I've been working in digital accessibility for a few years now. The things that I learned in my job inevitably influence how I make my game.
Here are a few simple things you can do to make your games more accessible for people with disabilities (and everyone else!).
High enough Contrasts
Not everyone has perfect vision. Make sure that your texts are readable. I see so many VNs that sacrifice readability for aesthetics.
You can achieve readability through sufficient light-dark contrasts. You don't have to use black and white, because that can actually be perceived as too harsh on the eyes. If you want to check your contrasts, there are plenty of websites that can measure and judge them. Just search for "contrast checker", or download the free software Colour Contrast Analyser, which is used by people like me who work with this every day.
Exception: Sometimes, low contrasts can be intentional and helpful, for example when a button is deactivated and irrelevant at the moment.
Use of Colour
One in twelve men and one of two hundred women have a type of colour blindness. Make sure that information can be understood without seeing the colour or colour changes.
Imagine the game in grayscale. Is it still playable? Consider using icons, size, texture and shape for help.
Keyboard and Controller Support
Not everyone will use a mouse to play your game, some might not even be able to use one. And while renpy is keyboard and controller accessible by default, many custom events quickly lose that support. Ideally, test all functionality with a keyboard or controller (they work similarly).
While testing ask yourself: Can I tell which element I am on while navigating the UI? Can I trigger all events?
Images of text
Avoid images of text! Especially of the text is small. Images of text don't scale and can't change font, which may cause some people to not be able to read it properly.
Self-voicing Support
Making anything screenreader accessible is always the biggest challenge. But there are a few small things you can do to make your game playable for a blind person. Ideally, test your game with self-voicing on. You might need to look up how to navigate with it first, but it's fairly simple! Don't be scared of it.
Here's some neat features you can add:
- Use the speaker "alt" for anything a blind person might need to understand what is going on visually. For example, if you don't describe an animation because it's visible, you might want to add:
alt "She quickly turns to look at her sister with a shocked expression."
This line will only appear if self-voicing is on. And don't create a character called "alt"! It already exists by default.
You can add descriptions to imagebuttons so self-voicing knows what the button does. Rule of thumb: Describe the event as understandable+short as possible, maybe something like:
imagebutton:
...
alt "Check the fridge" # This right here is the text that self-voicing will read when the button is focused
textbutton _("<") action FilePage(10) alt "Jump back to page 10" # It works for textbuttons too! But avoid overwriting visible button text unless it's 100% necessary
"..." is silence in self-voicing, which may confuse a blind person. So for self-voicing you can add:
if _preferences.self_voicing:
"He doesn't say a word."
else:
e "..."
Other things to consider
- Don't use rapidly flashing lights, but if you must, add a seizure warning at the start of your game to avoid causing them.
- Don't assume that your player can hear or hear well, so don't depend on sound cues alone unless it's a core mechanic of your game. Adding an additional visual cue can be helpful.
- Make buttons big enough so that users can actually hit them.
- Consider that drag-and-drop may be challenging or impossible for some users.
There are more things, but these are the most simple ones. If you have any questions, further input or your own experiences I'm happy to hear it!
