QAuDHD #3 - Being An A11y Ally

The Neurospicy Bit

Last time out I brought up the Triforce of QA, UX and Accessibility (shortform: A11y) and while I’m definitely going to cover the rabbit hole that has been my journey discovering the wonderful world of UX design so far, A11y was my first glimpse into that side of things and, as an ED&I Champion and strong ally (not just around disabilities, of course), so I thought it warranted coverage sooner rather than (or more likely, as well as) later.

Back to the allyship for a moment, everyone can, and should, be an ally: You don’t have to have life experience, 1st hand or otherwise, with any particular disabilities, or identify as any particular gender, orientation, ethnicity etc. in order to be a good ally. Imposter syndrome is common among people who want to make a difference, but feel like they can’t or it’s not their place. 

One of the reasons I found my AuDHD diagnosis (in my early 30s) so freeing and empowering was because it genuinely made me feel less like I didn’t belong in a space dedicated to making things better and fairer for marginalised groups. Because I finally “ticked a box”.

My colleague, Jacob Mills (Level Designer extraordinaire) and I were both founding members of Roll7’s Diversity Committee, in spite of the fact that we’re both ginger-bearded, white, glasses wearing, cis/het men; basically both looking more like the problem with diversity in gaming than anything like a solution, and forever (half) joking about ruining the diversity within the Diversity Committee.

But it doesn’t matter! If anything, there needs to be more people who look like us getting involved with diversity committees and allyship programmes, because people who look like us tend to be the ones (here in the West at least) with the power, authority and money to affect real change. Different groups should absolutely have their own safe spaces, but for us to see real movement when it comes to ED&I (and A11y), it can’t just be left to the minorities and marginalised groups within our industry (or our society) - it needs the majority to stand up and make something happen.

Now then. If you can just help me down from this soapbox, we can get on with the article. Thanks.

<Epic Rap Battles of History announcer voice> 500 words…. BEGIN!

The Actual Topic

A11y has been gaining a lot of traction within games in recent years (🥳), thanks in no small part to the amazing work done by a number of incredible groups and organisations like Special Effect (if you don’t cry at every single one of their videos, what’s wrong with you?) and IGDA-GASIG (no the cat didn’t just walk across my keyboard), and of course individual content creators, advocates and, hopefully, people like you!

But what is it and why should you care? Essentially, A11y is about ensuring an equitable experience for all players, often by offering a variety of supporting features, assists, customisations and settings, but also by incorporating some simple best practices - many of which align nicely with the general principles of good design/UX (more on that in a future article).

I shouldn’t need to advocate for building your game in such a way that the ~430 million gamers worldwide (about 20% of the market) with disabilities can actually play your game (right?), so instead I’m going to advocate for how you should do it. Or more accurately, when.

As with any piece of design work, the earlier you think about it, the easier it will be to implement. One of the most powerful things you can do with your game is to make the experience flexible, and adding flexibility (customisable UI size/shape/colour, balanced difficulty settings, adjustable controls) late on is considerably harder than building it in from the start.

And even easier, as I mentioned already, is designing a system that requires less customisation and has that flexibility built in (e.g. dynamic difficulty, clear UI that doesn’t rely solely on colour, clear feedback that isn’t all audio based). A system built like that should provide an equitable experience for the vast majority of players all by itself.

But the biggest win is, of course, in having both. It would be almost impossible to completely “design away” every possible barrier or pain point that your players might come across, but coupling that with a system that provides players with a way to customise their experience further is a clear step in the right direction.

And what does all this have to do with QA, you might be wondering? Or AuDHD for that matter?

To the latter, “invisible” disabilities and differences in cognitive processing need to be taken into account too. And to the former, while nothing beats putting the game in the hands of real players, who better to test your game meets predetermined design criteria than the people who specialise in exactly that!

Upskilling your QA team to be able to verify that designs meet A11y pillars and best practices is a relatively easy win for everyone, and including those upskilled testers in early discussions to ensure that you don’t design yourself into a corner, not just around A11y (*cough* shift left *cough*), is a recipe for success that will benefit the entire studio and all of your players.

And there’s your 500!