It is estimated that up to 400 million video game players around the world – a third of the total – have some type of disability, although until recently the creators, the industry, did not take them very much into account and most of them had to search their own methods, from moving the chin stick to changing the screen resolution for a better view. But now video games are beginning to take functional diversity into account; Xbox took the first steps with specific controls and now PlayStation has opted for the accessibility of its games, as shown by its latest blockbusters.
«I think the video game industry has been very conservative and closed in its first 30-40 years of life. It was entertainment that went to what it considered the majority and had no concern about inclusion or really assessing the potential numbers of more diverse audiences, “says Javier Andrés, a video game and accessibility journalist who works in Communication at the ONCE Social Group. Now it does incorporate varied characters, with different sexual orientations, different ethnicities and cultures, and features are included for players with different functionalities.
The change, according to Andrés, came with the end of the story of Ellie, from Naughty Dog: «The Last of Us Parte II made history. There are much more accessible games, created for people with specific disabilities, but never a commercial blockbuster has brought together all the functional diversities that exist in this way. It can be played by a blind person on an equal footing with a deaf person, one without arms, one with an intellectual disability or one who does not have any type of disability. It is an experience adapted to each one, but it does not differ according to the type of adaptation. It is an integrating product, which does not exclude “, with more than 60 configurable fields in terms of accessibility. According to the study itself, it has not been too expensive to improve the experience for all players, “I have high hopes that other studies will mark it as a reference,” adds Andrés.
No one offsideSome have taken note, at least that’s what Insomniac’s last two works reveal, Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Ratchet & Clank: A Dimension Apart, both on PlayStation, in which you can customize the size of the texts, switch to color blind mode, add visual or sound signals to find objects or the route, modify the resolution, skip the puzzles, make the character move smoothly. semiautomatic or slow down the game.
Xbox also wants to improve the gaming experience for all players. In the Xbox Accessibility Insider League (XAIL), users give their opinion to the content provided by the developers about the accessibility of their content. The company has created a Gamers with Disabilities Experience Guide for developers to understand the barriers players may experience in game mechanics, screen, or content.
Gears 5 It is one of the games that Microsoft has launched with specific functions designed for players with low or no vision and for those who need help in aiming, and changes have also been made to the popular Minecraft, with storytelling, different ways to view chat, adjustable sound channels, and custom mineral patterns for players who have a hard time distinguishing colors. But perhaps Microsoft’s greatest advance is the Adaptive Controller, a command designed to add different modules according to the player’s disability, and which can even be used for quadriplegic people.
No one offsideNintendo is the company that has made the least progress in accessibility, although the Switch controller allows the buttons to be remapped according to the user’s needs, a feature that the Xbox and PlayStation controllers also have.
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