Disable

by c.J
published by Rinie 19 November 2009




Dad takes quite an interest in nearly everything I do. And I feel very grateful because of that. However problem is that I will tell him about certain games that he should play but I normally always forget…

He has Cerebral Palsy, which in his case means he has limited dexterity in the right side of his body. Because of this he cannot use a standard Xbox controller for a start! And any game that requires 2 hands is out. The good news he can obviously use a mouse very well (more accurate than most!) with his left hand. So games with mouse control only are fine. But how many games are there that are mouse control only? Not many I can tell you that much!



So, this is a subject that is quite rarely taken into consideration. And it’s an awful realisation that many disabilities are not accounted for in most games.
I’m not saying that the chaps at epic should rebuild the unreal engine to dumb down the visuals or that any action game should be re-written to abandon the WASD control system. However there are plenty of games out there that need to remember mouse control only systems should be a solid option and not an afterthought.

Let’s look at some of the other disabilities that directly affect gaming:

• Loss of Limbs
o Some games require a number of keys to be pressed in sequence these days, and if you can’t do it, playing that game can be difficult.

• Colour Blindness
o Most match-3 and casual game creators cottoned on quite quickly about the colour-based matching. However other game genres seem to have ignored this (green/red laser beams just for example?)

• Deafness
o I’m surprised that sound is still used to signify events on it’s own in some games these days! There should always, always be subtitles as an option.

• Reading difficulties
o If there’s lots of text to read it should require the user to decide when the “page turn” happens. Just because the voice over moves onto the next section shouldn’t determine this.


So, Spotgamers urge all readers to respect and be mindful to those who are not so lucky like us.