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Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2016
Global Accessibility Awareness Day is an an annual event 'to get people talking, thinking and learning about accessibility and users with different disabilities'. It runs across all industries, but this year saw a big increase in gamedev participation.
8 Min Read
May 19th's Global Accessibility Awareness Day is an an annual event 'to get people talking, thinking and learning about digital accessibility and users with different disabilities'. It runs across all industries, and this year saw a big increase in the game industry's involvement. Taking part can mean any level of involvement, all the way from a #gaad tweet to a conversation at work, going mouse-less for a day, all the way through to organising awareness raising events.
I usually chip in with a talk or two. This year I had one on mobile accessibility at Nordic Game and one on the past year's advances as part of ID24. I've also been keeping an eye out for game accessibility related tweets, articles and so on, and have listed the ones I've come across below. I've also posted separately about some of my favourite quotes from the day.
Seeing the big increase on last year (including companies like Microsoft, Sony, Naughty Dog, Turtle Rock and Harmonix getting involved) has really been quite something, it can only lead to good things.
Videos
First up The Paciello Group hosted three live streamed talks as part of their ID24 event -
In gaming - some things should be easy, some should be challenging, everything should be inclusive
Bryce Johnson, XBox
Uncharted 4: A New Adventure in Video Game Accessibility
Emilia Schatz and Alex Neonakis, Naughty Dog, and Kevin Chung, Sony
Changing Tides: 2015's Games Industry Accessibility Advancements
Ian Hamilton
Sony also put out the Uncharted overview video separately, which has seen a huge amount of interest from players of all level of ability and some decent press coverage too, raising bucketloads of awareness, which is of course what the day is all about. At time of posting there are around 70k views, and quite incredibly for youtube, almost universally positive comments left on it. And Tara Voelker of Turtle Rock put out a twitch stream about accessibility in Evolve, which is archived here:
#GAAD Tara talks about accessibility and Evolve
Articles & blog posts
Inclusive Gaming with XBox One
Barrie Ellis, OneSwitch
Uncharted 4 (PS4) accessibility
Barrie Ellis, OneSwitch
Possum ZX Spectrum
Barrie Ellis, OneSwitch
Global Accessibility Awareness Day
Steven Spohn, AbleGamers
On Board Game Accessibility
Meeple Like Us
Making games accessible: thoughts and resources
Cloudy Heaven Games
Tweets
And last but not least, a non-exhaustive collection of gamedev related tweets that went out under the #gaad hashtag
It's Global Accessibility Awareness Day. If you're developing a game, stop and think about that for a bit. What can you do?
— Iteration D (@drewmtaylor) May 19, 2016
#accessibility in #boardgames matters - here's why:https://t.co/4isLkLYbTd#gaad #a11y
— Meeple Like Us (@meeplelikeus) May 19, 2016
It's Global #accessibility Awareness Day! It's #GAAD! Here's our teardown of Lost Cities https://t.co/RNJw2bXByv#boardgames #tabletop
— Meeple Like Us (@meeplelikeus) May 19, 2016
Access to the products of culture is as important as access to to the day to day fundamentals. #a11y #GAADhttps://t.co/SxllGwoyH1
— Michael Heron (@DrMichaelHeron) May 19, 2016
#GAAD what our followers want: accessible video games, especially Nintendo https://t.co/F62p18S3fw
— AbilityNet (@AbilityNet) May 19, 2016
Fab resources on #disability & #gaming for Global Accessibility Awareness Day, today https://t.co/8iAfgFUtq2 #GAAD pic.twitter.com/gBCD5zn6tM
— Irene Mackintosh (@irenewarnermack) May 19, 2016
#gaad is a great day to remind folk of this great games accessibility resource. https://t.co/n9UlGGOrgc as are all days ending in Y.
— Giselle ☮ Rosman (@jazzrozz) May 19, 2016
@ianhamilton_ also wrote a great piece for the Bulletin on the guidelines a while back #gaad https://t.co/nx0t82Xs1l https://t.co/fuTYwdm9q8
— eAccessBulletin (@eAccessBulletin) May 19, 2016
.@ianhamilton_ talking about #accessibility & why #gamedev subtitles suck (among other stuff) #NordicGame #GAAD pic.twitter.com/BYsVl9JNik
— Celia Hodent (@CeliaHodent) May 19, 2016
@Sal9594 @ianhamilton_ @qazitv's #skyhookgame is a prime example of a couch-MP game with proper accessibility features! #gaad
— That angsty Yuri (@BH_M0nkeyNo0b) May 19, 2016
It's Global Accessibility Awareness Day. Accessibility in games is something we're tackling head-on in our health-themed first issue. #GAAD
— Castle (@Castle_Magazine) May 19, 2016
#GAAD shout to @AbleGamers https://t.co/LaT1MKYEhq
— AbilityNet (@AbilityNet) May 19, 2016
For #GAAD, if you're interested in #boardgames #accessibility, check out our small but growing masterlist:https://t.co/5jySvYRpAQ#a11y
— Meeple Like Us (@meeplelikeus) May 19, 2016
It's #GAAD2016. Let's talk about how we can make gaming more inclusive and accessible to all.
— GameHubHQ.com (@GameHub_HQ) May 19, 2016
Every game on https://t.co/xoSeBudJKk has an accessibility section, helping you pick games suitable for people of all abilities. #GAAD
— GameHubHQ.com (@GameHub_HQ) May 19, 2016
On https://t.co/yA6Qdrpeg5, we consider all factors affecting accessibility - game difficulty, language, subtitles, and more! #GAAD
— GameHubHQ.com (@GameHub_HQ) May 19, 2016
Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day. Join us in bringing access to the world.https://t.co/UV0gHLv54F #GAAD pic.twitter.com/RxLcnRgUwp
— AbleGamers Charity (@AbleGamers) May 19, 2016
We're glad to have auto kick as an option in Rock Band 4. https://t.co/PHJMIumfZS #GAAD
— Rock Band (@RockBand) May 19, 2016
Awesome games & companies make a stride to include accessible options: #GAAD @UberEnt @RockBand @RocketLeague@TurtleRock @PlayOverwatch
— Craig Kaufman (@craigums) May 19, 2016
Happy global accessibility awareness day! May all your apps, games, and websites be inclusive #GAAD2016 #accessibility #WCAG
— Ginger Glendinning (@gingin078) May 19, 2016
Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day. I want to give a shoutout to the game industry, the last year has shown how inclusive it can be
— Craig Kaufman (@craigums) May 19, 2016
The attitudes from games industry have gone from "who cares" five years ago to today's "how can we help" #GAAD
— Craig Kaufman (@craigums) May 19, 2016
Three of my #a11y @SEGA Classics Chill Edition mods are featured on Steam's game page. Happy #GAAD2016 everyone! pic.twitter.com/5mSLrjrw2m
— AJ (@ONLYUSEmeFEET) May 19, 2016
Find out the awesome ways we made @EvolveGame accessible to more gamers! #GAAD LIVE NOW >> https://t.co/u6ZqJt8Sqq pic.twitter.com/NmadVt1uia
— Turtle Rock Studios (@TurtleRock) May 19, 2016
Some thoughts on game accessibility https://t.co/dHE6EKJlwo #GAAD #indiegame#indiedev #gamedev
— Cloudy Heaven Games (@CloudyHeavenGms) May 19, 2016
Props to @patrickklepek for a great example of #a11y in action in gaming. #GAAD https://t.co/blBFesTTKC
— ヴィートカプリオ (@veedz) May 19, 2016
Video games don't just change lives, they save lives.
— AbleGamers Charity (@AbleGamers) May 19, 2016
More from our COO on Global Accessibility Awareness Day #GAAD https://t.co/gbAjvexLQV
In advance of my upcoming @vrinflux VR accessibility post, here's the one that got me started https://t.co/TWwX84pwoW #GAAD2016 #GAAD
— Brian Van Buren (@brian_van_buren) May 19, 2016
Three talks today about game accessibility for #ID24 - some fantastic stuff going on.https://t.co/fQNizyCfE4 #a11y #GAAD
— Dean Birkett (@deanbirkett) May 19, 2016
For #GAAD, I talked about how video games saved my life when my disability started excluding me from the real world. https://t.co/ADd3DzRJ2L
— Steven Spohn (@stevenspohn) May 19, 2016
@MSFTEnable I sent a large email to the x-access team on #a11y suggestions. In honor of #GAAD ! Hope some of my suggestions are useful.
— AJ (@ONLYUSEmeFEET) May 19, 2016
@BlindfoldGames I have a lot of appreciation for all the games you have created. Massive respect to you for creating #inclusion #GAAD
— TheBlindJournalist (@Sal9594) May 19, 2016
I've made a version of Nethack more accessible for visual impairment, details in link, please try it out! #GAADhttps://t.co/qzG2baWzgi
— Alexei (@ampepers) May 19, 2016
What does it all mean?
While all of this is great in itself, it's a symptom of something larger.
No matter which way you look at gaming, whether it is the doors finally being open on accessibility in consoles and engines, the level of implementation in games, the number of talks at CSUN and average attendance at GDC accessibility talks, attitudes amongst the gaming community... they all paint the same picture, which is that accessibility in gaming is on an exponential curve.
But it isn't a given, we can't be complacent. We have to keep that momentum going. GAAD is only one day of the year, we need to keep on with this for the 364 too, keep the conversation going, keep letting people know that this matters.
The more people do that, the more lasting change we'll see, and the more studios and gamers will be able to benefit from all that accessibility in games brings.
Reposted from personal blog
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