to give a couple of examples of current games that would really benefit from the ability to rewatch cutscenes, though: L.A. Noire (Multi), The Witcher 2 (PC/360), Final Fantasy XIII (360/PS3)
  

Controversial: I suppose if there were any controversy about this it would be if someone argued that remembering the events of the game was a part of the challenge. To anyone making that argument: you're on a site called GameFAQs.
  

On A Related Note: There are some games where you can buy hints, including EarthBound (SNES), Legend of Mana (PS), some Goemon games, and some Zelda games. It's not quite the same as a memory aid, but it can give you some direction if you've completely forgotten what you're doing in the game. Definitely a good idea for any game with a large world and lots of exploration.

#4: Good Control Schemes

This is surely a little bit subjective, but worth discussing. Having a good control scheme is huge for making a game accessible. In addition to just being a good idea, it can help those with underdeveloped motor skills, poor kinesthetic memory, or a deficit affecting their processing speed.

 

Good: Some really amazing games have really simplistic control schemes. Ivy The Kiwi? on Wii uses motion and one button. Arkanoid and its many knockoffs use two directions and no buttons. Heavy Rain, with some very minor modifications, could be played with one button (*cough* that was a slam). I have seen WarCraft III being played by an individual paralyzed from the neck down using a mouth-controlled puff-and-sip joystick. And he did reasonably well! Sure, that game has some menus and hotkeys, but many RTS games have elegantly simple controls for people who just want to have fun with them. Metroid: Other M also reduced a pretty complex game to a simple control scheme that still left you feeling very much in control.
  

Some Examples of Games With Notable Accessible Control Schemes: WarCraft III (PC), Metroid: Other M (Wii), Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii), Ivy The Kiwi? (Wii/DS)
  

Bad: As with graphics, the control schemes that exist in reality are far more sophisticated and beautiful than they can or will ever be in video games. The human body has over 200 joints, each moving in a whole bunch of directions, and it works in a crazy variety of environments. And yet we sit on couches and watch screens. I'm not saying this to make anyone feel guilty; the idea is that complex control schemes aren't what makes a game fun.
 

Some Examples of Games With Inaccessible Control Schemes: Steel Battalion (XBOX), many professional wrestling games, a huge number of N64 games, and Battlefield 1942 (PC) - where the key to open your parachute is "H"

  

Controversial: I guess the controversy with control schemes is simply whether the masses really want realistic games or not. Gaming control schemes, at least those that don't use motion control (or some kind of brain reader), will never, ever approach realism... but they can try, if we keep adding buttons. But when you ask serious gamers what their favourite game controllers are you generally hear about Nintendo's SNES gamepad, Sony's Dualshock series, or Sega's Saturn controller. I, for one, don't actually want anything more complex than those.

#3: Voice Acting / Reading

Voice acting is huge now and it has opened up a world of games to a wide audience. Screen reading, that would allow gamers to have menu text and such read to them, would be even better. A person with any vision loss, a disability affecting their ability to read, or even just a weakness in visual attention and memory can really enjoy games that are read aloud. With voice acting, the entire RPG genre suddenly opens up to these individuals, and it does a lot of other good as well.

 

Good: From an accessibility standpoint, games don't even need voice acting so much as they could use a very basic built-in, optional screenreader - I haven't seen that yet, but I don't think it's a long way off. There's a lot of plain text all over the place in MMOs that would be fairly easy to have read aloud to the player, should they want to hear it. Right now though, at least voice acting is finally commonplace. It's pretty good, too. You can complain about Final Fantasy X's voice acting all you want, but a lot of people can enjoy that game that may not have had the opportunity without voice acting. If you started gaming in the 80s like I did, you know that it's far beyond "red warrior needs food".
  

Bad: I'm not going to complain about voice acting, what concerns me with regards to accessibility is just having the game content verbalized. Obviously, this is really rare in older games and most downloadable games simply because of technical restrictions like filesize. Perhaps there will come a time when some wonderful company creates an optical character recognition (OCR) engine for their console, allowing all available games to be read aloud as needed.
  

Controversial: Although it takes some effort, some games on PCs can be used with a screen reader. And people with disabilities have been able to browse the internet using screen readers for years now. The biggest obstacle to this is inaccessible web design, and, notably, there is currently no way to read text in Flash programs (technically it is possible to do this in some cases with very time-consuming OCR). Flash games themselves might have voice acting, but in general Flash applications are considered a no-no with regards to accessibility.

#2: Contrast and Shapes

Using high-contrast graphics when colour is important to the gameplay is critical to accessibility. Combining any colour cues with other visual cues, like varied shapes, also helps. There are a number of people with partial vision loss, colourblindness, or a weakness in visual perception who require this. Roughly 7% of males (1 in 14) have a form of colourblindness that causes difficulty distinguishing red from green. Think, for a moment, about how the colours red and green are used in video games. Then think about how many times you've been killed by a teammate in your favourite FPS. It doesn't help that real is brown.

 

Good: A recent trend in games, probably spearheaded by Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, is to have a high contrast graphics setting or colourblind mode. Some games also use pictograms and flags in conjunction with their little red and green symbols to clarify what those symbols mean. There are a lot of puzzle games that are based around colour (like Bejeweled and Panel De Pon) that use a mixture of colours and graphics to make the puzzles solveable regardless of colourblindness.
  

Some Examples of Games That Use Contrast or Shapes To Improve Accessibility: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (XBOX/PC), World of Warcraft (PC), Bejeweled (Multi), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (Multi)
  

Bad: Bad is having a game that can only be solved by observing colour - a famous example is the hacking process in BioShock 2. Try checking out a screenshot of this with the red and green colouring removed. Another issue for people who are colourblind is reading maps, so games that depend heavily on maps that indicate features (especially if they use only red and green dots) present a huge obstacle for many players.
 

Some Examples of Games That Make Things Hard for Gamers Who Are Colourblind: Puyo Puyo (Multi), Command and Conquer (Multi), BioShock 2 (Multi), Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo (Multi)

 

Controversial: Adding in weird random shapes and using special colour schemes probably seems like it would ruin the realism in most games. I bet there's even a portion of the GameFAQs userbase out there rolling their eyes at this entry. But as in many games that have already implemented a colourblind mode, it can pretty easily be made optional... and the developers could increase their market by roughly 7%.

#1: Zoomable Text / Adjustable Font Size

This is a big one and it's very rarely addressed, even with the big push for accessibility. Having the ability to enlarge text helps people with even slight vision loss, including many of the elderly... and it's just generally nice.

 

Good: I can't even think of an example of a game that natively allows you to adjust the font size, although you can on Wii's News channel. Some games also play better than others using accessibility software to enlarge text, like the built-in zoom tools in Windows and Mac OSX. Some PC games allow you to configure the font size, and many of those with rich modding communities have patches that allow text scaling.
 

Bad: Like I said, this hasn't exactly caught on. But the worst of the worst would be MMOs and BioWare games, which have actually made their text smaller and smaller with each new release. Even gamers with great new TVs are complaining about the font size.
 

Examples of Games That Would Really Benefit From Adjustable Font Size: Star Wars: The Old Republic (Multi), The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Multi), Dragon Age 2 (Multi), Assassin's Creed II (Multi), Mass Effect II (Multi), Final Fantasy XI (PC/PS2)
 

Controversial: There's no controversy. It's a good idea and every game with a substantial amount of text should have it.

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Honorable mentions often find themselves in this bottom section, but my categories were pretty broad so there aren't many to discuss. I considered doing one on generally balanced gameplay, which still isn't a bad idea. Another fairly minor one that springs to mind is the way some Wii Virtual Console games have had patches applied to slightly reduce flickering effects, possibly because these could trigger epileptic seizures. Not a bad idea at all.

 

Accessibility is an easily misunderstood movement. I am well aware that blind people won't enjoy all mainstream games even if they're compatible with screen readers. We can't make every aspect of every game for every person and still enjoy rich, interactive multimedia experiences. But for the mostpart, the items listed above are either really simple to implement or a good idea regardless of accessibility concerns. Developers can be doing a little bit more on each title and it will not only increase the number of people that can play their game, but it will improve the overall quality of their games. As a bonus, it's really good for a developer's image.

 

This whole idea isn't mainstream. Not yet. Most governments and corporations are currently focusing on the web, publications, and film. You can bet it will come to gaming though. In a lot of ways it already has.