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Game accessibility guidelines

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Allow players to progress through text prompts at their own pace

It sometimes takes me 3 times longer to read something than other people. I’ve got no problem understanding it, no issue of intelligence, it’s a specific learning disability. it’s so incredibly frustrating when there is no button prompt and they take the message off so quickly.
tremault, via destructoid

In addition to low reading age being extremely common (14% of adults have a reading age of below 11 years), distraction can be an issue for all gamers, sometimes resulting in key information being missed. As reading speeds and ability are so varied even within very specific age brackets, it is not possible to set a speed for text to be displayed which will be appropriate for all readers.

Instead of a timer, dismiss information on a player action, allowing it to be stepped through. If that’s not possible, allow it to to be replayed or paused. If developing a chat system, allow messages to be browsed back through without automatically jumping focus back to a new message when it appears. Any of those methods remove the requirement for players to have a specific reading speed and constantly maintained attention.

Best practice example: Doom
Best practice example: Guacamelee!
Best practice example: Happy Wars
Best practice example: Awakening: The Dreamless Castle
Best practice example: Zelda: The Ocarina of Time

All guidelines

Three cogs, smallest coghighlightedBasic
Three cogs, medium sized cog highlightedIntermediate
Three cogs, largest cog highlightedAdvanced
Three cogs, all  highlightedFull list
ExcelExcel checklist download

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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