Project Background
There are GWS who enjoy audio only games specifically designed for them. There are also, however, gamers who enjoy mainstream titles and refrain from playing much else as they want to fit in with their sighted peers and have a more immersive experience.
I am one of the latter, though I do still play audio only games from time to time (as there are occasionally ones that pique my interest).
Audio-only games are, however, limited by the accessibility of the tools that are used to make them. At times, developers of such titles will be forced to admit defeat as they try and add features that only mainstream tools can provide. These engines, such as Unity and Unreal are inaccessible to GWS using screen readers.
Such lack of access to mainstream engines, as well as what might be perceived as a lack of knowledge of mainstream mechanics, concepts and general trends, could be seen as the reason why audiogames have not, at least in my opinion, innovated significantly in the last decade or so, other than a few exceptions.
After playing audio-only games for a while, I realised that the mainstream games industry was not doing enough to help GWS achieve the same experiences as sighted players. I wanted to try and assist in moving the industry forward in an advocacy role.
The goal of the Fellowship was to understand how accessibility works at a development level and convince studios that accessibility to GWS is just as important as accessibility for other disabilities, including colour-blindness and physical impairments. Most of the time, these latter two disabilities are tackled in titles from independently developed games to the largest popular titles, whereas GWS are often left in the dust.
Whilst I do understand that other disabilities are important in accessibility, I only focus on my “area of expertise” as it were, that being gaming without any vision whatsoever as I can provide a personal perspective in that field.
The below report details what I discovered on my visits to a number of studios, what I learnt about their infrastructures and their various stances on accessibility. These findings, I hope, will provoke studios and publishers in the UK into providing greater accessibility in their products, as well as galvanising studios around the world into doing the same. If nothing else, I hope it will start discussions in the games industry about what can be done to assist those with disabilities, GWS or otherwise, in enjoying games