For disabled gamers particularly, the previous 5 years have been met with alternating emotions of celebration and frustration. Since 2019, I’ve been professionally reporting on accessibility and the disabled perspective within the gaming trade. I’ve had the privilege of highlighting occasions like a Mortal Kombat match for blind and low imaginative and prescient gamers, to completely interviewing the previous president of Ps in regards to the launch of the PlayStation Entry Controller. I’ve witnessed firsthand the various methods wherein this trade uplifts and betrays the disabled neighborhood. And now, as shoppers and corporations have fun Xbox and PlayStation’s techniques, it’s a becoming second to look at the highs and lows of accessibility all through the previous 5 years.
It’s tough to quantify the extent to which accessibility has advanced for the higher. From the discharge of PlayStation’s first accessible controller in 2023, to trade titans like Nintendo, EA, Microsoft, and Sony forming a coalition to create a tag system for accessible options in video games in 2025, disabled gamers are more and more welcomed and supported. In 2020, Geoff Keighley unveiled the Innovation in Accessibility Award for The Sport Awards to honor a recreation or gadget that permits extra folks to participate within the expertise. The inaugural award was introduced by former Nintendo of America head Reggie Fils-Aimé to Naughty Canine’s The Final of Us Half 2, one of many first video games to be absolutely accessible for blind and low imaginative and prescient gamers and that includes dozens of choices for gamers to customise the sport.
Nonetheless, the award will not be with out controversy. Final 12 months, it was demoted from the principle presentation and relegated to the pre-show. Mix this with current reviews in regards to the shuttering of the Future Class program, which incorporates a number of distinguished members within the accessibility and incapacity neighborhood, myself included, really feel left behind. (Observe: I’ve served as a member of the jury for the Innovation in Accessibility Award since 2020.)
Increasing accessibility
Although it’s widespread to seek out video games — each AAA and indie — that embrace a bevy of accessible menus and choices, some titles broaden past conventional choices like adjustable subtitles, excessive distinction mode, and customizable controls. Motive Studio’s 2023 Lifeless House remake gives a number of choices to censor traumatic and triggering content material. Whether or not it’s via the blurring of extreme violence when Isaac dies or the elimination of phrases, phrases, or actions that depict self-harm and suicide, these instruments have helped redefine cognitive accessibility. Not solely did Lifeless House exhibit that accessibility by no means detracts from gameplay or theme, it additionally expanded the idea itself past motor, visible, and audio settings.
Lifeless House will not be alone in pushing the boundaries. In September, EA launched FC 26 with a brand new setting that could be a first for aggressive multiplayer – Excessive Distinction Mode. Historically, this selection is present in single-player video games like The Final of Us Half 2 and God of Warfare Ragnarök, and permits blind and low imaginative and prescient gamers extra instruments to course of vital info, just like the places of foremost characters and enemies. FC 26 marks the primary use of this software in a multiplayer setting, offering the chance for extra gamers to have interaction with others, each casually and competitively.
Extra methods to play
It is vital that disabled gamers can confidently buy a brand new recreation understanding there will likely be accessible choices or designs that alleviate boundaries. But, software program has its limits, and a few people want greater than settings and inclusive design. For bodily disabled gamers like me, {hardware} and peripherals are simply as essential when contemplating what video games and techniques to buy.
Final August, Byowave launched the Proteus Controller in partnership with Microsoft. It’s a completely customizable gadget that lets gamers place buttons and stick pads right into a dice which may then hook up with different cubes, forming distinctive layouts and controller shapes. The Proteus Controller redefines customizable accessible {hardware}, particularly at a time when most enter gadgets retain the type of conventional controllers.
Apart from the Proteus Controller, the previous 5 years have seen the discharge of an official accessible piece of PlayStation {hardware} (the Entry Controller in 2023), in addition to a third-party gadget for Nintendo Change. In July 2022, controller developer 8BitDo launched the Lite SE, a compact accessibility controller for disabled gamers. Created as a collaboration between 8BitDo and Andréas and Oskar Karlsson, a father and son staff on the lookout for accessible {hardware}, this gadget positions all buttons on the face of the controller. Mix that with elevated sensitivity for sticks and buttons, and disabled gamers with restricted attain, power, and power ranges can comfortably play traditional Nintendo video games at an inexpensive worth.
Two years later, 8BitDo as soon as once more partnered with the Karlsson’s to create the Lite SE 2.4G controller for Xbox and Home windows techniques. I had the privilege of interviewing Andréas previous to launch of the primary iteration of the Lite SE, and the controller has since turn into a mainstay in my accessible repertoire. At present, it’s the only real motive I can comfortably play Pokémon Legends: Z-A, and a serious motive I felt so assured in buying a Change 2. Admittedly, it could be refreshing to see extra decisions for first-party accessible {hardware}, however the innovation amongst third-party producers is heartening.
As talked about beforehand, I can’t merely create an inventory of each accessibility success all through the previous 5 years. The identical could be mentioned of the trade’s failures. Regardless of an excessive amount of ahead progress within the accessibility motion, the trade continues to disappoint and damage the incapacity neighborhood in quite a lot of methods.
As I’ve mentioned, each first-party and third-party corporations have launched unbelievable additions to the {hardware} area. But, in 2023, Microsoft shockingly reversed its stance on its motto of “When Everybody Performs, We All Win,” by banning a major quantity third-party peripherals from its techniques. Disabled gamers who relied on unconventional controllers like Battle Sticks abruptly discovered themselves unable to play with their setups. And several other months later, in January 2024, PlayStation introduced its techniques would not assist the Cronus Zen, an emulator which permits gamers to cut back recoil and set macros. At present, the gadgets have but to be restored, leaving many members of the incapacity neighborhood with no alternate options.
Lack of assist at work
Broadly talking, the video games trade is struggling to get well after a number of years of mass layoffs. With tens of hundreds of trade veterans and newcomers with out jobs, many are unable to supply for themselves and relations. Disabled people impacted by the layoffs could also be unable to afford life-saving treatment and coverings for themselves and family members. And because the American healthcare system is intrinsically tied to employment, many are compelled to go away the trade altogether.
Alongside layoffs, many builders are abandoning distant work alternatives, forcing staff to return to places of work and even relocate altogether. For people that depend on distant work, necessary RTO orders successfully remove present and potential disabled staff. Not solely do these mandates push out disabled employees, however in addition they prohibit inclusivity and accessibility past the video games we play. It’s inconceivable to separate the settings, designs, and gadgets we use from the disabled staff who advocate for and create these instruments.
Years of loss
Talking from private expertise, incapacity advocacy is immensely rewarding however equally brutal. The precarious nature of the disabled expertise signifies that among the finest and brightest voices and leaders are taken too quickly. Famed advocate and marketing consultant Brandon Cole handed away on June 29, 2024. He left behind a storied legacy of advocating for blind and low imaginative and prescient accessibility on award-winning titles like The Final of Us Half 2, Mortal Kombat 1, and Forza Motorsport. He helped pioneer racing video games with Forza’s Blind Driving Assists, and ceaselessly fought for enhanced audio cues throughout various titles. Cole was an inspiration to many, and his teachings on blind accessibility proceed to affect builders and consultants alike.
Conversely, that very same 12 months, the accessibility neighborhood misplaced one other distinguished member: the advocate and cofounder of Can I Play That, Susan Banks. However Banks didn’t go away in 2024. I printed an investigative report at IGN unpacking her shadowy background and alleged 2019 demise. And thru my findings, it’s now broadly accepted that Banks, together with two different distinguished advocates, by no means existed in any respect. As a substitute, it seems Banks was a fictional on-line persona created and maintained by another person.
Previous to the broader trade push to advocate for disabled gamers, Banks usually driving these conversations. She even helped to revolutionize video games journalism, placing accessibility and incapacity on the forefront of publications. She is the direct motive I’ve a profession. With out her following my early, self-published work, I wouldn’t be the reporter I’m right now. And now, one 12 months later, the incapacity neighborhood continues to be processing the complicated feelings of supporting somebody who allegedly by no means existed. When my report was printed final August, the incapacity neighborhood skilled a unique form of loss — the lack of belief for each other. Whereas we’ve since grown, it’s tough to look again on the previous 5 years of accessible improvements with out understanding that somebody has used this neighborhood to idiot hundreds.
How do you clarify the previous 5 years of accessibility? Each Xbox and PlayStation are fixtures inside the disabled neighborhood. They uplift us, spotlight our work, and provides us alternatives to be higher advocates. And in equal measure they frustrate us, casting us apart in perplexing moments of grief and frustration. If something, these 5 years are a testomony to disabled perseverance in an trade that also struggles to totally welcome us.
