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A group of developers and advocates join together to share advice at GDC 2014 on how developers can make games that are accessible and appealing to a vastly underserved market: the visually impaired.

November 10, 2014

2 Min Read

The advent of touchscreen devices, with their libraries of visually-oriented games and apps, might seem to be a disaster for the visually impaired. Surprisingly, some accessibility advocates in the game industry believe the opposite is true because most modern smartphones have sophisticated technologies that specifically facilitate their use by those with vision impairments. These technologies are accessible to game developers, making it increasingly easy to accommodate those with vision impairments -- or even target them directly. At GDC 2014, a group of such developers got together with advocates for the visually impaired (including blind game player Brandon Cole) to share what they'd learned about creatively overcoming development challenges to make games that are accessible and appealing to the large population of visually impaired people eager to buy and play them. It's an excellent talk, so we've taken the liberty of embedding the free video of "Beyond Graphics: Reaching the Visually Impaired Gamer" above. You can also watch it here on the GDC Vault.

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers. Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support. Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech

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