Gaming has become an important pastime for individuals with disabilities and the improvement of game design over recent years to ensure games now offer inclusive play means that everyone can play and enjoy the experience. It is estimated that 450 million gamers worldwide have a disability and developers are increasingly creating games that provide equal play with impressive accessible features. Gaming helps reduce isolation for people with IDD with the ability to connect socially with people around the world from their own home.
Accessibility Features in Games and Consoles
There are now many incredible accessible features in video games which make gaming much more inclusive for people with disabilities. These include:
- Inclusive designs
Fully inclusive games consider accessibility requirements and include various settings for video, audio and motor accessibility adjustments. This ensures gamers with disabilities can set up the game to suit their individual needs and fully immerse in the story telling and graphics. For example, The Last of Us Part 2 has over 60 accessible settings.
- Adaptive controllers
Many consoles such as the Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo Switch now offer adaptive controllers which allow gamers to customize their controller for optimized game play. Controllers may have swappable components, external switches, pluggable joysticks and more options which helps gamers with reduced mobility to play the game in a way that suits them.
- Visual and audio features
Games provide a wide range of visual and audio features such as subtitles, voice to text, audio captions, screen readers, voice commands and more. These ensure gamers with a disability never miss out on any of the action or the story as it happens on screen.
- Assist modes
Gaming assist modes provide the ability to fine-tune game play parameters to reduce the difficulty and increase accessibility of challenging games. This may include modifying damage taken or invincibility, adjusting game speed, assistance with navigation or auto aim to create an accessible game play.
Benefits for Gamers with Disabilities
There are many benefits of gaming for people with IDD as not only does it provide a social connection to other players worldwide and a sense of community, these accessible features ensure people with disabilities feel included no matter what their ability. Accessible features create an equal footing for all gamers and they provide an escape from the stresses and realities of daily life.
Gaming can also encourage independence, improve confidence and mental wellbeing. It improves the development of cognitive skills, motor skills and communication skills as the games are designed to encourage problem solving and cognitive thinking and can improve fine motor skills with hand-eye coordination. There are so many reasons why people with disabilities should give inclusive gaming a try!
Path-Now is an accessible platform which connects individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities to a fantastic range of disability resources and services in California. Discover programs, groups and communities to support your individual needs.
