Accessibility as Success Criteria: Building accessibility from the ground up

Game Production Community Podcast

In this panel, host Juney invites four experienced accessibility professionals to guide us through the process of planning, budgeting, implementing and testing accessibility features from the ground up in both new and ongoing projects to make better and more welcoming experiences.
Our expert panellists:

• Ally McLean: Senior Producer at Mighty Kingdom
• Tabby Rose: UX Director at Mighty Yell
• Brannon Zahand: Senior Gaming Accessibility Program Manager at Microsoft
• Jonas Lundqvist: Senior Development Director at Respawn

Transcript can be found here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1055908/10019657

Please share with peers that could benefit from these expert insights & experiences!

Organised with the amazing support of Sergio Maldonado & our Supporters ♡
Resources shared during the panel:

• Article: How Producers can make games more accessible - https://workinglunch.substack.com/p/how-producers-can-make-games-more?r=nokf3&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=
• Xbox Accessibility Resources - https://aka.ms/xga
• Xbox Accessibility Guidelines - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/gaming/accessibility/guidelines
• Xbox Gaming Accessibility Fundamentals course - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/paths/gaming-accessibility-fundamentals/
• Microsoft Gaming Accessibility Testing Services - https://aka.ms/mgats
• Able Gamers Player Panels: Community of players with disabilities interested in participating in play-testing and user research on games - https://ablegamers.org/player-panels/#:~:text=AbleGamers%20Player%20Panels%20is%20a,to%20make%20games%20more%20accessible
• Unity Screen Reader - https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/gui/ui-accessibility-plugin-uap-87935
• TTS Speech Engine in development for Unreal & Unity - https://www.readspeaker.ai/unity-unreal-game-engine-plugin-free-trial/
• How developers are trying to solve motion sickness in video games - https://www.polygon.com/2013/10/26/4862474/video-games-and-motion-sickness-dying-light-techland-fps
• Twitter thread detailing Ubisoft subtitle usage - https://twitter.com/tisseranddavid/status/1143570437173104643
• Discord Live Transcription Bot - https://www.scriptly.xyz/

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord! For more articles and interviews with pro

We would love feedback: Reach out to us on Discord! For more articles and interviews with producers & others in the games industry, check out our affiliate website.
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Chapters

1. Accessibility as Success Criteria: Building accessibility from the ground up (00:00:00)

2. Panelist intros (00:00:59)

3. Ideal scenario/starting fresh: Selecting accessibility features to support (00:04:20)

4. Ideal scenario/starting fresh: Planning & Budgeting (00:09:36)

5. Ideal scenario/starting fresh: Preparing for feature implementation (00:10:53)

6. Non-ideal scenario/in development: Convincing stakeholders (00:12:34)

7. Non-ideal scenario/in development: Budget & Scope (00:23:34)

8. Community question: Cost-effective engine/middleware accessibility (00:32:06)

9. Non-ideal scenario/in development: Roadmap & Implementation (00:35:30)

10. Community question: Accessibility playtesting (00:40:51)

11. Non-ideal scenario/in development: Testing (00:43:15)

12. Q&A 1 - Language/Ratings support (00:44:55)

13. Q&A 2 - Surprising accessibility solutions (00:46:10)

14. Q&A 3 - Nausea/motion sickness (00:48:36)

15. Q&A 4 - Platform accessibility visibility (00:51:07)

16. Q&A 5 - Colourblind friendly tips (00:55:29)

17. Q&A 6 - What individuals can do (00:57:05)

18. Outro (01:00:45)