10 Common Misconceptions About Accessibility In Video Games

Accessibility is all about making small changes and/or additions which go a long way. It’s strange to me that there’s still people who challenge me on social media, insisting that accessibility’s going to somehow require some major structural overhaul of an experience.

The chances are, you’ve almost certainly already encountered accessibility options for far longer than you were aware. For example, have you ever heard of a little something called... subtitles?

Accessibility options are everywhere, like woodlice in a soggy table shop. You might not see them all the time, but you know they’re there, under the surface, creeping around and serving purposes most people don’t understand. And, unlike woodlice, they’re not abhorrent perversions of the natural order.

It’s not all overhauling game design documents - accessibility is, quite often, about tiny little features which, for certain individuals, change a great deal. If you’ve ever played a game without the option to invert the Y-axis (and you’re one of those folk who seek out such sordid affairs), you can appreciate all those other games that do offer it.

Little options that change a lot.