We're back to relative health, and it's time to auto attack and bonk our way to seated dancing revenge. 00:00 - Intro 01:23 - Arevya / Stardew Valley 04:38 - Just Dance 08:16 - Ghost of Yotei 17:08 - MegaBonk 22:30 - Hades 2 25:12 - Star Trek Ressurgence 28:09 - Lego Voyagers 32:17 - News / Peak 36:03 - Microsoft Withdraws IDF Azure Access 39:09 - Brazil Bans Under 18 Lootboxes 42:40 - GA Conf USA Schedule 46:22 - Outro

We're enjoying the new indie darling, buuuuut.... 00:00 - Intro 02:12 - Hollow Knight: Silksong 19:30 - Whisper of the House 22:30 - Ghost of Yōtei 23:20 - Pokémon Sword and Shield Dynamax Adventures 29:45 - PEAK accessibility update 32:40 - Mario Galaxy assist mode 34:55 - Ramble about life and where to find us

It's hard to find games to play when you're ill, if playing games is something you associate with work. Timestamps 00:00 - Intro 01:45 - Supermarket Simulator 02:40 - Tiny Bookshop 09:38 - Discounty 15:21 - Bridge Command Campaign 26:07 - Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2 33:01 - Silksong Release Date 35:44 - Gamescom 38:40 - Resident Evil 9 Third Person Toggle 39:32 - Gamescom Games for Democracy 42:18 - Tiny Bookshop Gamescom Award 42:47 - The Rogue Prince of Persia 1.0 Release 45:06 - Nothing Without Us Award 45:48 - Gaming Culture Event in Norway 48:38 - Outro

We are riding high, and loving video games this week. Well, except for one set in The Shire. 00:00 - Intro 01:15 - Powerwash Simulator 2 07:13 - Bridge Command and Empty Epsilon 09:54 - Yakuza 0 11:35 - Co-op Kaiju Horror Cooking 13:40 - Nubby's Number Factory 16:05 - PEAK "no head bobbing" update 21:55 - Tales of the shire 32:44 - Grounded 2 44:00 - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 update 1.4.0's accessibility update 46:36 - New PS5 system update beta previews DualSense wireless controller pairing across multiple devices 48:30 - News about the PS Fightstick 50:16 - Where to find usm and what we are working on

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 Unity" 29:39 - "King: Enhancing Mobile Audio with Accessibility" 37:25 - "Extending Accessibility to Mobile in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown" 43:50 - "Mind The Gap: The Agile and Accessible R&D behind AbleToPlay" 48:30 - DAY 2 49:16 - "Conducting Effective Accessibility Research" 54:50 - "Nobody Wants to Make Players Sick" 1:07:07 - "TLDH: Deafness & Gaming" 1:13:37 - "UX: Building Accessible Player Experiences" 1:17:37 - "Representation of Invisible Disability – Exploring the Lived Experience of Teenagers with ADHD to Inform Game Design" 1:25:02 - "How To Measure Text" 1:27:17 - "Writing for Everyone" 1:30:57 - "From Champions to a Dedicated Role: IOI’s Accessibility Journey (so far)" 1:34:54 - "Taking a Cricket Bat to Accessibility Barriers in Atomfall" 1:38:22 - "Input and it’s impact: How the XAC changed the industry"

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 unintentional barriers are happening, this will help you to solve them by design as opposed to in retrospect. 🪜 Consider a staggered teach for your game, across one or multiple plays of the game, to help players get comfortable with rules before adding more. 📶 Games that start simple and build in complexity as play goes on can be a good way to holistically incorporate a teach into a game experience. 🐚 Include catch-up or rubber-banding mechanics in your game to help level the playing field for players who are behind, especially on games with a live score track. 🎲 Consider ways to mitigate randomness, not just in dice but in other places with randomness, like card draw. ♟️ Provide access to basic resources/cards as a backup to a random card/item, to give players more agency and a greater feeling of control over randomness. 🛍️ Give ways for players to reset shops / offerings to help give them more ways to search for the resources they need. 🎁 Try to do as much for accessibility as possible in standard versions of your game so players don’t need to invest in add-ons or alternative components. 📂 Provide free resources to allow players to adapt common barriers in your game to their needs, such as free print-at-home stickers. ♿ If possible you could create specialist versions of your game to accommodate accessibility barriers, but try to keep the cost comparable to the original version. 🃏 Create cut-outs in boards to help with picking up cards. 🔓 Allow and promote players bending rules to fit access needs. 🎛️ Provide variations of gameplay that address unintentional barriers in your rulebook, online or in FAQs.

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 communication games. 🎤 Social pressure to roleplay, be funny or be quick-witted can be a huge barrier. Consider ways to support or reduce social pressures if possible. 💜 For improv games, consider providing more specific hint cards or fall-back options for players who struggle with improv. ❌ Provide a no-judgement ‘out’ to end a round early if things are getting too much. ☝️ Consider if your game could use interruption mechanics to give less confident players a mechanical way to take the wheel. 🕵️ If possible, make hidden roles optional to your game to make it approachable to more people. 🎭 Deception is difficult for some players, consider how the mechanics of your game can help support deception or provide a way for individuals to opt out of deceptive roles. 🛣️ If the game keeps going after roles have been revealed, set clear expectations in the rules that it is likely or inevitable. For longer games, ensure revealed players still feel like they have an impact at the table. 🎛️ Make rules variants, like having roles all revealed or no talking between players, to alleviate or omit some of the social pressures. 📱Provide ways or tools to help anonymity (companion app, one player presents all options, etc) where it is important for player-submitted parts. 🔤 Where spelling is important, allow spell-checking devices at the table. ⏳ Remove timed elements or provide extra time for players who struggle with writing and/or spelling. 🤟 Provide ASL / BSL guidance for communication in your game if possible. 💬 Overall, provide ways to reduce speech or support alternative communication methods.

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 prioritise actions by providing a suggested direction, such as through goal cards or a unique character action. ⚖️ Provide extra help where rules are not symmetrical and where misunderstanding may occur more frequently, such as a specialised reference card. 🫨 Consider ways to allow players to recover when plans are disrupted, and assist them in being able to pivot more easily or still reach that goal. 🎓 Include how long learning the game will take, not just an average playtime. 🕐 Consider pacing and average turn length, and if players need to be engaged at all times. How do these affect the cognitive load of your game and can you offer options? ⏯️ Help players return to play. Provide help on components or through mechanics for players to ground themselves after getting distracted or taking a break. ⭐ Help and support with ‘finding focus’ such as splitting up game management actions to help players engage, or accepting unrelated side-tasks like drawing. ⏸️ Providing ‘pause points’ and ways to help people ‘save’ the game, such as providing save sheets or extra bags for ‘saved’ collections of components. 📃 Provide ways to reduce memory reliance in games, even on a per player basis. Sometimes it’s as simple as allowing players to take notes. ⌛ Include ways to reduce or remove timed elements. 💢 Give suggested plays to help alleviate round pressure, when a player can feel the need to plan several turns ahead thus significantly increasing cognitive load. 📚 Have flexibility for when admin time happens to help players build the experience around their energy levels. ⏲️ Reduce set-up / tear-down time if you can, such as through components like player trays or through things like quick start guides. 💜 Provide safety mechanics or tools for games with sensitive topics. 📦 Put content information on your box to inform players ahead of purchase.

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 understanding. ⭐ Consider using iconography in place of text to reduce reading, make components more language-agnostic and reduce localisation. 🌍 Check regional meanings for your icons and colours to ensure they translate accurately across locations. ↕️ Print text and icons at the largest size possible, even consider using a bigger font for components with less text. 📕 Move flavour text to the rules or another booklet to save space on components. 🍎 Function over flavour always! If something helps someone to play the game more easily it should take priority over flavour text. 📱 Use QR codes on components to link to an app/webpage to work towards assisted tabletop gaming. 📄 Provide larger print versions of your game or components, for free or as upgrades / editions. ♟️Make components of different types, different shapes and sizes so they can be distinguished through touch. 🦯 Consider additional tactile elements like bumps, pips, embossing/debossing. 🔄️ Make good use of the reverse side of components where art would be duplicated or left blank. 👁️‍🗨️ If your game has an open state of play, consider how it could be played through just descriptions and how you can facilitate that. 🖨️ Make and provide 3D print files for tactile components. 🏁 Use a contract checker, but keep in mind digital versus printed contrast is different! Print is usually always darker. Use pantones and prototypes to check. 🧙‍♂️ Provide clear differentiation for miniatures, like coloured rings or 3D flat icons on the bases which can be easily painted for quick recognition. 🎨 Don’t use colour alone to differentiate pieces or information (use pattern, icon, text, numbers, clearly distinct art/borders) or make components colour-agnostic. 👁️ Make sure any dual-coding is large and clear. 🎲 Consider different transparencies or pip shapes for dice of different types

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. 🗃️ Provide ways to sort components of similar types i.e. different cards that are the same size. Can you use the insert to help separate them. 📱 Create a companion app to either automate parts of the game, provide options to reduce components/table space, track character status, or roll dice. 🖐️ Provide low-mobility alternatives for components, such as Frosthaven's book of maps in place of the map pieces. 🗺️ Provide board references that can help players find locations on larger boards. 🔠 Check visibility of the labels on your board and how they are affected by 3D pieces during play. ⚓ Consider component anchoring - like recessed boards - for helping keep pieces in place. 🎛️ Check tension on moveable/assembled components like clips, dials. Is there a more static version you can provide to players as an option. 🃏 Provide ways to make tucking cards easier such as sleeves, raised areas or recesses. 🎲 Consider dice, how heavy and how many, and think about providing a tower to reduce physical energy cost and avoid dice disrupting the play space. ♟️ Provide card sleeves or thicker components for things that need to be handled often, or adapting the board to provide areas of purchase. ⚖️ Provide accommodations that can level the playing field for groups with a range of dexterity needs, such as different difficulties of components or asymmetric roles. 📂 Provide files that players can download and resize if they need to. ⌛ Provide ways to reduce or remove time pressures, potentially set per player. 🎯Consider the amount of component manipulation and accuracy in your games; lining things up, moving pieces, and what options you can provide to reduce those.

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 bolden key pages for the entry. 🧝 Avoiding writing rules ‘in universe’, try to use common terms and clear language. 🗝️ Highlight keywords to help them stand out in rules and on components. 📑 Provide glossaries of game terms, especially any unique to your game. 📔 Provide reference cards or incorporate references onto player boards. 💭 Consider the information layout of your rulebook, is information laid out in a logical way for a new player? 🏆 Provide context for the game goal; what is the end goal, and provide that near the start of the rulebook and consider reminders on player boards. 🎮 Provide sample turns and guided tutorials for more complex games and remember to include the context of why, not just what. ♟️ Provide example strategies or character builds in more complex games. 🖐️ Encourage open-handed first plays in your rules for competitive games. 🏈 Discourage quarter-backing play in your rules for cooperative games. 🌖 Provide help for when rules change such as reference cards or warnings on a round tracker that a change is coming up. 🎛️ Provide game variants and accommodations in your rulebook that help alleviate accessibility barriers. 🔓 Encourage players to bend rules when something is inaccessible!

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 category 38:20 – Tone indicators in games and BSL in captions 40:40 – Communication accessibility 45:20 – "Design for ever gamer" and "Best practise in gaming" for blind gamers 46:50 – IRIS plugin 48:00 – Where to find us

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 break subtitles 1:06:50 – Accessible gadget for gamers 1:08:40 – Developing the latest hardware accessibility offerings at Xbox 1:14:30 – Where to find all the talks 1:15:45 – Where to find us

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?