Accessibility means reducing and removing as many barriers as possible so that everyone can enjoy video games. Each year, we recognize the innovations in accessibility — games that are pushing the boundaries of accessibility and going above the standard to include players with disabilities.
Here’s a deeper look at why these five titles were nominated for Innovation in Accessibility, with context provided by members of our Innovation in Accessibility jury:
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (Treyarch/Raven/Activision/Xbox)
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 adds brand new features to the franchise, pushing inclusion to new heights. This latest installment introduces innovations like a mono audio setting with Asymmetric Hearing Compensation to adjust audio frequencies for players who have more hearing loss in one ear than the other, and Intelligent Movement which assists more complex actions like slicing corners and hopping over objects.
The game also has a range of accessibility presets including Low Motor Strain, reducing the physical effort required to play through sensitivities, deadzones and reduced complexity of inputs; Visual Support which affects size and contrast of UI & subtitles and gameplay contrast; Motion Reduction which mitigates motion sickness through FOV, center dot, blur and camera movement; and Simplified Controls, focussing on assists and automation.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 also features upgraded and expanded gameplay high contrast modes for campaign and Zombies, arachnophobia-friendly adjustments for Zombies, flash inversion, reduce tinnitus sound, and highly customizable HUD and color schemes.
Read Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Accessibility Updates and New Features for more.
Diablo IV (Blizzard/Xbox)
Blizzard demonstrates its continued commitment to accessibility through Diablo IV patches and updates. Over the course of the year the game has gained a range of accessibility upgrades, including configurable character highlights for greater contrast, an auto-pin system for wayfinding to objectives combined with an enhanced compass with customizable arrow colors, optimized WASD controls, and improved text visibility. The screen reader, which provides menu narration for blind & low vision players, has had many upgrades.
The addition of audio navigation assistance, featuring directional audio pings with adjustable frequency and volume to guide players to objectives marked using the auto-pin system, marks a groundbreaking achievement for the genre. The first example of blind-accessible world navigation in this type of ARPG.
The team also produced a 15 minute mini-documentary about how they collaborated with the community, focussing on disabled player’s personal stories, using this to raise awareness about the importance of inclusive game design.
Read Diablo IV Patch Notes (1.3-1.5) and Accessibility Features in Vessel of Hatred for more.
Dragon Age: The Veilguard (BioWare/EA)
Accessibility in Dragon Age: The Veilguard embraces a “play as you like” philosophy. There are over a dozen combat and exploration settings like preventing death, adjustable parry timing, granular aim assist, and glint visibility/distance for collectables.
Accessibility SFX adds audio cues for visual mechanics such as attack indicators, target lock-on, and conversation wheels, while Glint Ping SFX provides spatial audio cues to assist with object locations. No critical information is conveyed through sound alone, with fully visualized combat cues and customizable subtitles. Accessibility for hearing loss also includes a mono audio mode with a left/right panning slider for players who have more hearing loss in one ear than the other.
Additional considerations include hold-to-tap settings, arachnophobia-friendly adjustments, highly configurable HUD, simulation sickness options, and memory/learning assists such as world & local maps being available at all times and a codex including a lore glossary.
Read BioWare’s Journal #10 Accessibility Spotlight and the official EA Accessibility Portal for more.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (Ubisoft Montpellier/Ubisoft)
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown pushed the bar for accessibility of the Metroidvania genre, through innovations like the Memory Shards feature, which lets players take screenshots and pin them to the map. The game stands out for accessibility-by-design considerations like this, where accessibility is woven into the game’s design by default. Other examples of this include large high contrast text, no info conveyed by color or sound alone, no QTEs, conversation logs, and a consequence-free training area.
Customizable options further enhance accessibility, including high-contrast modes for gameplay with colorblind presets, broad and detailed custom difficulty settings, configurable subtitles, a guided mode adding extra icons and information to the map, easy-read font option, extra highlighting for interactive elements, and a range of assist modes including for platforming, combat, button mashing, and aiming.
Post-launch updates have added extra visual cues for enemy attack types, toggle button to turn high contrast on/off during gameplay, multi-directional parry, extra difficulty sliders, and more.
Read Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown – Accessibility Spotlight for more.
Star Wars Outlaws (Massive Entertainment/Ubisoft)
Star Wars Outlaws sets a new standard for Ubisoft’s open-world adventure accessibility. Key highlights include highly configurable high contrast modes for gameplay, detailed menu narration including innovative map and HUD update narration, audio descriptions for cinematics, and assists by default through the Nix companion – optionally reducing precision and effort needed for actions like interacting, attacking, and picking up, as well as seeing through walls.
Many other mechanics can be assisted through settings, including walk, vault/mantle, reload, stealth, blaster mash, and holds, with granular difficulty settings including specific minigame settings. The accessibility presets include a dedicated cognitive preset relating to learning, memory, and reading. Visualizations of sound-based mechanics combined with comprehensive subtitling and captioning (including a separate panel for overheard NPC chatter) ensures nothing in the game depends solely on sound. UI is large and high contrast by default, and can be increased further. Audio focus mode pares back the mix to the essentials, and there are a range of simulation sickness considerations by default and through settings, particularly for space flight.
The game has already had a number of post-launch upgrades, from larger subtitles to configurable adrenaline rush timer and extra assists.
Read Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws™ Accessibility Spotlight for more, together with patch notes for updates 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4.
