Accessibility Implementation

Vision Accessibility

There are several ways to plan and build for accessibility for players that have low vision or are blind.

Simulating Vision Disabilities

The first step is to understand how you can simulate what a vision disability might look like.

Low or Poor Vision Simulation

Unreal Engine UMG has a widget component that can help with this - the Background Blur widget component can be used to create a blur effect over your screen. By increasing the strength of the background blur, we can simulate what low vision might look like. We can walk around a level to see if it is possible to play our game with these settings.

Color Blindness Support

For colorblind disabilities, there are built-in systems to adjust color schemes. The Set Color Deficiency Type is a built-in node to change the color scheme within Unreal Engine.

Quick Testing

These settings are already set up in Fortnite. If you want a quick way to see how they change the appearance, take a look at color blind options in Fortnite.

Advanced Color Design

You can take it further and code your own color changes for important design elements. The most common example is how the color red is widely used for enemies or objects that are dangerous to you. Someone that has a color blindness to red will have no idea what these things are to avoid.

Solution: You can create player options to choose or change the color of enemies.

Design Philosophy: Don’t Rely on Just Color

This leads to another philosophy of good design: don’t rely on just color.

Model Replacement for Fears

Another form of accessibility is to completely swap out models based on specific fears. The most notable one is for arachnophobia or the fear of spiders. Some games will have an option to disable spiders and replace their in-game 3D model with different assets.

This type of feature is also used in localization, where certain countries have laws against the portrayal of skeletons, zombies, vampires, or showing any blood, which allows the developer to swap out assets for different countries around the world.

Graphics Settings for Health

Flashing lights can cause seizures for those with photosensitive epilepsy. Graphics settings that help include:

Motion blur adjustment options
Bloom control settings
Field of view customization

All these features can help improve the experience for those with vision disabilities, but are also catered to personal preference. Some players enjoy features like motion blur and bloom, while others prefer these options disabled.

Performance Benefits

Many of these graphic options are also closely related to performance. Having options to disable these features can allow players with lower-end PC hardware or older generation consoles to play your game.

This is not a full list of vision-based accessibility features as there are more options for text-to-speech, contrast options, user interface scale, and more. As the topic of accessibility continues to evolve, more and more features are becoming available.

Audio Accessibility

There are several ways to plan and build for accessibility for players that are deaf or hard of hearing.

Audio Visualizer

The first is an audio visualizer - Fortnite has this feature. As you walk around the world, the audio visualizer will tell you:

The direction of the noise
Loudness of sounds
Type of noise you’re hearing (gunshot, footsteps, etc.)

Visual Damage Indicators

In most first-person games today, if you get shot, there’s a red indicator on your screen showing the direction you were just hit by. When you look in that direction, even the smoky bullet trail effects can help players acknowledge where the shot came from.

Text and Narrative Support

For texts or narrative, subtitles and speech bubbles are a great system to include.

Onomatopoeia is a process of assigning words that describe a sound, that could work well with subtitles or speech bubble systems.

Controls Accessibility

Having the option to set up key bind controls is incredibly important. Players have many different setups and devices to accommodate their preference with controls.

Multi-Platform Support

This includes making sure your game is compatible with both keyboard and controller setups. You can automatically detect if there’s a change in controller input.

Fortnite Example

“I have a controller connected to my PC. As soon as I move the joystick or press a button, Fortnite automatically swaps the key binds to controller setup. You can see in the user interface that the key binds are changing. If I go back to my mouse and keyboard, it will swap back.”

This really lets players customize their setup. They may also use different control schemes or hardware based on the in-game tasks they’re working on.

Physical Disability Accommodations

For players with physical disabilities, some players will have special setups to rely on key bind remapping to work.

Arthritis and Tendonitis Support

Press and hold option instead of constant tapping
Toggle-based key binds where pressing once turns it on, pressing twice turns it off
For sprint: turns off when you run out of stamina

Specialized Hardware

Quad Stick

A hands-free controller that can be used through head movements with a sip and puff sensor.

Access Controllers

Both Xbox and PlayStation have created their own access controller.

Assist Features

Assist modes exist to make targeting or other gameplay features easier to accomplish:

Automation features that automatically run your character from point A to point B
Auto run key binds that toggle forward movement on and off
Auto attack buttons that handle combat for you

Overall, giving players options for proper key bind setups and controls is a great experience for all players.

Difficulty Accessibility

Game difficulty has been a controversial topic for game design. The debate is if a developer’s vision for their game is to be really hard, there shouldn’t be any difficulty options.

Personal Preference on Story Mode

Player-Created Challenges

A reoccurring theme among players is to find the most challenging way to play a game:

Hardcore modes where you can only die once
Iron man modes where you are extremely limited in what gear you can equip
Beating the game with the least powerful weapons
Speedrunning to complete a game in the fastest time
Voice commands or dance pad challenges

If the core game is a fun experience, players will find a way to challenge themselves or create the hardest content for the game’s community.

Better Hard Mode Design

You should consider hard modes be more than just add more damage and health - this has been a more frustrating experience for players.

Better approaches:

Give bosses new or completely changed mechanics
Change the location for important weapons or items
Limit resources and item drops
Solo self-found mode where you can’t trade or group with other players
Limit save points instead of saving at any time

Preventing Progression Blocks

Another option is to never have a single point in the game to prevent a player from progressing, such as big boss encounters. Let the player decide if they are up to the challenge to beat the boss at the appropriate level, or spend time leveling up to get more overpowered to defeat the boss.

Accessibility Through Options

Personal Story

“I also speak from the heart as I have a child with severe autism. She likes to wander around many open-world RPGs. I often find games with limitations or no cheat codes available to let her be invulnerable, which can cause her to get frustrated or stop playing altogether.”

Philosophy: You can always keep the game as hard as you intended it to be. But there is no harm in adding cheat codes or menu options that grant invulnerability, special powers, or a giant pool of currency.

The Return of Cheat Codes

“Also, what happened to cheat codes? Where did they go? Why don’t they exist anymore? They can be a fun option to integrate in your game to make your players feel special and excited.”

These accessibility features demonstrate how inclusive design benefits everyone. Happy gamers, happy developers - integrating accessibility designs are just the right thing to do both morally and for the potential success of your game designs.