Despite the increased interest and progress made by game developers to include accessibility features in their games, exceptions remain. Using the Game Accessibility Guidelines, a study found that in 2022 approximately two-thirds of the basic accessibility features were included fully in the games with the most concurred players on the video game platform Steam. Since the study only covers basic accessibility features, the fact that the result is not higher remains an issue, especially since sometimes the basic features are not fully implemented, either.
For an interactive medium such as video games, accessibility features can cover anything from control schemes, audio, and subtitles to the easy-to-use design of the user interface. To that end, accessibility and usability guidelines ask that products such as video games consider all users and their needs as much as possible.
To research the current state of accessibility in some of the most popular games, the study by Nico Trick, Cody Phillips, Carl Gutwin, and Lori Bradford includes popular titles such as Satisfactory, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, Elden Ring, Phasmophobia, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Football Manager 2022. As an example, a heavily text-based game such as Football Manager 2022 not fully implementing accessibility features related to readability does directly affect the game’s playability. However, since all the listed games were some of the most played in 2022, when the games were selected for the study, the results do also show that the lack of accessibility features doesn’t diminish each game’s appeal to a wider audience, either.
Overall, the study found that the categories that include features such as no mandatory speech inputs, separate volume controls, and subtitles, were included in the games the most. In comparison, the lowest rated category includes features such as difficulty levels and informing the player of the available accessibility features the games have. To actually make these features available to the players who need them, the study highlights the usefulness of the opt-out model for basic accessibility features, such as subtitles, so that they are turned on by default when the game starts. That way, the players who need these features the most don’t need to go looking for them.
The study also considers the size of each development studio to see if there is any connection between the number of included accessibility features and the studio size. The results show no big differences between how many of the features are included in the games, which means that studios do consider the basic accessibility features regardless of size. However, the result also raises the question why bigger studios don’t fully implement all these basic accessibility features, either, considering the resources available to them.
The games for the study were selected based on the number of concurred players in June 2022, and the selection only includes PC games released after March 2017 that are playable by keyboard and mouse. The study also considers only 24 of the basic accessibility features from the Game Accessibility Guidelines that the researchers were able to study for themselves in the selected games. The features were scored based on if they were fully implemented in the games or not, which means that the level of implementation is also considered in the scoring.
Research Article
Trick, N., Phillips, C., Gutwin, C., & Bradford, L. (2026). Content Analysis of Basic Accessibility Features in 30 Top Played Video Games. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 42(1), 425–440. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2025.2508307
Picture Credits
Cover image from Pixabay
