The Last of Us Part II shipped with over 60 accessibility options. Forza Motorsport has one-touch driving. God of War Ragnarok lets you auto-complete QTEs. These aren’t niche features added as an afterthought — they’re core components of games that sold millions of copies.

Accessibility in gaming has shifted from a nice-to-have to a baseline expectation. And some Australian studios haven’t got the memo.

The business case

Approximately one in five Australians lives with a disability. That’s over five million people. Many of them play games or want to play games. When a game is inaccessible to them, that’s not just an ethical failure — it’s a market failure.

The global accessible gaming market is estimated at over $100 billion in potential revenue. Players with disabilities aren’t a niche audience. They’re a significant portion of the gaming population whose needs have been historically ignored.

There’s also the ageing gamer demographic to consider. The average age of gamers in Australia is 34 and rising. As people age, visual acuity declines, reaction times slow, and motor precision decreases. Features that help disabled players also help older players. The audience for accessibility features is larger than most studios realise.

What good accessibility looks like

The best accessible games don’t add accessibility as a separate mode. They integrate it throughout the design.

Visual accessibility: Colourblind modes (with multiple types of colourblindness supported), adjustable text size, high-contrast options, screen reader support for menus, and the ability to disable screen shake and motion effects.

Auditory accessibility: Subtitles with speaker identification and sound effect descriptions, visual indicators for audio cues, adjustable audio mixing that lets players prioritise dialogue over music and effects.

Motor accessibility: Fully remappable controls, adjustable input timing (hold durations, double-tap speed), aim assist options, the ability to skip timed challenges, and support for alternative input devices.

Cognitive accessibility: Adjustable game speed, clear objective markers, difficulty options that can be changed at any time, simplified UI modes, and content warnings for potentially distressing material.

Where Australian studios stand

The picture is mixed. Some Australian studios are doing excellent work on accessibility. Others are barely aware of the issue.

Among the larger studios, accessibility awareness has improved. Several Melbourne studios have hired accessibility consultants or assigned team members to accessibility review. The results show — recent Australian releases have included more comprehensive accessibility options than their predecessors.

The indie scene is more variable. Small teams with limited budgets and tight timelines often deprioritise accessibility because they perceive it as requiring significant additional development time. This perception is sometimes accurate but often overstated. Many accessibility features — remappable controls, subtitle options, adjustable text size — are relatively simple to implement if planned from the start.

The key phrase is “from the start.” Retrofitting accessibility into a finished game is expensive and disruptive. Building it in from the beginning of development is dramatically cheaper. This means accessibility needs to be part of the design conversation from day one, not a feature request added during polish.

The minimum viable accessibility

For small studios with limited resources, here’s the absolute minimum that every game should have:

1. Remappable controls. Let players change key bindings and button mappings.
2. Subtitle options. Subtitles on by default, with adjustable size and background opacity.
3. Adjustable text size. Every piece of in-game text should be readable at a distance.
4. Colourblind options. At minimum, a high-contrast mode. Ideally, specific modes for protanopia, deuteranopia, and tritanopia.
5. Adjustable difficulty. Let players change difficulty at any time without penalty.
6. Audio alternatives. Visual indicators for important audio cues.

This list isn’t comprehensive, but it covers the most common accessibility needs and is achievable for even very small teams. Game engines like Unity and Unreal have built-in systems or free plugins that handle several of these.

The testing gap

The biggest gap in Australian game accessibility isn’t features — it’s testing. Studios that add accessibility options but don’t test them with disabled players often ship features that don’t actually work.

A colourblind mode that was designed by a non-colourblind developer might use colour replacements that are still indistinguishable for certain types of colourblindness. A screen reader integration that wasn’t tested with actual screen reader users might read menu elements in an unintuitive order. Intention without validation isn’t enough.

Accessibility testing doesn’t require a massive budget. Several Australian disability advocacy organisations can connect studios with testers. University programs in accessible design can provide feedback. The AbleGamers charity offers free consultations for studios that ask.

The expectation shift

Players now expect accessibility. Review outlets increasingly note the presence or absence of accessibility features. The Game Awards includes an Innovation in Accessibility category. Console manufacturers have made accessibility a platform-level priority — Xbox’s Adaptive Controller, PlayStation’s Access controller.

Australian studios that treat accessibility as optional are out of step with the industry and out of step with their audience. The question isn’t whether to invest in accessibility. It’s how much to invest and how to do it well.

Start with the minimum viable list. Test it with actual disabled players. Iterate from there. Every game doesn’t need sixty accessibility options. But every game should be playable by more people than it currently is.