ask apple to push developers to be aware of the accessibility of their games?

Hey. We should tell apple. it will help our comunity.

It has nothing to do with apple. Apple provides the framework for accessibility, and it's up to devs. If you want things to be made accessible, then talk to the devs. There was a post on here a few yrs ago that talked about this, not dealing with games, but apps. Games are hard to be made accessible. I'm talking about the video side. the mainstream side. Anyway, if ya want a game made accessible, then talk to devs of your fav games, and give them the tools.

If Apple, for example, put an accessibility badge on games that work for Voiceover, and gave them an algorithmic boost in the app store, that would do wonders. Devs have very little incentive to make things accessible for the blind, as there are so few of us and as it takes a decent amount of work. Unfortunately, it feels like the chances to get Apple to do a push on this are low.

As previous people have said, it's not so much up to Apple. Apple does have to green-light app releases but that does not have anything to do with the accessibility of the individual games. There is also the factor of playability. Games like Fortnite, for instance, rely on intensive visuals and fast game-play. As of now there is no way to achieve that same speed and nature of gameplay through the current tools developers have at their disposal. Especially since many of these games are multi-player, the logistics would be very hard to coordinate, even for larger developers like Nintendo or Epic Games. Yes, it sucks that we can’t play these types of games, yes, I wish we could, but certain things are not possible to adapt without altering them beyond recognition.

I think Brandon's take here is the right one. Nothing will change without activism from the blind and likely also a larger campaign to make the broader community, of gamers and the public at large, aware of the issue.

The reality is that, like real life, not everything will be the same experience for us, but we can still be included. That means, at minimum:

1. Menus in games should be accessible.
2. Chat systems in games should be accessible.
3. Distribution platforms for games should be accessible.

These are highly achievable first steps, and there is already ADA legislation in the US that mandates that game chat must be accessible, but it isn't widely enforced.

Secondary objectives, or items to push for after the first three, are:

1. Text that appears in games should be accessible.
2. Distribution platforms should carry a mark that shows the game's relative level of accessibility. This could be, for example, color blind accessible at the lowerst level to fully accessible at the highest, with considerations for mobility and cognition.

Again, these are not unreasonable, and there is precedent. Yes, we might not be no-scoping people in Battlefield tomorrow, but we can take some steps toward a move toward greater access in games.

If people thought this was useful I could write something up. Maybe we can post on Reddit and do an upvote push at a designated time. Not sure if the era of COV is a good time for a push on this, but it might be if framed correctly.

I agree we seriously need to change the landscape of accessible gaming. I'm just so tired of everyone just saying the same thing like it's not accessible or it would be hard to make accessible. can we please at least try and change the focus so we can have better gaming experiences? simplistic junk is just borring.

be greatful for the games we have and the developers who code them. so what if mainstream games are inaccessible. it doesn't matter and their are tuns of games we can all ready play. who cares that they;re blindness spasific, just remember in the 80's we had no games. don't presure big companies to make games accessible, their is a lot of money and time and testing that goes into a game for the sited world, and we, the disability community, are nt enough of a market to bother with.

My stance falls in between the two extremes displayed here. On one hand, i do want to play games along with my sighted counterparts but i understand there are logistical issues. The plan outlined earlier in this thread (i think it was by Patrick I’m not entirely sure off the top of my head), is very logical and i think if we move forward with some action it should be modeled around this framework. For games like Fortnite the menus are already mostly accessible so we could truncate the list of steps as needed.

sorry danuel, but I'm not going to be gratefull for the lack of games and lack of accessible games besides the simplistic junk we have in the app store. it's people like you who make me crazy because you don't want change, you always have this be gratefull for what we have attitude, and I'm sorry, but I'm not a fan of simplistic junk. I dare you as a person to go tell a person who can see to be greatfull for something especially if it's a game they do not like, and see how fast your laughed out of the building. I think we can make change for the better, but attitudes like yours don't help us on that process.

Wow. Some of us are quick to flair up at a small bit of disagreement, it seems. for what it's worth, I'm also in the middle of this whole thing. So that's that.

I mean, if people don't want simplistic junk, then don't play it. Grab Retroarch for Mac and play some Dissidia Final Fantasy, or play an MUD using MudRammer; Clok is pretty good and advanced. I mean, we don't have to play Blindfold games. We don't have to play Diceworld all the time. We don't have to beg big game studios to make their games accessible. Few will. Focus on the smaller game studios. And yes, shame on Apple for not having an accessible game waiting when Apple Arcade first started. I stopped feeding them money through that so I don't know if there is one now or not, but I doubt it. Still, y'all act like an iPhone is all we have. If you have a Mac, there are plenty of text adventures, MUD's through Tintin++, or Retroarch for emulating older game consoles. And yes, some of those games can be enjoyed. If you have a Windows computer, that's even better! You have good audio games, Mortal Kombat because every blind person seems to love the over-the-top violence of murdering a person every few minutes, and MUD's with sound packs. Heck, AlterAeon is almost like playing a movie its sound is so good... sometimes.

So yeah, having simple iPhone games is tough. I know, it sucks. I'd love to take Clok with its sound pack around with me, or play Dissidia Final Fantasy in an accessible way on my iPhone. But I've grown tired of hearing the same two sides. "Oh my gosh we're blind and helpless so we should be grateful we have Blindfold and if we are not grateful they'll take it away from us and we'll be even more helpless!" Or: "Oh my goodness these stupid awful no good very bad developers don't give a breath of Investiture about us! Like, we should be able to play Mario Run and Pokemon Go and GTA Five and all these games and if they don't make them accessible then, by Adonalsium and Harmony's forearms, I'm gonna burn pewter and kick some butt! And all blind people have to agree because silence is violence, storm it!" Both get it wrong. Yes, activism is important, but learning to work with what we have is important. Yes, being grateful is important, but knowing that a company that is worth 1.5 trillion dollars can do a bit more for accessibility is also important.

So, really, I think we can all learn from this and not have to repeat the same argument until the headphone jack returns. It won't. And rehashing the same argument over and over won't help unless there's something new to add, some way to expand both arguments and find a nice solution of Apple putting at least Apple Arcade games in a ranking system of accessibility and adding an App-store-wide accessibility system where apps can be rated based on accessibility, and developers can show off accessible apps and gain our undying loyalty.

I don't think it's economically viable for Apple to do this, and they're already doing great things in the arena of accessibility and spotlighting accessible apps. That said, advocating directly to the game developers never hurts if that's what you want to do.

Also, instead of whining about the games that are "simplistic junk" in your opinion, why don't you learn to code and write something you'd like to play, or advocate in a constructive way? Using charged words like "junk" resolves nothing, discourages developers and makes the community look bad.

Best
Malthe

This is going to be very unpopular, but here it goes.

I've been gaming for almost 6 years. I've played games like GTA, as well as other open world games. Its not as impossible as some of you would like to believe. Is there a learning curve? absolutely, but to be honest, I enjoy figuring out how a game works, and realistic audio helps a lot. Once I figure out how a game works, I can play with near absolute freedom.
I take the time to learn the menus, all the different sounds that indicate an action, the controls, etc. I don't have anyone to help me, either.

Now, is the experience perfect, no. Driving is still something I can't do, but there are mods for that now, and getting hold of a plain isn't that difficult with cheats. As for shooting, running, and steeling cars, I can do that without difficulty. Here's a video of me playing, as I try to wage a campaign of violence against the civilians of liberty city. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1DX30ZSzJg

Now, things could be much, much better. But its not like adapting games as they are is impossible.

I think this will need more than a petition. We need some momentum in mainstream media first. Maybe I'll try to write something after I finish a major project In October. Or you could reach out to someone with a lot of Twitter or Instagram folloers to support a petition or try for a post on Reddit, though it really helps to grok that ecosystem and to write a post that will grab people. A petition would have to be the 2 in a 1-2 punch I think.