Ask anyone what they like about video games — they’ll likely mention the escapism or immersion they experience while playing a game. After all, where else can you surf through dunes on a Sand Seal, construct a Stone Age empire, or barter for used spaceships in a massive intergalactic economy? But for players with disabilities or other limiting conditions, the design of games themselves can be a barrier to entry. That’s why it’s important to design games for accessibility.

When designers make games with people with disabilities in mind, they make better games for everyone. For example, including text captions not only helps people with hearing loss, but it helps those with situational impairments, such as someone with broken headphones or a parent trying not to wake up their sleeping baby.

As a game designer, you can solve for accessibility in infinitely creative ways. The details can seem overwhelming, so I’ve broken it down into 5 broad rules. If you keep these 5 rules in mind, you’ll be well on your way to creating a better game for everyone.

1. Say Everything Twice

Any time you need to convey a message to a player, whether that’s through cutscenes, dialog, tutorials, tooltips, or in-game actions and speech, say it to the player twice, in two different mediums. That means every message should use both audio AND visual communication. There’s a lot of creative freedom in how you may accomplish this, and using both audio and visuals creates a more immersive experience for players too.

Examples:

✅ — Multisensory Experience

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (2018)

When enemies get closer, they get louder and their outlines become more opaque, so deaf gamers like Susan can get the full experience (more great examples on OneOddGamerGirl.net).

❌ — Audio only