Intermediate

Features that require some planning and resource to implement and may not suit all game mechanics, but still relatively straightforward, beneficial to many people and generally just good game design, making the game better for all players.

Motor

(Control / mobility)

• Do not rely on motion tracking of specific body types
• Provide a macro system
• Allow interfaces to be resized
• Allow interfaces to be rearranged
• Avoid / provide alternatives to requiring buttons to be held down
• If producing a PC game, support windowed mode for compatibility with overlaid virtual keyboards
• Avoid repeated inputs (button-mashing/quick time events)
• Ensure that all key actions can be carried out by digital controls (pad / keys / presses), with more complex input (eg. analogue, speech, gesture) not required, and included only as supplementary / alternative input methods
• Ensure that multiple simultaneous actions (eg. click/drag or swipe) are not required, and included only as a supplementary / alternative input method
• Make interactive elements that require accuracy (eg. cursor/touch controlled menu options) stationary
• Support more than one input device

Cognitive

(Thought / memory / processing information)

• Highlight important words
• Provide a choice of text colour, low/high contrast choice as a minimum
• Provide gameplay thumbnails with game saves
• Support voice chat as well as text for multiplayer games
• Ensure no essential information (especially instructions) is conveyed by text alone, reinforce with visuals and/or speech
• If using a long overarching narrative, provide summaries of progress
• Employ a simple, clear narrative structure
• Include a means of practicing without failure, such as a practice level or sandbox mode
• Indicate / allow reminder of controls during gameplay
• Indicate / allow reminder of current objectives during gameplay
• Include contextual in-game help / guidance / tips
• Give a clear indication that interactive elements are interactive
• Ensure sound / music choices for each key objects / events are distinct from each other
• Provide an option to turn off / hide background movement
• Provide separate volume controls or mutes for effects, speech and background / music
• Include an option to adjust the game speed
• Include toggle/slider for any haptics

Vision

• Avoid placing essential temporary information outside the player’s eye-line
• Ensure manual / website are provided in a screen reader friendly format
• Give a clear indication that interactive elements are interactive
• Provide a choice of cursor / crosshair colours / designs
• Ensure sound / music choices for each key objects / events are distinct from each other
• Provide an option to adjust contrast
• Ensure screenreader support for mobile devices
• Provide an option to turn off / hide background movement
• Use surround sound
• Avoid (or provide option to disable) any difference between controller movement and camera movement
• If the game uses field of view (3D engine only), allow a means for it to be adjusted
• Provide separate volume controls or mutes for effects, speech and background / music
• Allow interfaces to be resized

Hearing

• Provide a stereo/mono toggle
• Ensure that all important supplementary information (eg. the direction you are being shot from) conveyed by audio is replicated in text / visuals
• Allow subtitle/caption presentation to be customised
• Provide a visual indication of who is currently speaking
• Provide captions or visuals for significant background sounds
• Ensure subtitles/captions are or can be turned on before any sound is played
• Provide subtitles for supplementary speech
• Keep background noise to minimum during speech
• Provide visual means of communicating in multiplayer
• Support text chat as well as voice for multiplayer
• Allow a preference to be set for playing online multiplayer with players who will only play with / are willing to play without voice chat

Speech

• Base speech recognition on individual words from a small vocabulary (eg. ‘yes’ ‘no’ ‘open’) instead of long phrases or multi-syllable words
• Provide visual means of communicating in multiplayer
• Support text chat as well as voice for multiplayer
• Allow a preference to be set for playing online multiplayer with players who will only play with / are willing to play without voice chat

General

• Allow gameplay to be fine-tuned by exposing as many variables as possible
• Allow a preference to be set for playing online multiplayer with/without others who are using accessibility features that could give a competitive advantage
• Provide an autosave feature
• Provide a manual save feature
• Include assist modes such as auto-aim and assisted steering
• Offer a means to bypass gameplay elements that aren’t part of the core mechanic, via settings or in-game skip option
• Include some people with impairments amongst play-testing participants
• Allow difficulty level to be altered during gameplay, either through settings or adaptive difficulty