a11yTOConf2019

Beyond the code: Accessibility of language, tone, culture, and concept

• Speaker: Littlenavi

• Twitter: @Littlenavi

  What I mean by Beyond the Code

• The conversation should start a much earlier point of the project.
• When hired, as gaming consultant, companies already had an idea of what they want. IE: how can I make this accessible for colour bind gamers?
• There’s no one fix for a game to make it accessible. One thing that make something accesible for a user, can be blocker to another player.

Language

• What are we saying about and to a disabled person with the words we us e in games?
• The language choices w emake can impact whether or not a game is accessible to folks with disabilities.
• Albeist language can seem like innocent language, often even a harmless alternative to cursing, but it impacts many people heavliy (for instance the usage of LAME to refer to a person)

Difficulty

Common identifiers for gameplay modes:

• Easy
• Normal
• Hard
• Extra Hard

Players can be shamed by playing the game in “easy mode” if that experience

Some games lock content behind Extra Hard modes, making it impossible to reach to some players.

This language is inaccurate. Let’s not call it novice, intermediate, advanced. Call them: square, triangle, circle, but don’t make it a hierarchy.

Having only three modes is not making your game accessible!

Concept

• Are disability and a11y on top of mind on the earliest stages of development?
• It is cheaper if you include a11y at the beggining, instead of having to fix it after release.
• Is disabiility represented in the game? are there any characters with disabilities?

Tone

• How disability is represented?
• Is it respectful?
• Are all the characters represented in a way that will alleniate or tokenize them?
• How many characters are villans vs heroes?
• Is it represented in a realistic way?
• is the game accessible to the disabilities you’re representing? (games should be accessible to anyone, if you’re going to use us in your characters!)

Culture

• Office Space. Best example, The Microsoft Inclusive Tech Lab https://inclusivetechlab.github.io/web/index.html
• Diverse hiring practices: it’s important because it’s easier to make a game if you already have users with disabilities in your space.
• Listen to the feedback from disabled users and communities (don’t question their feedback)
• Conventions and expos: make sure the convention is accessible. Have users to speak about other things not a11y related.
• Accessible marketing media: adding alt text on images, making sure subtitles are present for even swear words, make sure to read what’s on your screen for everyone that can’t see it.
• affordability is a11y. is your tech affordable to the folks who it most?