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Accessibility Audit

☻Qualitative Method:
Explore how players feel and behave through interviews, observations, and open-ended feedback. (with optional quantitative metrics)

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Best Stage: Mid–late development (and before launch)

Primary Goal: Identify and remove barriers so the product is usable by people with diverse abilities

Effort: Moderate

Overview

An accessibility audit for a game is a systematic process that evaluates how well a game can be used by players with a wide range of disabilities, including visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive impairments. The goal is to identify and address barriers that may prevent players from having an enjoyable and equitable gameplay experience.

Accessibility in Games: Why It Matters

Accessibility is all about making sure everyone can enjoy your game—without unnecessary hurdles getting in the way. That includes people with a wide range of impairments, whether permanent, temporary, or situational.
 

Around 15% of the population has a disability, and that number climbs to 20% among casual gamers (PopCap). But it’s not just about disability. Lots of other factors can affect how someone experiences a game:

  • About 14% of adults read below an 11-year-old level (NCES, BIS)

  • 8% of men have red-green color blindness (AAO)

  • Plenty of players might be recovering from an injury, have a noisy environment, bright sunlight on their screen, or just different preferences for how they play.

The truth is: there’s no such thing as a “typical” player. Everyone brings a different set of needs and experiences to your game.
 

Making your game more accessible isn’t just good design—it’s good business, and more importantly, it’s good for people. Games are more than just entertainment. For many, they’re a way to socialize, unwind, express themselves, or find joy. For players with profound impairments, games can offer independence, distraction from pain, and even therapy.

When you design for accessibility, you're designing for everyone.

Reference Accessibility Guidelines

Commonly used frameworks:
 

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