Hear from RNIB’s Lorna Forbes and games critic and consultant Laura Dale on how the games industry is rethinking its approach to making it accessible to everyone, and communicating even if it means admitting failure. Hear why it’s important.
When The Last of Us Part II, the sequel to Naughty Dog’s hugely popular Doomsday game, arrived in 2020, it was hailed as a turning point in the gaming world. Not only because of its engaging story, best-in-class character and environment design, but also because it was a triple AAA title that offered an unprecedented number of accessibility features, approximately 60 in total.
Its legacy extends beyond the games themselves, setting a benchmark for more developers to follow, said game critic and accessibility consultant Laura Dale. “Especially over the past four years, since The Last of Us Part II mainstreamed the conversation around accessibility and showed that innovation in this area can garner positive PR and critical acclaim. We’ve seen a noticeable increase in developers actively listening to their audiences about accessibility.
Dale said the studio is working with focus groups and consultants much earlier in the development stage, and that this initiative is being taken more seriously across the industry. (Naughty Dog worked with his seven consultants on The Last of Us Part II.) “As the last four years have gone on, the amount of work provided by speaking directly to developers has dramatically increased I can personally attest to the increased accessibility of the title. ”
It’s been a long road to get here, but the journey isn’t over yet. Having a wide range of well-designed accessibility features determines how users play your game: autonomously or with the help of others. What they play (some people don’t feel welcome in online competitive or team games). And whether they actually play. Many of the gamers who took part in his 2022 report by RNIB, a charity that supports people with visual impairments, ended up playing games less than they wanted to, or stopped playing them at all, due to poor accessibility. I said that I no longer do it.
