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Game accessibility guidelines

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  • Full list
  • Why and how

Ensure controls are as simple as possible, or provide a simpler alternative

I have arthritic hands. I have chronic tendinitis. The mechanics make assumptions about gamers my body can’t support. How could it have been improved? Reduce the number of buttons required to do shit.
Andrea Chandler, via Twitter

The reason why I praise this so much is it allows a player like me who isn’t able to execute all these moves to still participate. It takes away this whole barricade of “will I be able to do this move or will my hands not do what I want them to do”. Due to this feature I can compete, have fun, and do crazy stuff!
legs0fsteel, via YouTube

More complex control schemes require higher degrees of both motor and cognitive skill, so avoid using buttons/keys just because they’re there. Having to remember complex combinations of controls, being required to reach every single button on a controller or even just having to press multiple buttons at the same time can all easily result in unnecessary exclusion.

Sometimes complex controls are required or desirable. If your game really does require complex controls, that is fine. It becomes an issue is when controls are more complex than they need to be.

But even when controls are necessarily complex by default, it can sometimes still be possible to provide options for simpler alternatives.

Best practice example: Guilty Gear Xrd Revelator
Best practice example: Uncharted 4
Best practice example: Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture
Best practice example: NHL 17
Best practice example: Bayonetta (video)
Best practice example: Fifa 13 (video)

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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