As video games have been stripped of certain stigmas and opening their own space in modern society, have grown also sensitivities with regard to who they play and how do them. The disabled fans to consoles or PC games or mobile carry exist from the same birth of the video game, but there have always been certain barriers depending on the type of sensory, motor or cognitive disabilities that sometimes had complicated the full enjoyment of our beloved gadgets.
Some years there are several associations and publications devoted to promote the destruction of such barriers, and have been great achievements in accessible question, but it is true that while video game companies put on their side (for example to allow the reallocation of functions of keys and buttons), each case is a world and often need a more personalized attention.
That function already AbleGamers in United States and SpecialEffect in United Kingdom, usually framed in fairs, game jams, make it improvising spaces in their offices or universities, or by going to homes, but the first has taken an important step recently to give you more social package to these initiatives: soon will open the AbleGamers Center for Inclusive Play, a Center in Charles Town in West Virginia, which will be the first dedicated specifically to consultations for custom and free advice, live demonstrations of new technologies of accessibility and modification of peripherals for ease of use according to each case. They will even have your own 3D printer to sculpt custom adapters and other technical AIDS.
The Center is the result of the effort from the AbleGamers Foundation and a grant awarded by the seal Level Access of SSB BART Group, an organization that is dedicated to the promotion of digital accessibility for government agencies, corporations, and educational institutions. It is a considerable step forward, not only for the 33 million players with disabilities in North America, but also for the global community and to those who struggle to make something more universal video game.
In Spain, unfortunately, there is little movement in this regard. The Vodafone Spain Foundation collaborates with the Confederation ASPACENET program aMiAlcance Games, which seeks to create a list of accessible games, but they are limited only to mobile and tablets. At the same time, many people engaged in the occupational therapy include video games in their programs of physiotherapy and rehabilitation, often touching the issue of accessibility, but there is nothing specific, dedicated and unified.
By the way, if you want to read something about disability and video games written by a disabled (server of you!), here I leave a small article I wrote earlier this year.
