Importance Score: 65 / 100 🔴
Steam Enhances Game Accessibility with New Feature Tags
Valve rolled out enhanced accessibility features on the Steam store, allowing gamers to identify titles that cater to their specific needs. This update, revealed initially in April, lets users view accessibility options directly on a game’s store page, located in the sidebar beneath controller support details. Moreover, the Steam accessibility features allows users to find games based on individual options, such as “playable without timed input,” making the platform more inclusive and user-friendly.
“This modification follows pivotal input from both developers and gamers with impairments,” Valve noted in their announcement. “And close to 5,000 applications have incorporated specifics regarding their accessibility backing as more developers modernize their games daily.”
Discoverability through Accessibility Features
Steam’s search page now offers a “narrow by accessibility feature” selection, unveiling options like “color alternatives” or “adjustable text size.” Players who once struggled with color-dependent puzzles can now find games that allow color customization. Certain features, like “save anytime” and “adjustable text size”, are beneficial for all players, showcasing the universal appeal of improved accessibility.
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Games Embracing Accessibility
Multiple titles including recent releases are now spotlighting their accessibility features on their respective store pages. For example, Baldur’s Gate 3 showcases ten features, ranging from “adjustable difficulty” to “playable without timed input.” Below is a comprehensive list outlining these accessibility options and explaining their functions:
Gameplay
- Adjustable Difficulty: Option to modify the game’s difficulty level.
- Save Anytime: Ability to save the game at any point, using both auto and manual saves.
Visual
- Adjustable Text Size: Ability to change the size of in-game text.
- Subtitle Options: Customizable display settings for subtitles.
- Color Alternatives: Gameplay that does not rely solely on color for critical information or options to adjust colors for clarity.
- Camera Comfort: Settings to adjust or disable camera movements like screen shaking or motion blur.
Audio
- Custom Volume Controls: Independent volume adjustments for diverse audio elements.
- Narrated Game Menus: Audio narration of game menus.
- Stereo Sound: Ability to discern the direction of sounds from left to right.
- Surround Sound: Ability to pinpoint the direction of sounds around the player.
Input
- Keyboard Only Option: Playable using only a keyboard.
- Mouse Only Option: Playable using only a mouse.
- Touch Only Option: Playable using only touch controls.
- Playable without Timed Input: Gameplay that doesn’t demand precise button presses, or offers options to bypass such scenarios.
- Text-to-speech: Real-time narration of text chat .
- Speech-to-text communications: Real-time transcription of voice chat into text.