Accessible gaming

Video gaming hasn’t always been notable for accessibility, but as the medium grows and matures, accessibility features are becoming more available. This is a welcome development in an industry that – at $90 billion a year – is now larger than movies and music combined.

The latest Pokémon game, Pokémon Go, has just been released, and instead of its usual portable game console format, it was released as a phone app. Pokefans everywhere are taking to the streets to catch their favourite Pokémon, but this new game is not playable by everyone.

Video game developer Naughty Dog has recently updated the accessibility options, thanks to the insight from a gamer with cerebral palsy.  After feeling frustrated with the game, he decided to reach out to the game developers in order to make the game more accessible for people with disabilities.

A disabled gamer known as Halfcoordinated, who plays with one hand, has again impressed and inspired the games community by speedrunning (playing as quickly as possible) the new Transformers: Devastation game at this year’s Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ) event.