Gaming is one of life’s great pleasures. Whether playing a multiplayer game with your mates or trying to complete a single-player campaign, it can elevate one’s emotions to incredible heights. Of course, not everyone is lucky enough to enjoy the whole gaming experience. Take hearing-impaired players, for example; if a game doesn’t provide a visual alternative to an audio alert signifying an element of gameplay, those players could be impeded from even playing the game, never mind completing or enjoying it.
Accessibility wasn’t always a priority in the past, and while it is improving, there’s still a long way to go.
How big an issue is hearing loss?
According to PIA’s blog post, hearing loss that requires treatment affects more than 5% of the world’s population. That sounds a lot, but the World Health Organization predicts this number will increase to one in every ten people by 2050, with nearly 2.5 billion people having some degree of hearing loss. It’s evident that hearing loss is going to be a greater issue moving forward.
There are different levels of hearing loss; some people are totally deaf, others have a percentage of hearing capability. Life events and illnesses cause hearing loss, which also can be present from birth.
How does hearing loss impair a player’s ability to play or enjoy a game?
Dialogue between characters is an obvious issue that is generally easy to solve with subtitles; this can work during gameplay and cut scenes. Game mechanics such as the sound made by enemy NPCs in single-player games before attacking or directional cues such as footsteps are more difficult. And let’s not forget multi-player games where teamwork via voice chat is a massive part of the experience.
Imagine playing as a sprinter in a game and waiting for the starter’s gun to fire, but there is no visual indicator that it has done so. Or perhaps a bomb is ticking, but there is no visual clue that the countdown has begun. People with good hearing take these things for granted, but they can ruin a game for those with hearing issues.
How can developers make games more accessible?
Including a chat box in the game can help players overcome hearing or speech impediments and even language barriers. The game could also include STT (Speech To Text) and TTS (Text To Speech) functionality. Emojis can also help with communication with teammates in-game.
As for in-game mechanics, it’s helpful to include a directional cue to where an attack came from; it could be as simple as a splash of blood to the torse of the on-screen player to show that an enemy has shot them from a specific direction. Sounds such as footsteps could be given a directional indicator to show where the enemy is coming from.
Maps like the one shown above in Call of Duty: Mobile are also helpful. They can show where teammates are and whether there’s an active enemy player in your vicinity.
Other solutions include using visual indicators in conjunction with sound alerts that items may be usable or able to be interacted with.
Much like smartphone software, accessibility features aren’t really discussed in gaming. Discovering if a game developer has catered for hearing-impaired players is often a case of buying the game to find out. It’s time that game studios indicate if they have provided accessibility tools for the title in the marketing blurb so that affected consumers can make informed decisions.
