The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announced its Accessible Games Initiative: a set of industry-wide accessibility tags that identify game features that reduce barriers to play and enjoyment. It’s aimed at the 44.1 million Americans who have a disability (U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 2022).
Previously, these kinds of tags have differed depending on who was defining them and where they had been published. Xbox had its tags. PlayStation has its tags. Other independent resources had further tags, like the Family Gaming Database I run and Ability Points’ Accesible Games Database.
This is a significant initiative from the ESA, not only because it offers an industry-wide set of tags but because of the cross-company collaboration in service of accessible games. On board already are Electronic Arts, Google, Microsoft, Nintendo of America, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and Ubisoft. Amazon Games, Riot Games, Square Enix and Warner Bros.
The impact of the project is, of course, in the detail. It starts with a set of 24 tags, including areas such as clear text, large and clear subtitles, narrated menus, stick inversion and save anytime. The intention is that participating companies will place the appropriate Accessible Games Initiative tags near their game product information – for example on digital storefronts, product pages or digital catalogues.
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It’s an announcement being welcomed by many accessibility specialists. Ian Hamliton, one of the founders of GAConf, took to X to praise the move. He highlighted its “shared terminology & criteria for what common accessibility considerations mean”. Accessibility consultant Steve Saylor, wrote that, “Universal Accessibility Tags on Storefronts makes it much simpler to identify a game that has the type of accessibility a disabled player may need.”
I have worked to maintain a dataset of about 30,000 accessibility datapoints over the last 5 years. So know the scale of the challenge here. It’s particularly important that the tags have detailed oversight from the ESA to ensure the tags are consistently identified and displayed. For example, as my accessible dataset work grew to cover 1000’s of games, my team found the need to develop automated tools to highlight discrepancies that have often identified incorrect application of other tags. It will also be interesting to see how this information will be displayed and whether it will replace or co-exist with existing tagging systems on PlayStation and Xbox. Another important factor is the ability to search for games across different platforms and publishers.
However the accessibility tags evolve, it’s an exciting and significant initiative from the ESA. “Tens of millions of Americans have a disability and often face barriers to experiencing the joy and connection that comes with playing video games,” said Stanley Pierre-Louis, ESA president and CEO. “This initiative demonstrates how impactful we can be when we work together in our industry-wide pursuit of helping more people experience the power of play.”
