I don’t know about yall but as the holidays approach and Mariah Carey emerges from hibernation to trumpet her festive melody I want nothing more than to get cozy and play some games, most importantly accessible ones!

 

In our final edition of the PlayAbility Newsletter for 2025 (2025 still feels like a scifi date and couldn’t possibly be the year we are living in) we have some cool ways to find your next accessible game, a couple talks from our team, fantastic journalism to highlight, engines upping their accessibility game and finally some sick adaptive gaming peripherals.

 

So let's dive in!

First up, we have the very cool site AbleToPlay that empowers players to help find games that meet their accessibility needs. The site acts as a database where you select your needs and preferences then receive accessible game suggestions. They are able to filter by Vision, Mobility, Auditory, Cognitive and Mental Health to craft a personalized score and offer game recommendations.

 

Earlier this year at the Games Accessibility Conference in the UK, the developers shared a peek behind the curtain detailing the development of the site. Finding that next wonderful accessible game got so much easier and we’re so very excited to see more players try out AbleToPlay!

Speaking of GaConf but this time the US version, Kennedie and Alex (That's me! He says like a 90’s cereal mascot breaking the 4th wall) from the PlayAbility team had the opportunity to share two talks they cooked up.

 

Kennedie’s talk Facing the Future: A History of Positive Disability Representation in Video Games does a fantastic job exploring examples of disabled characters in gaming. Also it has some A+ editing. (Not that we’re biased or anything)

 

Alex’s talk (with not nearly as fancy editing) investigates how accessibility practices can be leveraged for creating novel games and mechanics. Whether you’re a developer or a player we highly recommend checking out both recorded presentations.

Next up, we wanted to highlight the truly stellar games accessibility journalist Grant Stoner who launched a site and newsletter. Grant has done some amazing work in the past bringing light to stories such as a fabricated accessibility advocate and mismanagement at AbleGamers. We at PlayAbility eagerly await his next article and hope you check out Grant's upcoming work.

One of the major hurdles for games accessibility is that game engines don’t always offer built in accessibility support meaning developers need to put in additional labour creating bespoke systems.

 

This makes it all the more exciting to hear the news that Unity now has native screen reader support across all major platforms. This is a fantastic addition to see allowing developers to make their games more accessible for blind and low vision players. We can’t wait for more developers to take advantage of this so everyone can get included in the next epic adventure or magical quest!

Last but certainly not least, we wanted to share the Makers Making Change Game Kit. These are a package of buttons, switches and joysticks for accessible gaming. Paired with something like the Xbox Adaptive Controller these peripherals allow players with a range of abilities game to their hearts content.

 

Makers Making Change is also home to a repository of open-source assistive devices so if you’re of a tinkering persuasion check out their work and I’m sure you’ll find something that sparks your interest.

 

And with that we will wrap up (using only the most festive wrapping paper) this instalment of the PlayAbility newsletter!

 

Go play some awesome (accessible!) games!