10 Common Misconceptions About Accessibility In Video Games
In a handy list format, for ease of access.
Accessibility is a topic that’s only going to get more and more prevalent and important as time goes on.
What, you thought human hardship and physical disability was a flash in the pan-type deal?
Recently, however, I’ve noticed a truly disturbing trend of slamming accessibility on social media, as if it’s something to be demonised, or even feared. Why have we reached this point?
I am, personally, disabled. Though my disability isn’t a severe one by any stretch of the imagination (grade 3 osteoporosis - think of my bones as being like Cadbury Crunchie), it does inhibit my ability to do certain things, and that includes long stretches of playing particularly stressful games.
(By the way, I did finish Sekiro, and no, I didn’t find the lack of accessibility options “refreshing” - I found it tedious having to stop playing every 30 minutes whilst my wrists stopped being inflamed. Why do people keep insisting that I should enjoy “the satisfaction” of getting through a video game despite the physical pain?!)
But, maybe you are one of those people! Maybe... you believe one or more of these misconceptions about accessibility in video games?
10. Making A Game Accessible Makes It Too Easy
If you’ve been gaming for a while, you might know about “skill floors” and “skill ceilings”. They refer to the initial barriers to entry (the “floor”) and the overall potential (the “ceiling”).
Take Overwatch, for example - a character like Widowmaker needs extremely high accuracy and game sense in order to get value from, so her skill floor - or her minimum level of ability - is high.
A character like Lucio, however, can have value to his team by merely existing, so his skill floor could be regarded as very low. Players of significantly differing natural aptitude levels can play in the same game of Overwatch, then, and have equal levels of value (despite Widowmaker mains being smelly jobby-jaws).
This is true to reality, too, believe it or not - some people are just intrinsically stronger, faster, more charismatic... and find life really easy.
Other people, though, find even more banal or simplistic tasks a trial. And, when it comes to someone with a disability, those tasks might, in a normal situation, actually turn out to be impossible (without any sort of accessibility intervention).
And that’s all this is - it’s recognising that some individuals have far higher innate barriers in their way than others. That it’s not just about “getting over it” and “enjoying the same difficulty together” - we all have our own privileges, circumstances, and of course... personal skill floors and ceilings.