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Game accessibility guidelines

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Allow a preference to be set for playing online multiplayer with players who will only play with / are willing to play without voice chat

Sometimes people get angry and yell at me because I didn’t react to some sounds like footsteps when enemies are sneaking up behind me. Then I explain to them that I’m deaf. They would say like “Oh wow” or “Jesus Christ”. Sometimes they get upset that I don’t use a microphone because I don’t speak, I use sign language to communicate in the real life.
x75tiger75x, via reddit

If players are either unable to hear other players’ speech, or unable (due to either lack of vocal ability or suitable hardware) or simply prefer not to to communicate by speech, this can have an impact on multiplayer play, resulting in players being intentionally kicked out or excluded from games.

A matchmaking preference can help to avoid this issue, allowing both players who prefer to play without speech and players who prefer to play with speech to take part according to their own personal play style or ability.

Best practice example: Halo Reach

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Help & advice

How to work with these guidelines

FCC Chairman's Award for Advancement in Accessibility
finalist 2016, tiga games industry awards
DFA foundation best practice award, Horizon Interactive Bronze Winner, 7-128 industry & community leader

About the guidelines

A collaborative effort between a group of studios, specialists and academics, to produce a straightforward developer friendly reference for ways to avoid unnecessarily excluding players, and ensure that games are just as fun for as wide a range of people as possible.

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