10 Common Misconceptions About Accessibility In Video Games
5. You Need Special Hardware To Make A Game Accessible
If you’ve looked into game accessibility before, the chances are you’ll have run into Special Effect - a UK-based charity that does some phenomenal work in allowing the disabled gaming community to play the games they love, often creating bespoke controllers, armatures and chairs tailored to individual circumstances.
However, as incredible as the work they do is, sometimes (and when I say, “sometimes”, I actually mean... most of the time) accessibility options are a lot more subtle, and entirely design/software-based.
At a far more fundamental level, accessibility options can be considered when creating a game - things like, “does this UI element only change its colour to show its state? That’s no good for the colourblind”, or “does this action offer haptic feedback that rumbles differently to other actions? That’ll be good for the sight-impaired”.
Though special hardware isn’t always required for accessibility options (and in the majority of cases, clever design is more than enough to suffice), when hardware is required, we’re all very lucky we have Special Effect (and, more recently, Microsoft’s Adaptive Controller team) to lend an additional hand.