This Conference Puts Accessibility in Gaming Front and Center

Disability acceptance and accessibility inclusion are on the rise in the gaming industry. In recent years, development studios have made efforts to include accessibility in their designs. Content creators and media outlets are beginning to shy away from treating disability-related stories as niche pieces. Yet industry events like conferences have notably lacked conversations about the disabled experience. That is, until the Game Accessibility Conference (GA Conf).

Ian Hamilton and Tara Voelker, the codirectors and founders of GA Conf, spoke to WIRED about the events that sparked the creation of the conference. After attending numerous other events that were either inaccessible to disabled attendees or failed to include meaningful talks or panels discussing accessibility, the two began the process of designing an inclusive event.

“The initial seed, I guess, was when Tara and I attended the Games for Health conference in Boston in 2012, which had a mini-track on game accessibility run by Ben Sawyer,” Hamilton says. “I think that really illustrated the potential. In the years following that, accessibility awareness was pretty low, and when there was accessibility content at mainstream game development events, it was usually a basic awareness raiser on what it was and why it mattered.”

Voelker echoes Hamilton’s statements. It wasn’t until 2015 when game studios and event planners truly thought about incorporating accessibility and disability inclusion.

“Accessibility talks at mainstream dev events had stagnated, and the events themselves weren’t really interested in pushing it forward,” Voelker says. “It was always at the 101 level, in part because more advanced talks being submitted to the conferences were being rejected or told to make it more introductory. That was incredibly frustrating to see. By having a dedicated conference, we could ensure those talks had a space.”

The event began in 2017, and since then, GA Conf has continued to educate developers and disabled players alike on the intricacies of accessible game design and proper disability inclusion and representation. Since its launch, the conference added a European event, as well as hosted presentations from developers at Sony, EA, Microsoft, and even from the FCC. But aside from educating the public, many talks and panels explore the meaningful connections between games and disabled individuals. Hamilton recalls one specific incident that eventually culminated in a collaboration for one of the most critically acclaimed accessible games to date.