The inclusion of people with disabilities in all sectors It should be an obligation, and video games are not exempt from it. This is how it stands out Enrique Garcia CortesTechnician of Accessible Technologies in ONCE Foundation.
“The accessibility It is the capacity that all environments, products and services must have so that they can have a universal design and can be used by all people, whether or not they have a disability“, points to 20minutos.
Within Fundación ONCE they have been working on accessibility for three years of video games, doing a great job of raising awareness with presentations or stands in video game fairs in which people without disabilities can try accessible experiences and people with disabilities can verify that yes, they can play video games thanks to certain functions or accessories.
video games are for everyone
“People think they can’t play because they’ve been told. Rightly or wrongly, I’m not going to get into that. And we try to show them that maybe there is an option,” says Enrique García. “We should all enjoy leisure or, as I usually say colloquially, we all have to get addicted together, right? But, if video games reach everyone, allow people with disabilities to improve their socializationhang out with friends and meet other people”.
“I remember once a mother came with her son to our stand and she told me that in her day center he had been told that his son would never be able to play video games. I thought very quickly and asked him: ‘Can you press?’ And she told me yes, so that was enough. I put him with Microsoft’s Xbox Adaptive Controller, we did a co-pilot mode where I moved the character and this kid wielded the swordfired, attacked”, remembers the technician.
“The mother saw that the character did things and said: ‘But you are doing that, right?’ Then I raised my hands and said: ‘I am not touching anything. If the doll moves it is because is your son doing it‘. Then the woman was very moved and, the next day, they came back and played for a while longer. They wanted to know what had to be bought and so on,” says Enrique García. “At that moment, a door opened for that person. They are one of those things that, when they happen, change you a little and show you why you do this job.”
As the expert points out, since the accessible video game project began, the predisposition of the video game industry has been increasing. “But, although we are on the right track, there are still things to do and that is what we are working on,” she says. For this reason, within the ONCE Foundation Enrique García has launched Ga11y.
This project is focused on different lines of action within video games: it is responsible for encourage people to have training and employment within the industry; collaborate with big brands national and international to ensure that they bet on accessibility; make their work known to society bring accessibility to everyone; and, finally, they analyze the possibilities of disabled people to enter the competitive world of eSports.
In addition, Ga11y also has a form open on its website for you to study indie ask so much free accessibility advice like a evaluation of the functions that have included to be added to their catalog of accessible games. Because it is important that more and more titles have these tools, which do not suppose “neither more time nor more cost if they are assumed from the beginning”.
“Recently I felt that a game was well suited to me”
In addition to being responsible for the Ga11y project, Henry Garcia is a video game player and, at 28, has had to adapt to the controls to be able to enjoy its hobby: “People with disabilities, when we want something, we adapt to the environment. So I’ve been playing video games since I was 10 years old.”
The accessibility technician remembers your first experience with a game, specifically, with Kingdom Hearts de PlayStation 2. After being attracted by the Square Enix and Disney title, his cousins gave him the controller to try, and, although he thought he would not be able to hold the controller, his hands naturally adapted to it: “I pressed the buttons with my hands and joysticks with the chin. From there I knew I could play video games and that Christmas a PlayStation 2 came to my house.
I pressed the buttons with my hands and the joysticks with my chin. From there I knew that he could play video games
Even so, has always had certain barriers to play certain titles, such as shooters in which it is necessary to move both joysticks at once, or handheld consoles that, although he also enjoyed titles such as Pokémon Cristal on Game Boy Color, always had the inconvenience of viewing the screen from very close.
But his story, like that of many people with disabilities, shows that they have had to adapt to video games for years and now, “thanks to accessibility, it is the product that adapts to the personwhich is how it should be.”
“Very recently I felt for the first time that a game was right for me“, assures 20minutos and highlights two titles from the Insomniac Games studio, Marvel’s Spider-Man (PS4, 2018) and especially Ratchet and Clank: A Separate Dimension (PS5, 2021).
In the same way he thinks Sergio Vera, a player with a total visual impairment who recounted his experience playing remake of The Last of Us: Parte I for PS5. As he explains, he usually enjoys video games with the help of his girlfriend, since practically has not “been able to play many titles autonomously“. But PS5 accessibility features have allowed him to venture out solo in games like these and in this recently released remake.
Types of accessibility in video games
As Enrique García points out, the three big video game companies, Sony, Microsoft y Nintendo, “are working to improve accessibility and for products to be more and more accessible.” Proof of this are Horizon Forbidden West o The Last of Us: Parte II, para PS4 and PS5; Gears 5, from Xbox One and Xbox Series; or customization of controls Nintendo Switch for your games.
audio description; screen readers for blind people; the sensitivity of PS5 DualSense and the vibration system, which serves as another communication channel to perceive certain effects of the game; the surround sound to detect where enemies are coming from; the co-pilot mode, to distribute controls of the same character; the color changes for colorblind people; wave customization and simplification of controls are some examples of this accessibility.
But there is also an important part of accessibility in controls and devices: “PS5 and its games are a benchmark in terms of accessibility softwarebut right now they have nothing in terms of accessibility hardware. And the benchmark in this is Microsoft with the Xbox Adaptive Controller“. And, for his part, for Switch the HORI Flex is availablemanufactured by the brand of peripherals and licensed by Nintendo.
Video game characters with disabilities
The presence of people with disabilities in video games is also essential, both within the industry, where they play an increasingly important role in teams focused on the user experience, as well as in stories, with characters that make disability visible. “There are characters whose purpose in the video game is to fix their disability, either with a prosthesis or with something supernatural,” Enrique García points out as a bad example.
However, there are others who do it correctly, making “the character goes beyond disability“, that “is normalized within the story and its role is consistent, and is not putting a person with a bionic leg there”.
Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales has this kind of visibility well done with Hailey Coopera deaf street artist who communicates with the character through sign language.
Lester Crestone of the masterminds behind the player heists in GTA V, goes in Wheelchair. Even so, although this stands out for his importance in the plot, previously in the saga there have been two other characters with the same disability: Johnny Sindacco (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas) y Angus Martin (Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned).
Jeff ‘Joker’ Moreauproud pilot of the saga Mass Effect who has a rare disease called osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as Lobstein’s disease, which makes her bones more brittle. For this reason, he almost always remains in his pilot’s chair and uses crutches and other orthopedic devices to walk.
We also find Senuaprotagonist of Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice who has delusions and hallucinations due to his psychosis, a mental health problem that the player has to deal with during the adventure.
One of the most complete examples is A Blind Legenda game for mobile phones and computers that not only gives visibility with its blind protagonistEdward Blake, but it is a total experience of accessibility in which the user has to play with the black screenusing speakers or headphones.
in the saga Sly Cooper there is another disabled character, specifically, the brains of the gang of thieves. At the end of the second installment, Bentley had an accident that made him lose mobility in his legs, so throughout the third installment, Sly 3: Honor Among Thievesmoves in a wheelchair.
And as for thinking minds the thing goes, Caroline Becker is in charge of the Kreisau Circle missions in the saga Wolfenstein, a woman who was shot in the spine in the war, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down. For this reason, the commander moves in a wheelchair, but she has not lost an iota of her spirit and her ferocity.