The accessibility white paper offers developers tools and measures to evaluate their video games

June 12 (Portaltic/EP) –

He ‘Accessibility white paper for developers’ is presented as a compilation of measures that aims to raise awareness in society about disability and offer tools to these creators to self-assess their work in terms of accessibility

The Spanish Association of Video Games (AEVI) and the ONCE Foundation They have presented this work this Monday, in which they bring together a series of accessibility measures so that developers consider the needs that must be covered so that people with some type of disability can play their games.

To prepare this document, its creators have been “learning and risking in equal parts”, as well as delving “into the unknown”, because “until a few years ago people with disabilities had no place in this industry“, as explained by Kike García Cortés, one of the authors of this book and head of the Ga11y project: Accessible Videogames at Fundación Once.

For the Vice President of Equality, Human Resources, Institutional Culture and Digital Inclusion of ONCE, Patricia Sanz, this book covers the need to think about accessibility also for leisure and not only for the training or professional field.

“You should and can feel included when you are studying or when you are working. It is essential that you feel included in your peer group, that there is social inclusiveness, in addition to educational and labor“, has said.

In this sense, he has qualified that with this ‘White Paper on accessibility for developers’ a series of measures have been established that developers should take into account “so that people with disabilities also find it attractive to play.”

In this way, García Cortés has recalled that until a few years ago -the specialized industry took seriously the incorporation of measures that make their products and services reach more of the population as of 2018- finding a relatively accessible game for blind or deaf people among other disabilities, it was very difficult.

“We thought it was necessary for there to be videogames for everyone, not by chance, that accessible formats be included without raising them out of necessity, but by right”, he clarified in this meeting to which Europa Press has had access.

To get it, this white paper enter a total of 61 measures aimed at making accessible up to nine disability profiles (partial or no vision, partial or no hearing, difficulty handling or severe or moderate strength, difficulty comprehension, difficulty seeing colors, and difficulty speaking) and five difficulty profiles.

Regarding the accessibility measures, the speakers have highlighted some of those that are classified with a star, which means that they have the least difficulty for their implementation.

This section includes up to 28 measures, among which are 3D Audio -which is achieved by positioning sound sources in any part of the three-dimensional space- or the deactivation of the so-called tinnitus sounds, that is, buzzing, beeping or low or high-pitched noises that can be heard temporarily or chronicle.

He copilot mode It is another of the measures that this document highlights, which insists that it is not related to the cooperative mode to use. In this case, users are offered the ability for another person with another controller, mouse or keyboard to play the same video game to support the person who needs it.

In the two-star section, whose measures -18 in total- acquire a greater degree of difficulty to implement in video games, are the fall barriers, which prevent users from leaving the game scenarios, self-descriptions, personalization of colors and the perception of volume of objects.

Also among these measures are the possibility of reducing the sensitivity when aiming (during a ‘shooter’, for example) so that the reticle moves faster or slower, readjusting the font size or the tutorials with basic functionalities.

15 COMPLEX ACCESSIBILITY MEASURES

The last sections of this white paper refer to the measures that are classified with three stars of difficulty level -seven in total-, four stars (5) and five stars (3).

To create more accessible video games for people with disabilities, from AEVI and Fundación ONCE propose to offer contrast calibration optionsto separate enemies from allies in a game by color, in addition to auto-aim, to directly target the closest enemy.

This section also includes the ability for developers to incorporate mounts and transports for players that activate or advance automatically, as well as HUD customization.

The information displayed on the interface during the game is called HUD, with icons, number of lives, level of health or maps, among other details. With this criterion, it will be possible to customize aspects such as scale, color or blinking.

The measures included in the four-star section require mechanics such as the placement of markers, the identification of the environment or the integration of the autopilot as a method of search for self-guided paths to follow during the game.

For fast response events, for example, these measures allow you to slow down or stop the action of the game, that is, slow motion, which allows players to react in advance to certain events.

Also part of this classification is the so-called predictive texta technology that allows you to generate words by pressing a single button for each letter, which supports not going letter by letter when writing.

Finally, the ‘White Paper on accessibility for developers’ proposes three measures considered to be the most difficult to implement when designing a video game. One of them is the option to include a sign language interpreter.

In multiplayer video games, two other measures applied to the interaction with other users are proposed, through text, which must work with the possibility of voice dictation at the entrance. The other measure, text-to-speech, requires enabling on-screen text narration, so the game can translate the typed message into a voice clip using a synthesizer.

HARDWARE MATTERS TOO

To close this book, its creators have focused in the peripherals or the ‘hardware’, that receives the information to be able to interact with a video game, which allows the connection between the title and the player.

Among some of the outstanding devices that favor accessibility in the video game industry are the device xbox adaptive controller, that unifies the controls centrally and allows customization options for a better experience during the game.

PlayStation, For its part, it has the so-called Access Controller, a customizable control kit that includes different interchangeable components, such as covers for analog ‘joysticks’ and covers for buttons of different shapes and sizes.

Hori Flex, for Nintendo, allows you to connect additional support buttons and ‘joysticks’ through auxiliary ports and USB inputs. In addition, thanks to an application -App Flex- up to twelve personalized user profiles can be configured, six for Nintendo Switch and another six for PC.

Finally, the creators of this document have insisted on the importance of 3D printing in ‘hardware’ accessibility, designed, for example, for people who can only use the control knob with one hand.