Gaming mit Behinderung: Wie inklusiv sind Videospiele wirklich?

Wir sind in der Winterpause! Die erste Game Two Folge läuft am 20.1.2024

Die Gaming-Community ist riesig und wird jedes Jahr größer, das hört man überall. Nicht so häufig hört man dagegen, wie auf die unterschiedlichen Bedürfnisse dieser facettenreichen Communnity eingegangen wird. Denn nicht jeder zockt auf die gleiche Art und Weise. Wer mit körperlichen oder geistigen Einschränkungen lebt, stellt andere Ansprüche an Steuerung, Gameplay und Grafik, die Menschen ohne diese Einschränkungen gar nicht bewusst sind. Seit einigen Jahren tut sich viel im Bereich “inklusives Gaming” und doch ist der Weg noch weit. Games haben einprogrammierte Optionen für Barrierefreiheit und große Hersteller bringen “Access-Controller” auf den Markt, die zwar eine Basis bieten, aber noch lange keine allumfassende Lösung darstellen, mit der jeder Mensch gleichermaßen Zugang zu Gaming hat. Wir haben Gamer mit Behinderungen besucht, die für sich schon Lösungen gefunden haben, und probieren herauszufinden, wie inklusives Gaming funktionieren kann. Und wir sprechen mit Experten, die diese Menschen dabei begleiten und unterstützen.

Dennis aka “wheelyworld”: https://wheelyworld.de/
Moritzberg-Werkstätten: https://www.lebenshilfe-nbg-land.de/arbeiten-foerdern/moritzberg-werkstaetten.html
Gaming ohne Grenzen: https://www.gaming-ohne-grenzen.de/

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Video games are an important medium for me. Not just a way to pass the time, but also to meet up with friends, support each other, fight together as a team or compete against each other, digitally.

It’s also an escape from everyday life, especially when the day at work has been a bit more stressful, so you can just fire up your computer and play a relaxed game. Dennis is a passionate gamer. He has been paraplegic since he was 17, but plays almost every new game with a controller

For his mouth called a Quadstick and streams on Twitch as Wheely World. I can play almost anything with the quadstick, from adventure games like Super Mario to shooters like Call of Duty. RPGs like Baldur’s Gate, Wold of Warcraft and others. There are hardly any limits.

Around 3 billion people worldwide regurlarly play video games. Not all people have the same prerequisites for this. Many games require a high level of motor and cognitive skills. Devices such as controllers or keyboards are small and even people without disabilities cannot operate them completely intuitively without years of experience.

Participation and inclusion are increasingly becoming the focus of society. This discussion also has an impact on video games. Making a hobby accessible to everyone is a difficult task that I get to the bottom of. I, Jasper, am the creative director at Game Two, but was also previously a media educator.

I took the release of the Sony Access Controller as an opportunity to look at what options there are for people with disabilities to take part in our hobby and what solutions they can find. We visit the Moritzberg workshop near Nuremberg. Around 350 people work here who

Produce parts for the German automotive industry in their day-to-day work Florian is a career development specialist and has found a community of gamers among the workshop employees through his passion for video games. Yes, yay. From FIFA to Mario Kart, many genres are covered. Why and how these games are played varies.

Florian sees games not just as a pastime, but as a way of boosting self-confidence. Anyone who has been to a job interview knows what it’s like to have to pretend and try to appear better than you are, to hide your flaws so that no one notices,

And that’s what our people do most of the time. They try to hide their shortcomings. You notice relatively quickly where the problems are, but they just try, and that takes energy and that’s exactly what I don’t have to do when I play a video game. Over the years, Florian has

Gained a good feel for the preferences of his group members. How do we game here? Everyone plays differently here. One person only has one hand available, another has both hands. What’s important is that you can customize games and the controller. So the controller, if you can assign the buttons

As you need them, then that’s great, and that’s good if I can put the buttons where I need them. But it depends on the degree of impairment. It occurs to me that there is no general solution for accessibility. The requirements are too diverse for that. That’s why access controllers rely on customization.

The controller itself acts as a hub to which many variants can be connected. Microsoft released the Xbox adaptive controller in 2018, and Sony followed suit last year. But how effective is such a device? From my point of view, it’s difficult to say.

That’s why we asked Florian’s video game group whether they could test them for us and what their limits are. Price: 89,99€ Configurable buttons: 2+ Digipad Extensionports: 19(3,5mm) + 2(USB 2.0) At first I wasn’t thrilled, the difficulty of setting it up confused us. Didn’t work well with the games.

It has to be adjusted every time you play. For me, this is not barrier-free gaming, but rather supervised gaming. No one can recognize what this is, what that means. You have to look with a magnifying glass. But the more we tested, we figured out

How to use the thing, and then it was really cool. You can configure it the way people need it, so people who can’t play with regular controllers can still play. How did you find playing with the controller? -Good. -Was it complicated? No, it worked. -Was it fun? -Yes. -Was it complicated? -Yes.

-But it worked? – Yes. Price: 89,99€ Configurable buttons: 9 + analog stick Extensionports: 4 (3,5mm) It turns out that this controller is better. Why is it better? I have a whole controller in my hand here. I have all the buttons I need around here.

I can assign the buttons, it’s easy to grip, it fits exactly in one hand, No second hand is needed. I just need one hand. I can put the buttons however I want. If I have a game where I don’t need all the buttons,

I can put the buttons I need down here really nicely. I can rotate the thing in all directions, it can be used 360°. I have a lot of options with this controller, and I can connect four extra buttons here, which is of course also great if I need buttons for someone who

Uses their head to operate a button with their mouth. Good start, but just connecting an adaptive controller and simply gaming doesn’t work apparently. This requires planning and getting used to it. It also took Dennis a while to be able to play with his quadstick. With all the knowledge of what was possible,

Plus the fact that I knew how to do something and had the controls figured out, already took two or three months. but there weren’t many people who had this device where you could get some tips. That’s why you had to try by yourself but anything works. In my opinion, gaming has

Potential for all people, especially for people who suffer from barriers in our world and feel barriers on a daily basis. As an educator, Katrin has experience with the effects of games. As a workshop leader, she also uses the Xbox adaptive controller when working with seniors in retirement homes

To convey to them the joy of gaming. I think gaming and the world associated with it is characterized by the fact that I can be whoever I want to be, can do whatever I want, can run, jump, drive a car. I can do what I feel like doing.

Whatever the game allows me to do, I can do, and that doesn’t have to do with any barriers that are placed on me. In the gaming world itself I am barrier-free, but access to it through non-barrier-free elements denies me access. And that’s why she builds her own controllers.

That was an idea during my time at a former facility. We took bicycle handles and soldered them with buttons because they were easy to hold in the hand or could be grabbed between the legs and then operated with a finger or elbow.

What sits comfortably in the hand is the oldest toy in the world? The ball. Then I thought I would make a creative control element out of it. That also caused enthusiasm. I often associate the element with, let’s say, a classic jump & run where this is the function for going to the right

And left, for example. Alternative controllers are the right step, but the games also have to be accessible. No matter how good the controller is, I need to have the settings in the game that match the controller or have it on the console that matches the controller so that I can set it up,

The controller alone can’t do it. There have to be settings in the game and they have to be fitting. Many games have settings for subtitles and filters. Games that receive funding in Germany must prove their accessibility when submitting their application. Requirements are button remapping, subtitles and extensive setting options.

But is it enough or is there more to be done before more people can enjoy video games in their own way? The Gaming ohne Grenzen initiative, supported by Aktion Mensch, offers rooms for young people to play, and in their groups they test the games themselves for accessibility.

And we test the games in the areas of hearing, seeing, understanding and controlling and see what the hurdles are for different people. And what excludes some people from gaming does not necessarily exclude others. And the same applies to the accessability options. Even in games, what helps some doesn’t necessarily help others.

Some hardcore gamers or Souls veterans might initially turn up their noses when it comes to easy modes and accessibility because it doesn’t concern them. Many players are excluded from many games because of such thinking. In my opinion it goes into the direction of the mentality of

The more complex the game, the better the game, the higher my achievement I can say I have achieved this. I beat the level even though it was so complex and I think that’s the wrong way. Games like the Souls series, including the new Zelda,

Like Mario Kart 8 for example, those have few options when it comes to accessibility or setting options when it comes to sound. Unfortunately, that quickly becomes a barrier if you don’t have many options to individualize the game. It’s ironic that Nintendo games, of all things, offer only few options,

As Nintendo is considered the company for beginners. With a design based on accessibility, it’s strange that they barely offer any options and no adaptive controller. Nintendo is a difficult subject because decisions make the games already relatively accessible. So if you look at Pokemon Sword and Shield, for example,

There was also a hand function. You can only move a stick and press a button, because usually you don’t have to operate anything like that at the same time. On the other hand, for example, the audio options, so that you could control the volume of background noise, music and other sounds

Separately, were only available as a setting when you met an NPC who gave headphones. So it’s just an option that makes a difference to many people’s accessibility was hidden and you could have walked past it. Dear game developers, please don’t sell this pseudo accessibility in every game

I play with my people. Here, if we want to set accessibility, I first need a doctorate to even completely understand what is meant with it. What happens there? There are no pictograms, nor is language facilitated by the game itself. That’s not what it’s aimed at.

At best, it is aimed at people with physical disabilities. Mentally disabled people are completely excluded. An example could be taken from websites that work with texts read out, audio, descriptions of images and videos or an option for simple language. Elements that could also be brought into video games.

Despite the need to catch up in the video game industry, there are also a few good examples. The cozy game trend around games like Unpacking is getting bigger. Cozy games are games that deliberately put relaxation at the forefront of their gameplay instead of competitiveness.

In the last few years, a German game has made positive headlines. The game Dorfromantik from the Berlin studio Toukana Interactive achieved top ratings in almost all categories in the Gaming Without Limits test. The criteria here are no time pressure or whether playing without sound or with one hand is possible.

You don’t find that in video game journalism, nor in our reviews. Dorfromantik is a harmonious, beautiful game. I think a lot of people who play a game want to relax and switch off. Another small barrier to entry. It’s easy to understand, you can get started straight away,

You have a lot of successes, especially at the beginning of the game. In addition, a certain racing game series is also considered a role model for accessibility. Well, that’s how it is with Forza. Something has improved here than before. The game even has sign language.

Unfortunately that’s only in English, which is a shame. Another example would be Forza. It’s developed in such a way that you can play blind. I looked at the settings, volume controls where I thought, you have to think of this concept first. But they worked with people who depend on it.

So, there was a collaboration with Ubisoft, where I was allowed to take part in a game test for Anno for an expansion and we were a small group of four people who tested a DLC and also looked to see if we noticed anything in terms of accessibility

So, we were able to give feedback on what we thought and noticed, and the whole thing was then passed on to the developers, and after a few weeks we received a version, where our suggestions were already implemented, partially. Ubisoft is also very involved. So, they now have a five-person accessibility team,

Four of whom have disabilities, and they still bring in experts from outside of the company when they develop the games. Gaming is more global than ever, and companies like Ubisoft are taking the issue of accessibility seriously. Bringing everyone together should not only be a social but also an economical concern.

The potential for even more enthusiastic gamers among people with disabilities is definitely there, and I learned how big the topic is and that we can only give a small insight here. But one thing is clear: with 7.8 million disabled people living in Germany, it’s not a niche topic,

And the road to an inclusive gaming world is long. The Xbox Adaptive Controller and Sony’s Access Control are a step in the right direction. I hope that Sony’s product will bring about healthy competition, and competition always sparks ideas and potential, and I hope that momentum will come in,

That Sony’s games or games that will be played on the PlayStation will also come into being will then simply live off the fact that there are staff in the exhibition halls who then deal with the controller. And healthy competition doesn’t hurt, especially not accessibility,

Because I think that’s why the issue can become bigger. And for mentally disabled people, you should sit down and not hire a doctor for game design who then tries to create accessibility for disabled people, but just go to the nearest workshop. Doesn’t it have to be us, there are more workshops,

Go in, ask, do you have a gaming group? Yes, can we try this out with you? And then tell us where can we make it easier. And the need that I see that it’s not just people who talk about accessibility, and I consciously don’t exclude myself from that,

Who have studied something, whether it’s rehabilitation, science or education, and mean well, but don’t know what a barrier feels like and what that does to you, and how it is also important that barriers have to be removed. The most important thing is to work with disabled people.

Ideally, they should be part of the development team, but we’re not there yet. But there are also experts with disabilities who can be brought in for advice, and as early as possible, because accessibility is best considered from the start. Then it’s easier to implement and correspondingly cheaper,

But you have more options not to create barriers. People like Florian, Dennis, Melanie and Katrin or initiatives like Gaming ohne Grenzen bring the topic of accessible gaming further into the public eye, and when the community becomes richer through their projects, this also increases the quality as well as creativity

Of the games, and in the end everyone benefits from it. Whether with a disability or without. If you would like to see more from our visit to the Moritzburg workshop, take a look here, and for another look at the world of video games, here is the story about gambling in games.