Research Services

Accessible Prerequisite Evaluation (APRE)

We know that you want to make sure that players can play your game with controls that suit them, and with crisp, clear presentation of information. To help you achieve these pre-requisites of accessibility, our team can conduct an APRE on your game and provide you with a report of the key barriers that will keep players out. The barriers identified in this evaluation can be addressed by your team early in the development process, ensuring that players can confidently play your game when it’s released.

Your studio should do an APRE if you want to:

• Identify where controls need more options to include players who need changes to remapping or precision
• Understand where information is at risk of being missed by players, either because of how it’s presented or the amount of information being presented
• Get a baseline of key access requirements for your game, to track progress forward in accessibility

Our customized evaluation process will provide you with a report on Access barriers that inhibit actions players take in your games, and the information they receive about the game state through a variety of modalities. This evaluation does not consider Challenge barriers, such as the need for assists, hints, bypassing content, or other challenges related to the tuning of gameplay for players with disabilities. To ensure you get the maximum value from the APRE report, our teams will meet one week after the report is delivered to debrief and answer any questions your team might have.

Accessible Playthrough Evaluation (APLAY)

We know that you want players to experience the full range of challenges in your game. To help you do so, our team can perform an Accessibility Playthrough Evaluation — a deep-dive assessment into the different obstacles in your game. The goal of the APLAY is to identify where you can increase optionality for players so they can tune challenges and make your game just right for them.

Your studio should do an APLAY if you want to:

• Check the pre-requisites for access that create a gateway to challenge in your game
• Identify opportunities for improved options to tune your game for the best experience possible for players with disabilities
• Highlight key areas of gameplay that would benefit from playtesting of accessibility options with one of our Player Panels

Our expert accessibility-focused UX researchers complete a deep dive into your game to unearth even more barriers. As this evaluation is inclusive of the APRE, it not only highlights potential Access barriers, it also pinpoints Challenge barriers that may affect player performance and progress. A comprehensive report detailing the APLAY’s findings will be generated by our team and put at your team’s disposal, followed by a debrief meeting one week later.

Tandem Research

When organizing a research session with participants who have disabilities, there are several considerations to keep in mind. Designers, developers, strategists, and writers can gain valuable insights into the needs of people with disabilities by involving them in user research activities. We offer three types of UX Research: Pre-Research, Tandem Research, and Direct User Feedback.

Sometimes a little support can elevate your team’s goals, and AbleGamers is here to provide that. What you can expect: AbleGamers’ User Research support in performing research opportunities, professional consultation on how to succeed in disability research, and our team working synchronously alongside yours throughout the research project lifecycle.

Player Panels

We know that you want to create the best experience for players in your game, and there’s no better source for understanding accessibility barriers than adult players with disabilities themselves. That’s why AbleGamers created a one-of-a-kind program to connect your studio with players with disabilities — we help you construct an advertisement for your opportunity, distribute it to our curated community of players, recruit the right people, and even handle compensation.

Sensitivity Reading

We know that you want your game to be a welcoming place for a diverse community of players. We also know it can be difficult to review storylines, game assets, and even marketing materials for problematic or offensive elements that might alienate people and keep them from joining your community. At AbleGamers, we work with skilled sensitivity readers to review all these types of content, to ensure your game is as welcoming as possible to a wide variety of players with disabilities.

Your studio will want a Sensitivity Reading if you want to:

• Read scripts for tone, theme, and stereotypes
• Review inclusive options for avatars to ensure they represent a wide range of disabilities
• Inspect out-of-game content, from design documents to help pages to marketing campaigns, to ensure you’re communicating an inclusive message to developers, partners, and players

Writing, designing, and developing a character, situation, or narrative is really tough when you’re curating an experience you’re unfamiliar with. Even with the right intentions, it’s not always easy to get representation and diversity right. Our Sensitivity Readers work alongside your team to drive that mission forward, so your games can connect with all kinds of players.

Consulting

We know that sometimes there are things that come up in development that don’t seem to fit the other services we have available. When this happens, our team can work with you to understand your needs and provide a plan that gets you to the accessible game that your team wants, and players deserve.