Glossary
Below is a glossary of terms used throughout the report.
- Gamer(s) without sight (GWS): This term is used to describe gamers with no vision whatsoever. It is used for clarity in the place of “blind gamers”, given the blurry classifications of “legally blind” etc.
- Microsoft Speech Synthesis API (MSSA): An API that can be used with the Xbox One platform, as unveiled at the 2017 Game Developers Conference (GDC). It allows for menu items and other in-game elements to be rendered in the form of synthesised speech, in a similar manner to a screen reader. More information appears in
this official GDC recording, found here. - API: Application Programming Interface. Simply put, these allow programs to talk to each other and can be developed to solve a large variety of problems including accessibility related issues.
- Steam: One of the biggest distribution platforms for PC games worldwide.
- Killer Instinct (KI): A Microsoft Studios published fighting game developed first by Double Helix and now Iron Galaxy.
Audiogame: A game that uses (primarily) only audio as its method of communication to the player. Sometimes in cases like GMA Games’ Shades of Doom, they can utilise minimal graphics to convey very basic information, which is also available via audio, to the player (e.g. the direction you are facing). Any information conveyed in alternative, non-audio formats will not give a sighted player advantage over a player with absolutely no sight.
TTS: Text To Speech. This software allows for devices to output on-screen text as synthesised speech. The same technology powers screen readers, including Apple’s voiceover, Android’s Talkback and Windows’ Narrator and NVDA, amongst many others.
Screen Reader: A piece of software that interprets on-screen elements, allowing for navigation via a keyboard and, if the user is able to and wishes to try, a mouse, though this method is far less common and keyboard shortcuts are usually seen as superior to mouse tracking. Screen reader accessibility for programs can be halted by developers using non-standard controls as part of their interfaces, or building systems that rely on clicking on images instead of actual buttons that the screen reader can recognise, amongst numerous other stumbling blocks.
Backwards compatibility: When a game released on a previous generation console is playable on newer hardware.
Haptic feedback: In gaming, this usually takes the form of vibration in controllers to provide information to the user about what events are happening in-game.
VR: Virtual Reality, usually seen through headsets such as the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive.