---
name: accessibility
description: Use when designing or reviewing controls, UI, audio, difficulty, motion or text. Covers remapping, readability, colour, subtitles, motion sensitivity and difficulty options, planned from the start.
---

# Accessibility

Draft from the Game studio skills library by THE DREAMING JESTER. Adapt it to your game, team and engine.

## Goal

Remove barriers that stop people from playing, without removing the challenge the game is about.

## Before you start

- Identify the core challenge. Accessibility options should keep that intact while removing unrelated barriers.
- Review the platform's accessibility guidelines and any certification requirements.

## Process

1. Controls: full remapping, hold or toggle alternatives, adjustable sensitivity, and no required simultaneous inputs without an alternative.
2. Vision: scalable text, strong contrast, no information carried by colour alone, and readable fonts.
3. Hearing: subtitles with speaker names and sizes, captions for important sounds, and visual cues for audio-only information.
4. Motion: options to reduce camera shake, flashing, motion blur and head bob; respect system reduced-motion settings where available.
5. Cognition: clear objectives, a way to review instructions, and adjustable game speed or timers where they are not the core challenge.
6. Difficulty: separate options for combat, puzzles and timing where it makes sense.
7. Test with players who use these features, and keep the options consistent across menus.

## Quality bar

- Every essential action can be remapped.
- Every essential sound has a visual equivalent.
- Options are available before the first gameplay, including on first launch.

## Output

An accessibility checklist for the game, the options list with defaults, and test notes.

## Avoid

- Adding options late, when the UI and input systems cannot support them.
- Hiding accessibility settings deep in menus.