The Disabilities of Gaming Acknowledged

Imagine you are playing a video game. In this game, you must unlock a new area by doing a puzzle that requires you to put coins in a specific order by color: orange, red, green, lime green, and blue. You do your best and then, as it turns out, you fail. Yet you fully understand what to do and you have no reason to fail, then you find out it's because you can't tell some of the colors apart and thus you will have to repeat and guess until you eventually just luck into the right combination. That's what it can feel like to be a colorblind gamer. Video games don't often account for disabilities. While it's true that you cannot account for every disability, there is plenty of room left for effort for developers and console manufacturers alike.

Disability #1: Deafness

Deaf gamers are physically capable of playing a game, but some games make it rather difficult to play them. While I may not be deaf, there have been times when I was playing games and there was a lot of noise nearby that made it impossible to listen to what the characters said. If there are subtitles, I don't mind. What about when there aren't? Every game that uses dialog as a means of giving hints to the player as to what they're expected to do should have subtitles. However, developers shouldn't have to do everything. Current consoles have these powerful Operating Systems and the ability to download updates, so why don't they offer an automatic speech-to-text option? This way, developers wouldn't have to put in subtitles for all the dialogue. Instead they'd only need to include a library of game-specific words that the console speech reader would temporarily add to itself.

Disability #2: Blindness

Blind gamers do exist, though they are much rarer than deaf gamers. Video Games are not meant to be played by people incapable of seeing video and most games are simply unplayable by blind gamers. However, some games would still be somewhat accessible. Fighting games, for example, are very much accessible. However, this can only happen when developers ensure that each action has its own sound such that a blind gamer could eventually memorize them. RPGs are also fairly accessible though not as much. However, a lot of RPGs rely on text only dialogue for part or the entirety of the game. Just as speech only games are not convenient for deaf gamers, text-only games are inconvenient for blind gamers. Voice-overs for any game decently playable by a blind person should be an obvious must. Once again, consoles themselves could help developers that do not have a voice over budget if the Operating System had text-to-speech options and the ability to import a library of phonetic representations for game-specific words.

Disability #3: Colorblindness

As my introductory paragraph mentioned, colorblindness can damper a person's video game experience. Companies should ensure to include colorblind game testers to find out if any part of the game would be difficult without a full spectrum of colors. If unfriendly to colorblind people, the ability to switch to a colorblind spectrum would be implemented. Likewise, an OS could apply a colorblind filter that could be turned on by the user instead of forcing developers to include one. In this case, an OS solution would be preferred to a developer solution. Colorblindness comes in various degrees and an OS solution could allow for multiple possible filters, maybe even ones that could be customized, to account for various color blindness. Such a compilation of filters would be a hassle to put into every game, so having a console-wide option would be much more realistic.

Disability #4: Bodily Disabilities

Sadly, this is the hardest of all to incorporate in video gaming. Any game requiring the use of a full controller would be nigh impossible to play for someone who does not have the ability to play dexterously with both hands. Just as someone who is wheelchair bound could not play a Kinect running game. However, at least for motion gaming, consoles should be tested to work with the most common prosthetic limbs for any of the body parts required to play. Additionally, it should be ensured that if a person is able to play a game, that experience would not be deterred if other common limitations (such as wheelchair and dwarfism) were factored in. For example, the new Kinect will allow games to adjust difficulty by height in order to allow children to play and not feel overwhelmed. However, a dwarf adult gamer may not like being forced to play on a children's difficulty. Unnecessary adjustments should have the option to be taken out quickly and easily.

Disability #5: Lack of Depth perception

With 3D gaming on the cusp, it's important to remember our one-eyed gamers. Whether they are physically missing an eye, or they have a lazy eye, such people will not be able to see 3D. Games with stereoscopic 3D in mind should still look appealing and be playable (even if it makes them a tiny bit harder) to play in 2D.

Disability #6: Muteness

Games that require voice commands are not that common, but they could still adapt to mute people. While a singing game will sadly never be able to fully accommodate to mutes (not unless drastic gameplay changes are incorporated), games that use only a few voice commands can still adapt. If a game only partially and minimally relies on voice, the ability to use buttons, button combos, and hotkeys (for PC gaming) instead of voice would make sure our silenced gamers aren't left behind. In addition, it's convenient for anyone who wants to play while making the least amount of noise.

Like with any hobby, certain people will be left out. Deaf people won't get to enjoy the music of a concert, blind people cannot enjoy unpopular books that haven't been changed to Braille or text-to-speech digital versions, and someone with motion disabilities may have difficulty with playing sports or instruments. Video gaming, like any other hobby, will not be accessible for everyone. However, if a game is fairly playable should a few accommodations be implemented, then it is the civic duty of the gaming industry to at least attempt to bridge difficulties.