For months before Starfield’s release, the silence that surrounded its accessibility features said more than Bethesda may have liked. This was only exacerbated when, pressed on the subject by Kinda Funny Games, Todd Howard put the onus on the Xbox Adaptive Controller and a limited “large font mode” to carry the game’s accessibility mitigations. It thus came as no surprise when Starfield launched with remarkably few accessibility features.
The degree of inaccessibility will, naturally, vary from player to player. But it’s becoming more common for publishers to release accessibility information ahead of release, and Bethesda’s out-of-touch move contrasted with a cohort of AAA developers—including Sony and other studios at Bethesda parent Microsoft, as well as indies—pushing for greater transparency around accessibility.
Accessibility concerns are gaining mainstream attention, but the way such design features are communicated is critically important. That’s certainly the view of Kolo Jones, a content creator working under the handle helloitskolo. “The primary thing that I believe can, for me at least, make the biggest impact in gaming accessibility is communication,” she says. “That is communicating accessibility options [and] communicating the accessibility options in advance.”
Silence remains the norm, however, as we seek to break through that stubborn inertia. When we consider how much time nondisabled players have to formulate their impressions of a game before launch, it’s only reasonable that disabled players have access to the information necessary to do the same. But as the industry plays catchup after years of neglect, what does that look like? Is the progress we’ve seen as substantial as it appears?
The answer is both yes and no. Relative to, say, two years ago, it’s a monumental leap forward to see AAA and indie developers sharing accessibility information in advance of release. But “as always in accessibility there is room for improvement,” says Antonio Martínez, editor in chief of Game Accessibility Nexus. “These practices are still not the norm, as they should be. But I see the progress, and it’s just a matter of time.”
How much time exactly is uncertain. Players are understandably impatient to see better access, but there is plenty of room for optimism.
