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Developer accessibility resources V1.5

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The resources collected here can help developers create more accessible and inclusive experiences. These resources do not include any paid services external to Xbox or Microsoft. This list will be updated as accessibility knowledge in this space grows and advances.

If you have any questions, feedback, or updated content, please email the Gaming Accessibility Team.

Version 1.5 was published June 14, 2023. To view the change history, see Developer accessibility resources - Version history

Any resource with "(NEW)" in front is new for this version.

Accessibility guidance

Microsoft accessibility guidance

Developers can use these resources to learn how to align their game with the Xbox Accessibility Guidelines (XAGs) while connecting with the gaming and disability community to help make this goal a reality.

  • Xbox Accessibility Guidelines (XAG): Set of best practices for creating accessible gaming experiences at Xbox. The XAGs have been developed in partnership with industry experts and members of the gaming & disability community.

  • Gaming and Disability Player Experience Guide (GADPEG): A supplemental resource to the Xbox Accessibility Guidelines providing game developers a holistic understanding of the barriers that players with certain types of disabilities may experience.

Guidelines outside Microsoft

  • Game Accessibility Guidelines: Accessibility guidelines presented in a straightforward developer friendly way broken down into three categories, basic, intermediate, and advanced. These guidelines have been created by a group of studios, specialists, and academics.

  • Accessible Player Experience (APX): A data driven set of design patterns from the AbleGamers Charity based on input from hundreds of players with disabilities to help developers innovate accessibility options in their games early in their design lifecycle.

Xbox Adaptive Controller

The Xbox Adaptive Controller (XAC) is a controller made specifically to meet the needs of players with physical disabilities. There is a multitude of content available for the XAC that developers can learn from, but here are some resources to start with.

  • How it works: Explore the Xbox Adaptive Controller: This video introduces the XAC and how it works.

  • Get to know the Xbox Adaptive Controller: This page details the features of the XAC with a breakdown of each face of the controller, its buttons, and ports.

  • XAC History: This video gives an inside look into the creation of the XAC including the principles behind its creation and the challenges it works to solve.

  • Xbox Accessories & Controllers: The XAC is compatible with a host of external joysticks and buttons, all of which are considered assistive technology (AT). Players can use these peripherals to create their own controller that meets their needs. The accessories and controllers on this linked page can be filtered by assistive technologies to view devices compatible with the XAC.

    • Logitech Adaptive Gaming Kit: This is a collection of buttons created by Logitech in collaboration with Xbox that are compatible with the XAC and made specifically to game with.

  • Configuring the XAC in the Xbox Accessories app: The XAC's buttons as well as external buttons and joysticks connected to it can be remapped to meet the player's specific needs. This resource walks users through the configuration process.

  • Xbox Adaptive Controller Hub: This hub is filled with XAC information and links for anyone looking to learn more.

Connecting with customers

"Nothing about us without us". Getting input for your game from the gaming and disability community should be an integral part of development. Below are resources that can be leveraged to get that input.

  • Xbox Accessibility Insider League (XAIL): A special group within the Xbox Insiders Program with over 100 thousand players who have interest in accessibility. Developers can use XAIL to connect with players invested in accessibility and obtain feedback on game builds.

  • AbleGamers Player Panels: A service that connects studios and technology developers with hundreds of players with disabilities for input into game design or playtesting.

Documentation

Documentation about a game’s accessibility is incredibly important as it can help players with disabilities make informed purchased decisions. These resources can help developers learn how to document the accessibility of their game.

Features

  • Accessibility Feature Tags: Developers can identify accessibility features in their game by tagging the features outlined on this page. This metadata helps players find games with desired accessibility features in Xbox stores. Documentation linking these tags to relevant XAGs is also included.

  • The Family Gaming Database - Accessibility Data: The Family Gaming Database is a huge searchable resource for families to search and find games that meet the needs of any player. When searching, accessibility features can be selected to filter search results to games that may be able to meet specific needs. This accessibility search criteria can even be combined with other criteria, like age rating, genre, playstyle, and more to truly refine game searches.

    • Developers can add accessibility info for their game to the database by filling out a questionnaire. The questionnaire asks developers a series of questions that aim to guide them through the kinds of designs and features that their game may offer players. To learn more, visit: Create An Accessibility Page For Your Video Game

  • PlayStation 5 Console Accessibility: PlayStation 5 has an extensive accessibility menu including a Display area where a player can customize platform text size, change to bold text, and reduce motion.

  • Ubisoft Game Accessibility Features: Ubisoft’s website allows you to search for “accessibility” and find game articles detailing the accessibility features available in those titles. Developers can use this resource to learn more about these features as well as how to communicate about them on their game’s product detail pages.

Authoring documentation

  • How to Write in Plain English: Guide teaching writers, and game developers, how to write in plain English which can help increase the accessibility of text for any player.

Courses and trainings

Learning how to bake accessibility into game development can seem like a huge undertaking, but being open to learning is the biggest and best first step to take! These resources are some free and paid offerings to learn how to create accessible experiences.

Free training courses (self-study)

  • Gaming Accessibility Fundamentals Learning Path: Free learning path that provides an introduction to the basics of gaming accessibility concepts and the opportunity to learn more about the experiences of players with disabilities.

  • SpecialEffect DevKit: Free resource created for game developers to help them make games more accessible for players with physical disabilities. Covers various topics including configuring interactions, continuous holds, repeated presses, and input methods through a series of videos. Created by SpecialEffect.

  • Accessible Design with Unreal Engine: Free course for Unreal where developers can learn how to improve the accessibility of a project within the Unreal engine.

  • Practical Game Accessibility with Unity: Free several hour long course for Unity where developers can learn how to be an inclusive game designer, implement accessibility, and more.

  • Creating accessible content with Microsoft 365: Free learning path that teaches the basics of creating accessible content using Microsoft 365's Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook.

  • Making your PowerPoint Presentations Accessible: This talk teaches how to create accessible PowerPoint presentations. Here you can learn how use of color and contrast affect the readability of the content, how logical structure, order, and text descriptions are necessary for people using screen readers to understand the content, and how you can add captions and subtitles. Included are examples of accessible and inaccessible content and demos of how people with disabilities consume the content.

Video playlists

These YouTube playlists are filled with various length videos that can give a great introduction into how developers can make accessible games.

Supporting developers with disabilities

  • (NEW) The New ID@Xbox Developer Acceleration Program: The ID@Xbox Developer Acceleration Program helps underrepresented developers, including those with disabilities, to get their games on Xbox. It offers many resources to help make the process of publishing on Xbox smoother.

  • (NEW) Limit Break, Video Game Mentorship Program: UK based mentorship program aimed at underrepresented people, including those with disabilities, working in the UK games industry. Participants are paired with a mentor who is an established professional in their field.

Conferences

These conferences offer opportunities to learn about gaming accessibility and everything that surrounds it including the larger field of digital accessibility.

Free conferences

  • GAconf (Gaming Accessibility Conference): Conferences focused on gaming accessibility. GAconf offers all developers and members of the disability and gaming community learning opportunities, inspiration, and networking all with the focus on making gaming as accessible and inclusive as possible.

  • Axe-con: Conference focused on digital accessibility that can offer game developers insight into creating more accessible experiences even outside of gaming, like on various game stores and other resources related to the games they develop.

Other conferences

  • Game Developer Conference (GDC): Conference that is the game industry’s premier professional event. Sessions address all areas of game development.

  • CSUN Assistive Technology Conference: The world’s longest running and largest conference covering all topics of assistive technology. Developers can attend to learn more about assistive technology through a wide array of topics including gaming.

Talks

We have curated a list of talks to help you create accessible gaming experiences. Many are by developers themselves as well as players with disabilities and advocates.

Accessibility journey of games

  • (NEW) Building up Accessibility in LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga: GAconf Europe 2023 talk by Christopher McGerr, TT Games. LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga features more accessibility settings and features than any LEGO game to come before it. In this presentation, Senior Designer Christopher McGerr discusses the journey taken to bring accessibility to LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, with a particular focus on what was done to make the game fully playable without audio.

  • (NEW) Retrofitting Accessibility in Deathloop: GAconf Europe 2023 talk by Yoann Bazoge, Arkane Studios. This talk uses concrete examples to show how Arkane Lyon has been able to make DEATHLOOP more accessible by following player feedback after launch. Topics include d-pad menu updates, gameplay modifiers like game speed, visuals options, and more.

  • The Road to Accessibility in Rocksmith+: GAconf 2022 talk that traces the steps taken by the Rocksmith team to overhaul the accessibility of a franchise existing since 2011, all guided by inclusive design principles.

  • Expanding Accessibility in The Last of Us Part 1: GAconf 2022 talk that discusses the development of cinematic audio descriptions, DualSense features, and other accessibility features developed for The Last of Us Part I on PlayStation 5.

  • Make it a Pillar: Prioritizing Accessibility in the AAA Market: GAconf Europe 2022 talk from Playground's Lead Game Designer and accessibility champion for Forza Horizon 5. The talk discusses the Forza team's strategies for keeping accessibility a top priority through a multi-year development cycle, and describes some of the challenges the studio faced in creating the innovative Sign Language feature.

  • ScourgeBringer: an Indie Accessibility Post-Mortem: GAconf Europe 2021 talk discussing how a developer brought accessibility to a very difficult game called ScourgeBringer. Much of the game’s accessibility is thanks to inclusive game design via the game’s art direction, audio design, and game play mechanics. On top of that, the game has an extensive settings menu where players can customize the game as needed.

  • Driving Accessibility Advancements in Watch Dogs: Legion: GAconf Europe 2021 talk from a developer of Watch Dogs: Legion sharing an inside view and tips on how to build accessibility into the game including remapping, visualized sound effects, and aim lock-on.

  • SEQUENCE STORM: a Solo Developer's Musical Experiment in Accessibility: GAconf 2020 talk discussing how accessibility was implemented into SEQUENCE STORM including details on many of its extensive accessibility options.

  • The Accessibility in Last of Us Part II: A 3 Year Journey: GAconf 2020 talk detailing the accessibility story for the Last of Us Part II. It details how several of the accessibility features were implemented including text-to-speech, audio cues, high contrast mode, and more.

  • Font Sizing Out Of This World: GAconf 2020 talk discussing how developers retrofitted text size customization into Outer Worlds. The talk demonstrates how developers can use tools within the Unreal game engine to create this feature.

  • Adding Controller Remapping to Destiny 2: GAconf 2020 talk discussing the development team’s story in retrofitting controller remapping into Destiny 2. The talk details the feature itself, how the team approached its build, and the challenges in building the feature.

  • Building an Inclusive Tech Lab: GAconf Europe 2018 talk by Tara Voelker discussing the Microsoft Inclusive Technologies Lab. The talk explores the value of a dedicated inclusive technologies space, how the lab was launched, what went right (and not quite right) during the first year of operation, and provide detailed tips and tricks for studios to set up their own accessibility-centric space.

Building accessibility processes into development

  • (NEW) Accessibility Planning – choosing the right blueberries for your project: GAconf Europe 2023 talk by Mila Pavlin, Monolith Productions. Accessibility planning can feel overwhelming when a projects starts, but some good decisions early on can make all the difference in getting a pipeline accessible from the start. Learn about accessibility planning methods, how to pick what to work on when, and what it takes to make sure the community is involved in every step.

  • (NEW) The Frontlines of Accessibility QA: Getting Your Hands Dirty: GAconf Europe 2023 talk by Aidan Bower, Lucile Dolbeau, Li Brady, and Andrei Bogdan Sandru. Panelists discuss what Accessibility QA is, how game developers and publishers can implement accessibility in their QA teams, and how this can improve the games they make.

Connecting with players

Captions, subtitles, and audio cues

  • Closed Captions in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: From Design to Implementation: This GAconf 2022 talk shares knowledge and findings learned from working on AAA closed captions. The talk discusses the many factors that impact the quality of closed captions including design and localization while sharing the impact that these closed captions had for players.

  • Deaf Accessibility: The Power of Customization: GAconf 2020 talk discussing how settings such as captions, audio, and audio cues can create accessible gaming experience for players who are d/Deaf or Hard of Hearing. It also discusses how developers can use preset settings to help not overwhelm players with too many accessibility settings.

  • Subtitles in XR: A Practical Framework: GAconf 2020 talk on how developers can implement subtitles into XR games using Guided Level Organic Safe Subtitles (GLOSS). It includes fundamentals of the system and best practices such as timing and positioning of subtitles.

Cognitive accessibility

  • Ideas for Accessible Typography: GAconf 2022 talk explaining research done on providing accessible typography in Double Fine's Psychonauts 2. The talk discusses ways to provide players with typography settings that can improve their reading experience in-game.

  • Create Dynamic, Accessible Content with Azure Neural Voice: Game Developer Conference 2022 talk introduces developers to Azure Speech Service to improve accessibility in games using incredibly life-like synthesized speech. The talk explores game chat for accessibility, creating dynamic content, and game localization while also showing several customer use cases.

Difficulty vs accessibility

  • (NEW) Can I do that?: GAconf Europe 2023 talk exploring the subtle difference between ability, capability, and capacity. Join Jamie + Lion as they guide you through these useful concepts and how to harness them to create great gaming experiences.

  • Difficulty Vs Accessibility: Short GAconf 2021 talk defining difficulty and accessibility and discusses how they relate.

  • Putting the Assist Mode in Control: GAconf Europe 2021 talk by a developer of Control detailing how the development team gathered feedback from the community and addressed the uneven difficulty experience in the game. It was addressed by adding an Assist Mode complete with a set of customizable settings so players can customize for their gaming needs.

Horror

Inclusive design / playstyles

  • (NEW) Accessibility Driven Development: An inside look into Stories of Blossom: GAconf Europe 2023 talk by Conor Bradley, Soft Leaf Studios. Through the experience gained while developing Stories of Blossom, Conor shares the best practices developers can take to better include accessibility in our development pipelines. The talk looks at how to identify the barriers that can block players, how to best address them, and how we can work with the disability community to better improve the accessibility of the games we make.

  • Fusing Accessibility with Game Design: GAconf 2022 talk on what can happen if accessibility is considered from day one of game design, which can make its inclusion easier and cheaper. This talk also discusses how accessibility is baked into Lost and Hound as integral gameplay elements.

  • The SG Accessibility Matrix: Invest Your Scope Wisely: GAconf 2022 talk covers an Accessibility Matrix that Schell Games created in order to help in their game planning while managing a limited budget. This matrix is filled with accessibility considerations broken down by categories that developers can use to plan inclusive design. The talk also gives several examples of how to take concepts and desired game mechanics and make them accessible.

  • Prioritizing Accessible Player Experiences: Game Developers Conference 2022 talk from Christopher Power of AbleGamers Canada about how to prioritize accessibility options in your game. Presenting data from over 150 players, the talk gives examples of the most important options that are pre-requisite to many players joining your game community.

  • Pausing and Peering Into the Distance: GAconf 2021 talk on how inclusive design can push accessibility beyond just customizing the gaming experience for players with disabilities. It also discusses ways to define and think about accessibility from a development point of view.

  • Making The Big Con Accessible: GAconf 2021 talk on how developers made The Big Con accessible to a wide array of players with different disabilities. The talk shows examples of many of the inclusive and accessible design choices and discusses how they are not only accessible but also supportive of different playstyles and needs.

Infinite play time

  • Accessible Game Design – Infinite Play & Infinite Time: GAconf Europe 2021 talk from a father of two players with disabilities discussing how infinite play and infinite time in games benefits players with disabilities and how they create powerful gaming experiences for them. The problem is, there are not a lot of games with these types of features and this talk serves as a call to developers to change this.

Input accessibility

  • Game Accessibility For Eye Gaze Users: GAconf Europe 2021 talk by a gamer with disabilities who uses eye gaze to communicate and play games. The talk details how eye gaze works in games and what makes a game accessible or inaccessible when using eye gaze.

Multiple disabilities

Progressive disabilities

  • (NEW) Never give up, never surrender: GAconf Europe 2023 talk by Antonio Martinez, Game Accessibility Nexus. How can accessibility address progressive disabilities? In this talk Antonio talks about his experience in gaming, adapting to the new challenges with a mix of hardware, software and a bit of creative thinking. And more importantly, what accessibility features can be more impactful when your needs evolve.

Representation

  • (NEW) Everybody dance! Representation in Just Dance: GAconf Europe 2023 talk about how Just Dance 2023 won the award for Best Representation at the Game Accessibility Awards by including Florent, a wheelchair performer. Matthew Tomkinson, creative director, tells the story of the collaboration and shares his insights and how to foster representation within creative processes.

  • Design challenges and solutions: Mental health representation in games: GAconf 2022 talk that explores the ways in which mental health representation in the media, and games specifically, impact the larger discussion around mental health and mental illness. The talk also presents a dimensional model of mental illness representation in games, which is a framework for assessing video game content in this area.

  • Moving Disability Representation Beyond “It Matters”: GaConf 2021 panel discussing how developers can and should represent people with disabilities in their games.

Visual accessibility

Blogs

The blogs below are owned by people with disabilities where they share about their experiences with gaming with disabilities. Developers can use them to get valuable insight directly from these players on how to make their games more accessible.

  • Electronic Epileptic: This blog records an epilepsy consultant's experiences when encountering epileptic triggering game content. This can educate developers on what type of content can trigger seizures and also learn how to reduce these triggers and make games safer for players with epilepsy.

    Important

    This blog has actual examples of potentially triggering content and users who are photosensitive or might be photosensitive should take extreme care visiting it and accessing the links within.

Articles

The articles below are written by game accessibility specialists sharing knowledge on how to best support the game accessibility space and players with disabilities.

  • Community Etiquette: This LinkedIn article by Brannon Zahand discusses how best to interact with people with disabilities.

  • IGDA-GASIG Top Ten: This article from the IGDA Game Accessibility Specialist Interest Group (GASIG) details ten considerations to make games more accessible. When considered early enough in development, these ten should not be difficult or expensive to implement and they will make a significant difference to players with disabilities.

Accessibility Technology

The technology resources below can be used by developers to learn from and implement in their games.

  • Electronic Arts (EA): Our Patent Pledge for Increasing Accessibility: (Free) EA has made available several accessibility technology patents that developers can use royalty-free. The patents share extensive information on how and why the technology works, and what it means to incorporate it effectively in a game. They include patents that can make games more accessible for players with vision, hearing, speaking, cognitive, or motor disabilities.

Testing and tools

The tests below can be used by developers themselves or requested to evaluate the accessibility of various aspects of a game.

Testing services (paid)

  • Microsoft Gaming Accessibility Testing Service (MGATS): An optional program through which game developers and publishers of Xbox and PC titles can submit their products for secure, confidential accessibility testing conducted by accessibility subject matter experts and players with disabilities.

  • Harding Test: Online testing service that analyzes submitted video clips for flashing and patterns which can cause seizures in players with epilepsy.

Testing tools (free)

  • Color Oracle: Free colorblindness simulator for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Applies a full screen color filter to the game content being designed so game developers can examine how colorblind accessible their game content is.

  • Accessibility Insights for Windows: Free app with tools allowing developers to test color contrast.

Developer tools

Below are a wealth of tools developers can use to build accessibility into their games. The tools are divided into several categories including disability category and what development environment they work in.

General

  • XAccessibility: These accessibility APIs enable developers to design, set, and modify game accessibility features and information in their game. For example, developers can configure closed caption properties, the high contrast mode, and the text edge style. Developers can also modify the text that displays on the speech-to-text window, and the position of the speech-to-text window.

Tools – Visual accessibility

  • Spatial Sound for App Developers for Windows, Xbox, and Hololens 2: Documentation on how to implement Microsoft’s platform-level solution for spatial sound support on Xbox, Windows and HoloLens 2, enabling both surround and elevation audio cues. The spatial sound APIs within allow developers to create audio objects that emit audio from positions in 3D space.

  • Dolby Games and Dolby Atmos: Dolby site with great conceptual documentation on spatial sound. Included are links to Dolby Atmos resources for Wwise, FMOD, Xbox, PC, and Mobile.

Tools – Cognitive accessibility

Unity tools

  • Accessibility Self Assessment Tool: (Free) Simple tools that adds a window into Unity that allows developers to self-assess how accessible your game is.

  • ReadSpeaker: Plugin with APIs for either Unreal or Unity that can add text-to-speech capabilities to a game. Resource offers free trial and plug-in installation videos.

  • VR Tunnelling Pro: (Free) VR comfort solution for Unity 5.6+. It can be dropped in to almost any project for plug-and-play comfort options, based on grid and periphery shrinking while moving & turning.

  • Apple Unity Plug-Ins: (Free) These open source plug-ins give support for assistive technologies like Voice Over and Switch Control to Unity game projects. This link also features a video tutorial and links to other resources.

Unity tools – Visual accessibility

  • UI Accessibility Plugin (UAP): (Free) Plug in for Unity that helps developers make their games more accessible for players who are blind or have low vision. Also includes a tutorial video, documentation, and support forum.

  • SeeingVR Toolkit: A set of 14 tools for Unity that enhance a VR application for people with low vision by providing visual and audio augmentations

  • Accessibility: Text Resizing: (Free) A one-click four step lightweight solution to add in text resizing. this key accessibility feature.

  • Responsive Spatial Audio for Immersive Gaming: (Free) Unity plug-in to help developers build accessibility for players without sight into 3D game environments.

Unity tools – Audio accessibility

  • Simple SRT: Simple parser to display subtitles stored in standard SRT timecoded format.

  • Q! Subtitles: (Free) Simple yet powerful subtitle system for Unity projects.

Unity tools – Cognitive accessibility

  • Dyslectek: (Paid) Quick and easy text-to-speech for dyslexic players.

Unity tools – Input accessibility

  • Rewired Remapping Plugin for Unity: (Paid) This robust plugin makes it easy for developers to add remapping and multiplayer to their game. It is advertised as the only input system for Unity with native support for a multitude of platforms and its advanced features.

  • cInput Remapping Plugin for Unity: (Paid) API that is a custom input manager which effectively replicates, improves, and therefore replaces Unity's built-in input manager.

  • inControl Remapping Plugin for Unity: (Paid) API that makes it easy for developers to add controller support to a game.

  • Sinput: (Donation) Input wrapper for Unity made primarily for keyboard, mouse, & gamepad input, with a focus on making it easy for developers to make more accessible games and add multiplayer support.

  • Click to Bind: (Free) Lightweight solution for remapping in Unity.

Unreal tools

Unreal tools – Colorblind accessibility

  • Colorblind Widget: Helps developers apply colorblind correction settings to the game window.

Unreal tools – Visual accessibility

Unreal tools – Audio accessibility

  • How to Enable Subtitles: Guide on how to enable subtitles into the game.

  • Yellow Subs Machine: (Paid) Customizable subtitles solution for Unreal Engine 4. Covers as many legal & best-practice recommendations as possible, and player-requested features such as toggleable speaker color, displaying the speaker’s tone of voice, and more.

Unreal tools – Cognitive accessibility

  • ReadSpeaker: Plugin with APIs for either Unreal or Unity that can add text-to-speech capabilities to a game. Resource offers free trial and plug-in installation videos.

Unreal tools – Input accessibility