[Saka]

Regrettably, the "hearing aid connectivity" is often only there on paper. The induction loops rarely offer sufficient SNR to offer usable sound. It got bad enough that some hearing devices dropped support of the telecoil altogether, because people would rarely use it due to these hurdles.

I think what needs to happen is the developers realising that the accessibility options would cause a curb-but effect. A lot of people without any diagnosed disabilities also use these options for various reasons.



Of course, gaming giants have the money to hire a professional team to consider the accessibility issues and how to address it. However, even studios titles can attempt inclusive design - and some of them indeed do so. I found this list of indie games featuring various accessibility features.

[DoctorEldritch]

@Saka I remember seeing an elderly gentleman using the hearing aid functionality while in the bank through his mobile app, but maybe this was an exception.

I think it would help if people would talk about accessibility in games more actively and more often. It is gaining momentum, and it is important to keep it going. Showing real actual improvements to the quality of gaming and life that changes in design bring is a way forward.

That list of indie games is illustrative. What took Dead Cells 5 years to add such an easy change, I wonder? But though examples are interesting to look into, what jumped to my attention was how short the list was, if you think about it in the scope of a total number of games and indie studios. It is like a drop in the sea, and I hope that the list is that short because the author chose more famous examples and the actual list is longer.

[Saka]

@DoctorEldritch The author likely just took 10 examples they found interesting, as it's common for these lists to have a round number of entries. There definitely are more accessible indie productions. A lot of accessibility features were first found in indie games and then copied by larger studios. Larger budget also doesn't mean more creativity, often the big players just copy solutions that were tried elsewhere first. Nothing wrong with that when it comes to accessibility, as they can popularise these solutions by the selling power of the franchises.

Here's another article about accessibility in games, I found it interesting how they deal with phobias. Turning spider into an amorphic blob with eyes is not a hard programming task either. In the past I recall some games having different gore settings too. The mental health care is not often talked about in terms of accessibility, but I find it very nice.

[DoctorEldritch]

@Saka It is good to popularise accessibility solutions this way, though it makes me wonder, if going forward like that is better, or maybe a centralized assessment organization would be more efficient. For example, we have PADI and all developers who want to sell games in certain territories need to get games certified with those criteria (violence, language, nudity, etc.). That is good quality control for age.

Accessibility could be developed the same way, with games needing to meet certain requirements to be certified for sale. Maybe that will make games implement accessibility solutions en masse.

About phobias, it is good that devs think about it, and you're right, mental health care in relation to games is not talked about often, though we have a discussion about that. But it is more personal as well.

I have a phobia of snakes myself, which has to do with childhood trauma when a viper got into my sandal (whilst I was wearing it). That's been a horrible experience and I fear snakes ever since. But they are quite a common element in games, so you can imagine that complicates my gameplay somewhat. That being said, I actually find it somewhat therapeutic at times, even if I do get spooked by them occasionally. And, interestingly, I am more spooked by sounds (you know, hissing and rattling), so changing snakes into globs would not help that much, but changing sounds may, I am not sure... Mental health is a complicated issue...

[Saka]

@DoctorEldritch The age recommendation is one thing, but some people may have very specific triggers while other 18+ rated stuff doesn't bother them at all.

Your phobia triggered by sounds reminded me of the review of the Chicory game. Apparently it has a setting to disable "wet sounds" to save the sanity of people with misophonia.

Maybe games could have the option to replace sounds of spooky things with a general "bad stuff is coming" sound. 🤔

[DoctorEldritch]

@Saka I guess when it comes to phobias and sounds or images, it is complicated as those can be somewhat personal, and it is hard to code replacements for all possible images or sounds. But it is good that developers work on widespread ones like spiders or "wet sounds", but there are so many less common options. Fear of number 13 or chopsticks or plane takeoff sounds, and that's just a few. I wonder if it is truly possible to eliminate any possibilities for a gamer to stumble on his or her phobia when playing if that phobia is a less common one.

And what would be a universal "bad stuff is coming"? A music theme from Jaws or something like that?

About age recommendations, I mean it more as "to be eligible for sale, your game needs to have the option to change subtitle color and font, an option to remap keyboard buttons", and things like that. So they are no longer a "good option to have" but an "industry pre-requisite".

[Saka]

@DoctorEldritch I think that's a pretty good example. At least to me it sounds ominous, and has a sense of approaching, but there are no specifics.

Thank you for clarifying about the recommendations. Accessibility, at least to some extent, being enforced by laws would definitely improve its availability and awareness of it. It's like with the CC in the television, it used to be really scarce but then in the US the Americans with Disabilities Act enforced that every new TV unit sold in the country had to support CC. Then, following there were requirements that the programs get CC too. Nowadays I think almost anything has CC in the US. Used to be a problem with live streams, but not anymore.

[DoctorEldritch]

@Saka The only thing is that maybe the Jaws sound is so strongly associated with sharks now that it may be a trigger for gamers with galeophobia. Maybe giving players a few options of widespread "danger sounds" to choose from may be a better option.

Americans with Disabilities Act with every new TV unit is an interesting example because it shows the duality of responsibility. It is possible to require hardware developers to have accessibility options in their devices as the Act did for TV units, but it is also important to make sure game software developers include accessibility options as well. It is achieving balance and joint effort that is one of the challenges as well.

[Saka]

@DoctorEldritch Options rather than a single setting are always better. Even with the same disability each person is going to have a bit different needs.

[DoctorEldritch]

@Saka Just need to be careful so that such changes would not take too much from the overall experience. Or the game may turn out like a Relax-O-Vision episode from the old Freakazoid cartoon (sadly, could not find a decent YT clip, but those who remember the cartoon from childhood will hopefully know what I'm talking about. Anyone? 😅)