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 APRE 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
Accessible Player Experience (APX) Training
Our APX Design Patterns allow developers to identify and solve accessibility barriers at all stages of a game’s lifecycle. We offer Certified APX Practitioner Training to build a studio-wide culture of accessibility throughout game development and release.
Be immersed in Accessibility with our APX Training where we feature extensive discussion and hands-on, problem-solving exercises. This showcases our design patterns which help promote a focus on accessibility from the earliest steps of a game’s design cycle. APX training will open a new book in your studio on not only how to spot barriers, but how to overcome them with our patterns.
APX Training at a Glance
- Immersive 2-day workshop with intensive, hands-on projects
- Explore the concepts behind our data-driven APX Design Patterns
- Learn to identify accessibility barriers at all phases of development
- Learn how to showcase why accessibility is important in every title
- Understand the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) and its requirements for legal compliance
We can help you figure out what type of class works for your team!
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 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.
