Research Services
Let us help you create fantastic accessible player experiences!
At AbleGamers, we know that everyone can use some help sometime in making your game accessible.
Whether you need help building accessibility knowledge and culture in your team, identifying
accessibility barriers in your game or connecting with players with disabilities about your game, we have a service for you. Our goal is to help your studio make it #SoEveryoneCanGame!
If you are looking for a package that encompasses our services, we have that covered for you too! Check out our subscriptions for bundles on multiple services.
Choose a service!
Accessible Prerequisite Evaluation (APRE)
We know that you want to make sure that players can play your game with controls that suit them and crisp and 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 is 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 is presented or the amount of information being presented
- Get a baseline of key access requirements for their game to track progress forward in
accessibility
Accessible Playthrough Evaluation (APLAY)
We know that you want players to experience the full range of challenges in your game. In order to help you do so, our team can do an Accessibility Playthrough Evaluation. An APLAY is a deep-dive assessment into the different obstacles you have in your game. The goal of the APLAY is to identify where you can increase optionality for players so that 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 to make it 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
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.
Tandem Research at a Glance, AbleGamers will:
- Review your materials and give feedback on how to improve them.
- Collaborate with your staff.
- Ensure the voices of people with disabilities are taken into account at every stage of development.
- Help your studio create a culture of innovation in accessibility through action.
- Create and perform screening, interviewing, testing (and more) for your team!
User research activities, such as contextual inquiry interviews and usability testing, are effective tools for identifying overlooked issues with a design or implementation.
Pre-Research Review
Your team is excited to dive into a research project, but would like feedback and consultation on how to best curate materials aimed to understand disabled players. We can set you up for success and provide you with key insights on your research materials.
What you can expect:
- AbleGamers’ time to review and edit research materials.
- AbleGamers’ professional opinion and experience on how to deliver materials to players.
- Support before the research project is underway in the form of administrative discussion.
Screeners
ScreenersWe review your screener and modify your questions, to narrow your participants so you can focus on your following research.
Surveys
SurveysWe review your survey and modify your questions, to help you curate the best survey you can to extrapolate insights from qualitive and quantitative data.
Interview Questions
Interview QuestionsWe review your materials and edit them, to gain the best insight on your focus areas from your interviews.
Tandem Research
Sometimes a little support can elevate your team’s goals, and AbleGamers is here to provide that! Let us assist you so you can keep moving forward at a progressive pace!
What you can expect:
- AbleGamers’ User Research support in performing research opportunities.
- AbleGamers’ professional consultation on how to succeed in disability research.
- AbleGamers synchronously working alongside your team through the research project lifecycle.
Tandem Interviewing
AbleGamers UXRs will perform interviews alongside your team.
We can work with you as:
- Interviewer
- Moderator
- Scribe
- Other support role
Tandem Usability Testing
Tandem Usability TestingAbleGamers UXRs will team up with your research and design teams.
Have us perform:
- Usability Testing
- Moderation
- Expert consultation
- Novel actions to get the best data you can from your test
Direct User Feedback
AbleGamers’ User Research team is equipped to support your studio even if your team doesn’t have capacity to complete all parts of a testing plan. We are more than ready to take the reins and return with excellent, curated data!
What you can expect:
- Control and regulation of the materials AbleGamers curates for your project.
- Project management and asynchronous work with your development team.
- Detailed and easy-to-read reports and deliverables.
Screening
AbleGamers UXRs collect information from your team to turn into a screener, and then collects quantitative data for your project.
Surveying
AbleGamers UXRs collect information from your team to turn into a survey and performs a quantitative analysis.
Interviews
AbleGamers UXRs perform interviews for your team then compiles the resulting data into one report.
Gameplay Usability Testing
AbleGamers UXRs perform an inclusive gameplay test with players directly, through remote or in-person testing standards.
Need more resources for buy-in?
Technology is a powerful tool that can facilitate progress, and it is thrilling to participate in a venture aimed at enhancing convenience and efficiency for individuals. Accessibility is particularly compelling because it makes things easier and better for people with disabilities. Accessibility is often not considered as an integral aspect of the user experience. The question is how to apply the profession’s inherent drive to solve problems towards addressing accessibility-related issues.
The field of User Experience centers around individuals. Accessibility pertains to individuals with disabilities. It is crucial for the user experience profession to include individuals with disabilities in user experience activities, such as user research and usability testing. This is necessary to ensure that the profession remains true to its purpose, which is to be concerned with all people, not just those considered “normal.” By providing a good experience for all users, and not just the “typical” user, the user experience profession can fulfill its purpose. One effective approach is to expand the definition of “user” in “User Experience” to include a wider range of needs and preferences among individuals.
Player Panels
We know that you want to create the best experience for players in your game and we also know that there is no better source for understanding accessibility barriers than adult players with disabilities themselves. That’s why at AbleGamers we have created a one-of-a-kind program to connect your studio with players with disabilities.
Working with our team of professionals, we will help you construct an advertisement for your opportunity and distribute to our curated community of players with disabilities who want to help make your game a great accessible experience. We will recruit the right people for you and even handle compensation of players for you.
You will want to engage with a Player Panel if you are looking to:
- Understand the accessibility needs of different groups of players for your game
- Undertake early review of wireframes, scripts or other assets with real players who want to play your game.
- Test your game with players at any stage of development to ensure it is as accessible as
possible.
Our Player Panel Promise
When we recruit for you, we deliver you players who are enthusiastic about helping your studio succeed in making an accessible experience. Because we value your studio’s and the player’s time, we expect that communication remains consistent between the parties until the study ends and the players are paid out.
By working with AbleGamers to curate a panel, you’re agreeing to pay the players recruited for their time and expertise. Likewise, by agreeing to participate, the players are expected to be available and present for what they were recruited for (via your studio’s approved advertisement).
Compensation
We believe that the effort and experiences of Player Panels participants are valuable so we want to ensure that they are adequately compensated for their time. Minimum compensation is discussed upfront with you and AbleGamers will assist in your payment plans.
Let’s get you the right folks!
Sensitivity Reading
We know that you want your game to be a welcoming place for a diverse community of players. We also know that 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 that 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 the 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 that you are communicating an inclusive message to all of your developers, partners and players
Let’s get the ball rolling!
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.
