Microsoft Game Dev – Creating for everyone: How to make more accessible games

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Gaming has the ability to unite people across cultures and geographies. Xbox is committed to gaming for all. This includes the more than 400 million Xbox users with disabilities. In order to make Xbox more accessible and inclusive, this means that we intentionally focus on people with disabilities in our design process.  

 Games are the medium of choice for the younger generation, 70% of people under 25 would rather play a game than consume any other form of media, including social media. This is why creators and communities who create games must reflect all the experiences, disability, cultures, and people that exist on the planet. That is what made me so happy to launch BuildAbility in Minecraft Education Edition. This new accessible world was created with help from the Peel District School Board of Ontario. Meet a variety of characters from the real world to explore disabilities, and then learn about how accessibility issues can be eliminated in your school or community. The full Minecraft Education Edition details are available here. 

At the Microsoft Ability Summit this week, I was able to speak on accessibility in gaming and discuss how empowering all creators can make the world more inclusive. Watch the talk as well as some other great content on YouTube.
aka.ms/abilitysummit. For the remainder of the conversation, I would like to highlight the resources that we shared. These can help you understand gaming accessibility and show how to partner with the disabled community for feedback. As everyone who plays wins, we are looking forward to working with you all on creating accessible games.   

Assisting the community with disabilities 

It is crucial to engage with the disabled community in order to understand their lived experiences as well as how they can affect gameplay experience. Partnering with the disability community is encouraged. 

• The
  Xbox Accessibility Insiders Club(XAIL), a group of more than 158k people with disabilities, is a place where they can self-identify as well as their allies and provide feedback about the accessibility features. XAIL welcomes content developers. It allows you to easily share your content to the community via the Xbox Insider Program. Contact your account team for more details. 
• The
  
  Microsoft Gaming Accessibility Testing Service (MGATS) is an optional program through which developers and publishers of Xbox and PC games can submit their products for secure, confidential accessibility testing conducted by accessibility subject matter experts and players with disabilities. Testing is performed against the Xbox Accessibility Guidelines (XAGs) with the final report including accessibility highlights, player with disability feedback, concerns and alignment to accessibility feature tags.  

Get more players to your game 

Every gamer creates games for fun. We want the entire world to become a reality. If players are able to discover and feel confident in their ability to play your game, this can only be possible. The Gaming Accessibility team receives many questions about this topic. Sometimes it can be frustrating to purchase a game and then find that you cannot play it. This is like your child discovering that the batteries they received in their birthday gift are no longer available. 

The accessibility information of your game is important to players before they play it. To help them reach more people, we recommend the following tactics. 

• The
  These Accessibility Tags are specifically designed to make it easier for gamers to search for games that include one or more of 20 accessibility features such as custom volume controls, no quick time events, or subtitle options.  To make it easier for developers to meet these requirements, each was defined using specific criteria that were vetted through user research.  Developers can identify accessibility features in their games by tagging the features by using the Accessibility feature in the Gaming Metadata module making it easier for players to discover their game. We’ve added a feature that allows users to search, filter, and tag their games, thanks to community feedback. This makes it much easier for players to discover the game they like. 
• You can search for accessibility support pages in one location. This allows you to quickly find all of your games’ accessibility features. This information can be provided at launch, and updated with every release to allow players with disabilities access to your game in the way they wish.   
• Make sure your content is easily accessible when sharing your game.  Use platforms like the new All-American Sign Language Xbox Twitch Channel @ /XboxASL. Every day, the Xbox Plays crew goes live on Xbox Twitch, where they play the latest titles in the Xbox universe.
  https://www.twitch.tv/xboxasl/. 

Increase your knowledge of accessibility to gaming  

It is important to include accessibility from the beginning. But sometimes, it is difficult to know how to proceed or where to look for more information. In response to the community’s feedback, and with their help, we have created resources that make gaming accessible. They are easy to locate, gaming-specific, and easy to apply to your projects. Check out these resources: 

• New
  
  Gaming Developer Accessibility Resources Hub  provides a single place for developers to start their accessibility journey, with a wealth of resources including testing tools, developer resources, conferences talks and guidelines. 
• The
  
  Xbox Accessibility Guidelines (XAGs),Xbox started the site in 2019 to be a resource for game designers. The goal was to offer a list of best practices that can validate accessibility for games. Xbox keeps improving on this set of best practices based upon community feedback. The addition of best practice guidelines on motion sickness, mental health and clarity in text sizing is announced by Xbox this month.   
• The Gaming Accessibility Fundamentals Learning Program It is an online course that provides a foundational knowledge for new gamers or those who wish to deepen their gaming accessibility understanding. It is designed to provide foundational knowledge about gaming accessibility. Once you have completed the course, please share the knowledge with your fellow gamers and earn a badge!