Throughout Access November we’ve spotlighted game companies putting in the effort to make their games more inclusively designed and accessible. That’s not to say the efforts are not there and the work isn’tĭeveloping. IS THE UK GAMES INDUSTRY DOING ENOUGH TO SUPPORT THOSE WITH DISABILITIES AND NEURODIVERSITY? We also worked with one of our supporters, mayamada, to facilitate an accessibility panel as part of their Gamepad Online event series for November. In the first week of the campaign, we partnered with AbilityNet to facilitate talks and content around video games and interactive entertainment for the annual conference this year – TechShare Pro 2022 – where we saw the likes of Sony Interactive Entertainment, RNIB, Ubisoft, Soft Leaf Studios and Activision Blizzard King talk about accessibility. We also had a few in-person opportunities like Accessible Gaming Night at the charity Everyone Can centre in Manchester to emphasise the importance of hybrid and outreach – because the more choices and options we provide people to get involved the more engagement you are likely to see.

The campaign took place mainly online to ensure we could reach as much of the games industry as possible through articles and workshop webinars with the likes of Sarah Brewster, Alice Cooper, Cari Watterton, Sightless Kombat and Chris Goodyear discussing best practices around accessibility and support for disabled and neurodiverse folks in workplaces. TALK US THROUGH THE VARIOUS ELEMENTS AND EVENTS OF THE INITIATIVE. What I began to see was everyone had the same opinions of wanting more awareness driven on an industry scale, needing more support in place, and for disabled and neurodiverse individuals or communities (whether players or working in industry) to feel empowered and have a sense of greater belonging to an industry that many have made their home. Then I reached out to industry experts on accessibility and charities involved in games to get their thoughts. Yet you need a little more than your own perspective to really begin a campaign, so I started to talk to a mixture of friends and industry acquaintances who are disabled and/or neurodiverse to get their views.

Liz prince