Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby’s book Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming has a chapter titled “Methodological Playground: Fictional Worlds and Thought Experiments” which discusses the process of developing realistic and surreal worlds within media and how these worlds are utilized to understand human capabilities. These worlds rely on and depend on the audience’s level of passive and active involvement with how they perceive the alternative realities from, but are not limited to, books, films, or video games. Books have physical actions of turning the page or imagining the visual appearance of the literary world. Films are a mix of literature and visual representations that create a predetermined visual interpretation. Video games have an interactive experience with a combination of literature and cinematic components that allow the players to have a feeling of autonomy and agency over their gameplay experience. However, ownership and control of the gameplay experiences of individuals who have disabilities differ from able-bodied players.
The gaming culture offers limited access to alternative realities for individuals with disabilities. For such people, an essential aspect of gaming is the ability to separate their limitations from their identity to control an able-bodied game character. Open-world games allow players to immerse themselves in expansive environments, interact with diverse characters, and explore multiple plotlines and abilities. These worlds “…focus on the setting, geography, and environment more than ideology, and their purpose is primarily escape and entertainment” (Dunne, Raby 71). If game developers do not consider accessibility features during the design process, players who rely on these features to play independently are excluded from the immersive experience and are limited to a predetermined visual interpretation. Mark Brown and Sky LaRell Anderson’s article titled “Designing for Disability: Evaluating the State of Accessibility Design in Video Games” investigates 50 critical games that were released in 2019 to uncover the gaming industry’s status of accessibility within the game design process. The article focuses on “four key areas: auditory, visual, motor, and difficulty” (Brown, Anderson 702). It identifies design flaws and innovations in each of these areas. Brown and Anderson offer ten recommendations for game developers to enhance the gaming experience for players. These suggestions include allowing players to remap their controller buttons, toggle between holding a button down or clicking multiple buttons in a sequence, enabling movement of characters via a single joystick, mouse, or keyboard, providing options to change colors and contrast, ensuring readable subtitles, and allowing players to adjust audio levels for effects, dialogue, and music, receive multiple forms of the game critical information such as visual, audio, and vibrations, turn on and off camera effects, adjust the camera’s field of view and sensitivity, toggle between using flashing lights and repeated patterns, and change the difficulty levels (Brown, Anderson 714-716). I agree that game developers should incorporate and standardize these ten accessibility proposals in the game design of these alternative worlds.
The chapter by Dunne and Raby touches on the conversation of inclusiveness in alternative worlds and the collaboration between artists and activists to design games that promote “social and cultural change” (71). A related concern with inclusiveness in game design is when individuals with disabilities or differences cannot personalize their avatars in alternative gaming worlds based on their realistic appearance. From my perspective, players should be able to create an appearance that reflects how they want to be identified, regardless of whether avatars are pre-made or customizable. Game designers should design avatars to reflect players’ individuality since it enhances inclusivity and active involvement in alternative worlds. Overall incorporating accessibility into game design influences the autonomy and agency of players’ experience.