Xbox enhances their accessibility program to help make games more inclusive

This story about Microsoft's accessibility program, boiled down, in 1:43 minutes.

What's the fuss?

A new program by Microsoft, the company behind Xbox, will allow upcoming games to be evaluated and tested by players with disabilities. This initiative will hopefully boost the inclusivity of disabled gamers by ensuring games are playable by everyone.

The situation

Originally launched in January, Xbox released their Accessibility Guidelines as a resource for game developers to design their games with accessibility in mind, as well as guidelines for QA (Quality Assurance) testers to validate such accessibility. Examples include closed-captioned subtitles and audio descriptions for individuals that are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

Today, an update to these guidelines includes a new program that allows upcoming Xbox and PC games to be evaluated and tested directly by disabled gamers. In return, these developers will get game test reports with feedback from these gamers to help them better understand the required aspects to make their game more approachable.

Since Xbox released the Xbox Adaptive Controller in 2018 alongside the charity AbleGamers, Microsoft seems to be invested in improving the playing experience for gamers with various disabilities. With this new program, not only will games be more inherently tailored to their needs but it also allows their voices to be heard.

Boiling it down

In the United States alone, there are approximately 33 million gamers that live with a disability. Although video games have been more accessible than they've ever been, it is unfortunate that serious efforts to make games accessible are somewhat rare.

In addition to this new program by Xbox, many major developers have in-house accessibility consultants to advise developers on tactics to remove barriers to entry such as by including remappable controls. By doing so, disabled gamers are able to play the same game that their friends are playing with the same level of challenge - ensuring parity.

Smaller developers may not have the resources required to hire accessibility consultants, but Xbox's new program will hopefully allow them to better tap into the needs of disabled gamers more cost-efficiently.

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