Ctrl, Alt, Access

We've been busy smashing crystal bananas and piloting starships this Disability Pride Month. 00:00 - Intro 01:25 - Donkey Kong Bananza 14:01 - Nice Day for Fishing 16:44 - Bridge Command 23:44 - Idle Games: Chillquarium and Rusty's Retirement 26:22 - Grounded 30:27 - Patapon 1+2 Replay 33:20 - Many Cats Studio Impact day and Nothing Without Us livestream 34:28 - Game A11Y Gathering 37:25 - EA SPORTS FC 26 adds High Contrast Mode 40:07 - 9000 employees lost their jobs at Microsoft 44:50 - Accessible Games Initiative tags are live 49:30 - Where to find us

Two days and 16 hours of intensive accessibility panels and talks, condensced into two hours of live and not so live discussion. 00:00 - DAY 1 02:00 - GA Conf info and "News update" 04:20 - "Behind the Curtain: Sustainable Accessibility in an Indie Development Environment" 08:14 - "Include, Learn, Iterate: User Research for Accessibility" 13:07 - "You’re Doing Well if You’re Annoying Someone: A celebration of Advocacy, Making an Impact and Finding Community" 18:11 - "Selling Progress: The Accessibility Champion Survival Guide (2025 Edition)" 26:20 - "Chroma, A Colorblind Simulation Tool" 28:08 - "Adding Support for the Native Assistive Technologies in iOS and Android, for Apps Built in Unit...

Not something I anticipated, but we have a lot of positive words to say about Nintendo this week. 00:00 - Intro 01:12 - Atomfall 07:00 - South of Midnight 23:05 - Abiotic Factor 30:30 - Switch 2 31:05 - Switch 2 Accessibility Settings 37:05 - Switch 2 Price and Game Price 49:40 - Switch 2 Mouse 52:35 - Drag x Drive 59:20 - Switch 2 Further Discussion For reference, this episode of Ctrl, Alt, Access was recorded prior to the BDS Boycott announcement RE Xbox. I will have a video live tomorrow on this channel talking in more depth about my approach to coverage now that the boycott information is known.

We've got thoughts on emotional subtitles and Xbox nunchucks this week. 00:00 - Intro 01:40 - Avowed update 04:20 - One Lonely Outpost, Wanderstop, and In Stars and Time 10:00 - Split Fiction 11:30 - R.E.P.O 14:00 - Assassins Creeds Shadows 32:00 - Xbox Adaptive Joystick 43:00 - Able To Play 43:40 - Accessible Games Initiative 51:50 - Microsoft Accessible Packaging Guide 52:55 - SteamOS (Steam Deck) to support ByoWave Proteus Controller 53:50 - Jennissary received the Bob Rice Recognition Award at the G.A.N.G. awards 55:45 - Where to find us

Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 01:22 - Making Board Games Accessible 04:18 - Building Up a Teach & TCG Tangent 14:26 - Rubber Banding 18:51 - Randomness 26:01 - Financial Accessibility 29:48 - Canvas Mobility Spotlight 31:18 - Asmodee Access+ 35:23 - Game & Rule Adaptations 44:37 - Outro Quick Points 💜 No board game can be 100% accessible. Don’t let the fact you can’t make it accessible to everyone stop you from doing what you can to allow more people to play. 🚧 Games are made of intentional barriers, accessibility is about unintentional barriers that arise which cause a mismatch of experience for players with access needs. As you design, ask yourself where unintentio...

Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 01:47 - Communication-Based Games 11:24 - Abstraction of Communication 18:09 - Visual Communication 26:58 - Improv Games 35:22 - Social Deduction & Hidden Roles 48:40 - Dyslexia & Literacy 54:05 - Alternative Communication 56:59 - Outro Quick Points 📝 Provide options to use different communication methods, like verbal or text-based. 😶 Consider supporting play without verbal communication, by default or as a variant. 📈 Give levels of difficulty in games where speech is not allowed, such as allowing some speech, one word, gestures. 📈 Give levels of difficulty in communication-abstraction games, such as giving more options to pick from or ways to focus the clue. 🎨 Avoid a reliance on colour for visual communic...

More games with disabled protagonists that don't shy away from reality, please. 00:00 - Intro 00:40 - How we are doing 02:50 - Rare Disease Day 2025 03:47 - Thumb Soldiers 09:20 - Able to Play 18:00 - Bokura 20:55 - Split Fiction 30:00 - Sea of Thieves 32:46 - Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii 36:18 - Mecha 38:34 - To a T 42:00 - Monster Hunter arachnophobia mode 46:40 - Sorry, We're Closed 49:20 - Where to find us

00:00 - Intro 01:28 - Transparency of Consequences 07:40 - Choice Overwhelm 13:13 - Game Complexity 20:05 - Game Length 33:30 - Memory 37:33 - Speed & Pacing 47:21 - Co-op & Asymmetry 52:40 - Content Warnings & Player Safety 58:25 - Outro Quick Points 🔍 Provide transparency for consequences, by default or optionally. In legacy games you could make a digital guide for how a big choice impacts on the game. 🗺️ Consider ways to reduce overall choices in the game, thus reducing overwhelm. For example, versions of play with limited or reduced actions. 🧠 Consult the Laws of UX for tips on best practices on usability and user experience. https://lawsofux.com/ 📑 Give players ways to priori...

00:00 - Intro 01:08 - Text Clarity 11:01 - Iconography 20:06 - Large Print & QR Codes 28:19 - Braille & Tactile Components 36:52 - Contrast 42:31 - Colourblindness & Dual Coding 48:48 - Visual Overwhelm 52:21 - Outro Quick Points 🔤 Use a clear sans serif font and avoid all caps, underlines and italics. 📝 Use good text formatting, like left-aligned paragraphs, good spacing, and line breaks. 🅰️ Highlight keywords using bold and/or a different high contrast colour. ⬆️ Indicate orientation for numbers and text, considering table layout and where people will be trying to read from. 🔍 Check symbols for readability and similarity at all angles, especially on dice. 🗑️ Favour skeuomorphic icons to boost comprehension and under...

Who would ever have expected we'd have so much possive to say about cognitive accessibility in a From Software game? 00:00 - Intro 00:40 - How we are doing 07:00 - Abletop 09:25 - Elden Ring Nightreign 16:00 - Dawnfolk 24:50 - Lost Records: Bloom and Rage - Tape 1 32:10 - Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii 32:50 - Cabernet 33:20 - Avowed 47:30 - Sea of thieves update 52:00 - Develop:Star Award and MCV Awards 54:30 - Microsoft Ability Summit - Accessibility and AI 01:03:00 - Where to find us

00:00 - Intro 01:43 - Box & Packaging 12:46 - Set Up & Tear Down 21:17 - Components 36:20 - Motion in Games 44:49 - Dexterity Mechanics 53:16 - Time Constraints 56:02 - Closing Thoughts 57:00 - Outro Abletop Episode 2 Quick Points: 📦 Consider accessible packaging options such as adding loops, tags or stickers. 🫳 Make space in the box insert for grabbing components, such as indents or foam. 🌍 Consider Eco-friendly packaging for better environmental impact and potentially easier to open packaging. ♟️ Provide information on components for physically heavier games to help with alternative storage solutions and consider common sizes e.g. A4. 🏗️ Use trays and personal player packs to reduce setup and teardown. 🗃️ Provi...

00:00 - Intro 01:48 - Online Rulebooks & FAQs 07:20 - How Rules are Written & Reference Cards 15:19 - How to Play Videos & Objective Context 20:12 - Learning, Teaching & Co-op Games 23:18 - How to Play Video Availability 26:19 - Player Strategy Guides 32:35 - Learning Asymmetric Games 44:22 - Game Phases & Changes 48:15 - Closing Thoughts 53:00 - Outro Abletop Episode 1 Quick Points: 🖥️ Provide digital versions of rules that also work with a screen reader. 📼 Provide a how to play video, freely available, to allow different ways of learning. 🤔 Provide online FAQs for your game and have a link to them on your box or rulebook. 📃Provide an index in larger rulebooks, and...

We're back from our winter Holiday. Accessibility news is light, but we're back and catching up. 00:00 - Intro 02:14 - Skyrim 02:40 - Babysitting Mama Speedrunning 07:55 - Train Simulator 11:32 - Valheim 13:00 - Workshop Prep 17:18 - Fantasy Critic 22:10 - Board Games 23:27 - Braille Dice 29:46 - Rebellion Accessibility Updates 36:20 - Outro

Ctrl, Alt, Access reaches the end of its first year. Let's look back on a year of accessibility updates. 00:00 – Intro 00:50 – Looking back at the podcast 02:00 – Looking back at the accessibility year of 2024 02:20 – Game Awards 2024 05:35 – Year of High Contrast Mode 07:15 – Year of Cognitive Accessibility 12:50 – Year of Audio Description 16:30 – Senua's Saga: Hellblade II 19:00 – Indie Games of 2024 24:40 – More Accessibility controllers 27:15 – Year of Remakes 29:45 – What we look forward to in 2025 30:11 – What we hope Nintendo will bring with Switch 2 31:05 – Audio Description outside cut scenes 31:50 – PS Access Controller for PC 34:05 – Nintendo have Co-controller support and Accessibility tags in store 35:00 – Access Controllers work on all consoles 35:50 – Mental Health as the sixth accessibility ca...

Took us a month to catch up, but here's a recap of 16 hours of accessibility talks and panels worth knowing about. 00:00 – Intro 02:00 – DAY 1 02:10 – Update from the industry 04:55 – Accessible DOOM mod 08:15 – Servers up, Everyone is welcome 18:25 – Tourettes IRL 22:40 – Developing in the dark 26:46 – Cheat codes for all 28:25 – Forgetting is frustrating 30:25 – Overanalyzing and Syntezysing 33:12 – Accessibility to burnout 41:24 – DAY 2 41:50 – Seeing into your future, developing an accessible game for later today 45:30 – Open world and ADHD, a cautionary tale about love, pain and opportunity 48:13 – Cognitive accessibility UX in Star Wars Jedi Survivor 57:55 – #OpenForNaughtyDog 59:40 – More than a saving throw 1:03:05 – Skill tree unlocked, from consultant to inhouse 1:05:30 – Hell welcomes all 1:05:50 – How to line bre...

Telling people that your game "May contain elements dangerous to photosensitive players" doesn't really help photosensitive players to make informed decisions about their health. Could we do better with more specific warnings?

Sometimes, fluctuating disabilities mean you have to pivot plans, and that's okay x 00:00 – Intro 03:52 – Arevya played Super Market Simulator, Botany Manor 05:30 – Steven Spohn and Mark Barlet are leaving AbleGamers 08:40 – FDG 2025 will have the theme "Accessible Worlds, United Through Play" 10:35 – Laura and Arevya have consulted on Sorry, We're Closed 12:05 – Arevya consulted on Life Below 14:43 – Lauras take on the PS5 PRO 19:15 – Laura has played Mario & Luigi Brothership, Super Mario Party Jamboree, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and LEGO Horizon Adventures 36:25 – Where to find us

We both had a pretty chaotic time this week if we're honest haha 00:00 – Intro 01:15 – Laura consulted on Dragon Age: The Veilguard and Life is Strange Double Exposure 12:12 – Arevya called out SpillExpo 19:00 – Arevya talks Mario Party Jamboree,I'm on Observation Duty 7, and Corekeeper 25:20 – Laura talks Life is Strange Double Exposure 3-5, Slay the Princess, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard 36:50 – NEWS UPDATE 37:20 – Correction Call of Duty Black Ops 6 audio accessibility 41:53 – Monster hunter wilds accessibility 45:20 – Diablo 4 vessel of Hatred accessibility 47:00 – Just Dance 2025 continues with its Seated choreographic 48:30 – Dragon Age: The Veilguard accessibility 53:30 – Where to find us

Arevya's back, we've got cool news, and accessible games are popping up in the most surprising of places. 00:00 – Intro 00:50 – Where have Arevya been 04:20 – Laura consulted on Life is Strange: Double Exposure 12:57 – Silent Hill 2 Remake 24:15 – UFO 50 26:56 – Metaphor Re Fantazio 31:04 – NEWS UPDATE 31:38 – Call of Cuty Black Ops 6 audio accessibility 34:56 – Persona 3 Reload DLC - Episode Aegis accessibility 37:06 – Star Wars Outlaws accessibility update 39:09 – GAconf USA lineup is revealed 43:22 – Question of the week and where to find us

Sometimes, we just need uncomplicated, joyous, fun factory games in our lives. 00:00 - Intro 01:21 - Arevya Chat 01:31 - Outer Wilds 05:44 - Astro Bot 11:37 - Thank Goodness You’re Here 16:56 - Mobile Gaming 25:45 - Laura Chat 25:48 - The Plucky Squire 32:27 - Zero Zero: Perfect Stop 34:26 - News Headlines 35:01 - God of War Ragnarok Audio Descriptions and Hints 37:31 - Tales of Kenzera: Zau Update 39:41 - Easy Surf Cabernet Assessment 44:06 - Satisfactory Arachnophobia 45:36 - PS5 Pro 1:00:29 - Outro and Question

Let's catch up on the news, before drowning in new releases and hardware imminently! 00:00 – Intro 01:22 – Arevya played: Outer Wilds, Zelda Ocarina of time, Ace Attorney 19:45 – Laura played: Astro Bot, What the Car, Peglin, Full Throttle 37:56 – NEWS UPDATE 38:15 – Concord removed from sale after 2 weeks - Taking with it accessibility stuff 48:18 – Proteus will refund / replace GamesCom units + an updated impressions 55:17 – Question of the week 59:53 – Where you can find us

00:00 – Intro 01:40 – Arevya update: Fileds of Mistria, Ocarina of Time 5:47 – Laura update: Atomfall, Date Anything / Everything, All Will Rise, Project Timi: Sasha's Curse, Monster Hunter Wilds, 18:06 – Laura has the Proteus Controller 29:05 – Arevya has newly announced Xbox adaptive joystick 41:46 – Laura has tried the new Xbox 8bit do lite SE 47:44 – Xbox booths World of Warcraft VR motion simulator experience 50:50 – GamesCom ASL opening show 53:00 – Gamescom kind of has a virtual queuing system 57:18 – IGN "A Prominent Accessibility Advocate Worked With Studios and Inspired Change. But She Never Actually Existed." 1:10:00 – Where you can find us

Laura learns about Arevya's favourite childhood video game, Arevya folds magical paper, and both hosts discuss the current voice actor strikes. 00:00 – Intro 01:35– Arevya update: Tomba special edition, A little to the left, Paper Trails and Accessibility work streams 17:35 – Laura update: Thank goodness you're here, TMNT Splintered fate, World of goo 2 29:47 – NEWS UPDATE 30:23 – Sea of thieves new accessibility website 33:43 – State of Decay 2 update adds 37 accessibility improvements 36:35 – Star Wars Outlaws, Accessibility Hands-On Impressions 40:53 – Demo for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is discontinued 44:58 – Yet more layoffs... 51:22 – Video game SAG aftra voice actor strike 56:50 – Question of the week

We're back from a mini hiatus. Come learn about physical event accessibility, new accessible video games, and important updates about reasonable workplace disability accomodations. 00:00 – Intro 01:26– Arevya update: Sudoku and Magical delicacy 09:40 – Laura update: Clickolding, Concord, Bokura 21:35 – NEWS UPDATE 22:03 – Gamescom commits to event accessibility 30:44 – Accessibility talks run by Jozef Kulik and Cari Waterton at Develop 38:25 – Nothing without us 40:35 – Star Citizen devs discriminated by refusing work from home 47:20 – TwitchCon 01:01:07 – Question of the week

On this special episode of Ctrl, Alt, Access, Laura chats with Grant Stoner, Disabled gamer and accessibility reporter, about Elden ring's pros and cons in terms of accessibility. 00:00 - Intro 03:05 - The Death of Brandon Cole and Milan Patel 06:45 - Elden Ring Discussion

Sorry folks, no more Nintendo games for boys anymore, that's just the rules. Featuring ‪@Arevya‬. 00:00 – Intro 01:15– Arevya update: Travels, Byowave video, Super Market Simulator, Vampire Survivor 09:20 – Laura update: Thank Goodness You're Here demo, What the Car Demo, Schim Demo, Arranger Demo, Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree 27:57 – NEWS UPDATE 28:30 – Diablo 4 is getting new navigation assist features 32:17 – Rebellion shares Atomfall accessibility info 36:05 – Grant Stoner piece about accessible hardware in Game Informer magazine 39:27 – MARVEL vs. CAPCOM Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics! bans simplified inputs for ranked play 45:47 – Nintendo is for Girls Only Now, Sorry! 49:57 – Next weeks question

Laura and ‪@Arevya‬ watched a bunch of Summer Games Fest Trailers. What cool looking games can we remember, a few sleepy days later? Links Below Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 02:14 - Summer Games Fest Chat 02:48 - Access-Ability Summer Showcase 04:30 - Whitethorn Games 04:58 - Magical Delicacy 06:20 - Slime Heroes 07:36 - Videoverse 09:14 - Dawnfolk 10:29 - Elsie 11:26 - Upheaval 13:02 - Wholesome Direct 13:18 - Crab God 14:06 - Culibra and the Souls of Limbo 14:41 - Rooster 15:52 - Latin American Games 16:49 - Dungeon Drafters 17:04 - RKGK 17:28 - Desvelado 18:02 - Despelote 18:31 - Mexico 1921 A Deep Slumber 19:24 - Xbox / Fable 20:22 - South of Midnight 21:08 - Dragon Age The Veilguard 21:34 - Mixt...

Laura helped a duck solve a crime, while @Arevya visited a controller company, and they've both got accessibility insights to bring back and share. 00:00 – Intro 01:15 – Laura update; Pine Hearts, Ducktective The Salami Bandit, Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door, Indika, Hellblade 2 Senua’s Saga 21:45 – Byowave first impression 40:22 – NEWS UPDATE 41:25 – Xbox Adaptive Controller update 46:03 – Byowave Proteus Controller 48:09 – Nothing Without Us events announced 51:34 – Rebellions Collection of accessibility feature usage data 56:37 – Accessible Gaming Wiki 58:20 – Xbox Adaptive Controller update 01:00:11 – Next Week Access-Ability Summer Showcase 2024 01:03:00 – GIVEAWAY winner announcement 01:05:40 – Next weeks question

It's time for another dose of accessibility reviews, news, listener / viewer feedback, and a giveaway for a controller. Everything you need to know about Accessibility from the past few weeks. 00:00 – Intro 01:05 – Arevya update; Little kitty, big city, Botany Manor, Brain Camp and game accessibility debate 12:50 – Laura update; Pine Hearts, Tales of Kenzera: Zau, Kizazi Moto, Iwaju 23:13 - Hades 2 Early Access (light spoilers) 26:14 - Vampire Survivors Operation Guns DLC 27:00 – NEWS UPDATE 27:36 – Pine Hearts 29:08 – Xbox is closing two studios - Arcane Austin and Tango Gameworks 32:50 – a11yNYC 34:38– Fishbowl 36:30 – Cryptmaster 40:30 – Bang Average Football 41:47 – Abiotic Factor 44:53 – Wonder Woman and Warner Brothers 47:08 – GAconf day 2 54:43 – GAAD 56:40 – GIVEAWAY 59:25 – Comments form

Laura Kate Dale and ‪@Arevya‬ record a special live episode of Ctrl, Alt, Access live from GAConf, discussing all of the panels during day one of the conference. Intro - 00:00 Disney Illusion Island - 00:40 Game Accessibility Association Japan - 02:44 Cari Watterton Rebellion Workshop - 04:43 Multiplayer Accessibility Panel - 06:13 Quiet Space and Conference Accessibility - 07:00 EA Open Source Tools - 08:07 Sea of Thieves Audio Aim - 11:56 The Heroes Journey and Neverending Story - 11:36 Bloody Cheats - 16:07 Content Creation with Mollie Evans - 19:30 Outro - 21:09

We're finally here, debutting our brand new video game accessibility Podcast. Hosted by LauraKBuzz and @Arevya. 00:00 – Intro 01:40 – Who is Arevya 03:20 – Who is Laura Dale 05:30 – Arevya update; Princess Peach Showtime, Stardew Valley update, Palia and Haven 10:35 – Laura update; Hades 2, Another crab’s Tressure, Balatro 27:34 – NEWS UPDATE 28:42 – World of Warcraft arachnophobia mode 33:50 – GaaJ – Game Accessibility Association of Japan 39:20 – Overjoyed accessibility controller app 41:55 – Autocraft Minecraft AAC interface 45:00 – Access Ability Summer Showcase date and time 47:27 – Another crab’s Tressure 49:29 – Tales of Kenzera: ZAU accessibility portal 52:00 – Switch 2 rumours 55:42 – Stitch showcase accessibility during Nintendo Indie World Showcase 59:30 – Rounding up

Welcome to Ctrl, Alt, Access, a new video / audio Podcast series hosted by LauraKBuzz and Arevya, a pair of accessibility consultants and advocates, discussing video game accessibility news and opinions. Join us every other Thursday for an hour of news and opinions, alongside guests, and contributions from listeners and viewers. Available on all audio podcast platforms.