I thought I’d add a bit to this, being disabled myself.
Adobe has a free color picker tool which has a mode for picking color palettes that are safe with every type of color blindness: https://color.adobe.com/create/color-accessibility. Using this when picking a palette for your UI can go a long way to making sure colorblind players will have a good experience without needing to enable special colorblind modes.
The color filters mentioned in the OP, as far as I know those are for simulating colorblindness rather than correcting for it. You can use tools like those to be able to test your games to make sure they’re playable for colorblind people.
Avoid strobing lights when possible, or if for some reason they are essential, it goes a long way to add specific warnings when a sequence is going to have them. Marking your entire game with an epilepsy warning means that people with epilepsy will be forced to choose between their safety and trying to play your game anyway. There’s lots of guides online which help tell epileptic players which parts of a game will be problematic, as the games often just have a generic warning at startup. Including guides like this right into your game can go a long way.
Using large text sizes by default can help make your game more playable for people with below-average vision, not just for people with specific vision disabilities.
Adding keybind customization to your game, while unfortunately not yet supported out of the box by Roblox, is something that can go a long way to helping players with RSI, motor disabilities, and other physical disabilities. I use an ergonomic keyboard with a custom layout because of RSI, and some games have default controls that don’t work very well for me.
To add to the point about calm areas, having a way to pause or quickly get to a safe area can help a lot of your players, not just disabled people. This type of design is usually the expectation on Roblox (where people can often leave the game at any moment and then resume later), but I thought it was worth mentioning since it’s not the norm in the wider games industry.
I don’t really talk about this outside of my personal life and to a few friends within the developer community, but I do too have a physical disability. I have Arthrogryposis. It essentially makes it harder for me to bend; I can only bend to a specific degree.
While I was creating my game, I’ve had it in my mind during development: “If I can play this game, many others can too.” That’s why you’ll see many buttons in my own game a bit larger, keys are not combined, you only need to hold down one key because of this reason:
It’s so hard for me to hold down more than one key, it’s worse with three. I’m glad to see this guide up there, it will it not only teach developers to set up precautions for players who have a disability, but it’ll make our lives easy. I’ve done extensive testing with my game’s controls, ensuring that I can play it, as well as others can play it. And as of now, I haven’t had any complaints about my game’s controls. I’m willing to do everything I can to allow a player who has a disability to play my game, I want them to have an equal opportunity as much as I would like it in other games.
I hope to see Roblox implement something for accessibility because when they do, I’ll be one of the first to implement that new API.
this is a really good post; i’ve read through the entire thing and learned a lot
i’d like to add that it’s a good idea to avoid forcing the player to hold down buttons while possible (or at least provide an option to prevent having to hold); for example, if you have a crouching or sprinting button, instead of having to hold down the button to keep doing the action it’d be better if you just had to press the button to toggle it
(you actually quietly pointed this out in the post with the screenshot of minecraft’s accessbility menu, but i feel that there should be more emphasis on it since it’s one of the more common problems that are seen in games)
this post also helped me realise that one of the jokes i used to make a lot in the past was actually unintentionally ableist – thanks for helping me find out
Just wanted to thank you for making this guide, as a developer I find that accessibility guides are very lacking. The only one I am aware of for Roblox is the accessibility best practices guide on the developer hub.
My adhd personally doesn’t inhibit my ability to play games, however it affects me outside of Roblox, like easily getting distracted, short attention span, etc. Because of my short attention span, I have trouble reading the post. I recommend breaking it down using details tags, so it is easier to read for those with extremely short attention spans. After all, this is an accessibility guide. That is all I have to say
thanks so much for your addition, i’ll make sure to edit this in!
i will say the color filters on macs and iphones are placed in the accessibility settings for a reason- they don’t simulate colorblindness, they exist to help those with that type of colorblindness.
i can’t show it via screencaps because for whatever reason mac doesn’t work like that, but if i were to toggle the tritanopia settings on, it very, very noticeably changes the color blue on my screen, which is the color that those with tritanopia can’t see all that well. i have studio in my dock, and it changes it’s sky blue to a deep royal blue. same with the sky-blue banners here on devforum. otherwise, other colors aren’t as effected and look relatively the same.
the protanopia settings change colors a little, but noticeably turns red into magenta, while the deuteranopia settings change red and green enough to tell them apart.
the grayscale settings do appear to be just a filter, but you can tell red and green apart. there might be issue with telling apart green and teal with maroon and brown, or pink and purple from red and orange and sky blue, but that’s the only issue i can see.
i’m not as versed on colorblindness as i used to be, but i did make a comic when i was younger with colorblind protagonists, where pages were colored only in the specific character it involved primarily could see. this is another reason i can tell the color filters aren’t simulating colorblindness, but assisting with color differentiation.
yeah, i definitely rambled on a bit!
i got autism, so i know where you come from. normally i wouldn’t like reading a post as long as this at all.
accessibility’s a big special interest of mine, though, so i couldn’t help but go on about it.
it’s as broken down as i could get it, from my perspective. at least, to still have it make sense.
Thank you for posting! I suggested a few days ago that people should do some of the things mentioned but did not have all the resources on hand for them. This is a great resource that I will share with others, and will utilize some of the things I haven’t thought of here. Great work. As a person with several of the disabilities on this list, it’s certainly a great thing to see.
…
im literally autistic.
way to call an actual autistic person active in the autistic community who knows that “”“joke”"" is offensive nonsensical.
i gave reason as to why these “”“jokes”"" are offensive and u clearly didn’t read my post!
here are some sources:
(“Reeeee” is an extension of the “autistic screeching” “meme” and has roots in making fun of people with autism. Don’t do that.) - IndieAlpaca via Twitter
PSA: “Reeeeee” is just as offensive as using the R-word. Its origins trace back to a meme making fun of the sound an autistic person was making when overstimulated. - Steven Spohn via Twitter
Sometimes, “ree” is used to mock people on the autism spectrum, supposedly mimicking a noise that someone on the spectrum might make. This variation of “reeee” is overtly offensive and disrespectful. - Stay Hipp
I see it constantly. It irritates me as it’s associated with the autistic screeching meme. I very rarely have fits, but those less fortunate than myself on other parts of the spectrum do, as I’m sure we’re all aware. I find it mocking and insulting to those unable to help themselves. - u/Yodamort via r/autism (this user is also autistic themselves)
Redditor Dragon___ replied that the sound was similar to shrieks made by autistic people … - Know Your Meme
(here’s a screenshot of that, spoilered because of uncensored slur usage!)
and yes, kym and a lot of other places will say it originated from the screaming frog meme. however, in modern times it is mostly used to make fun of autistic people, and just because its origin is not in that doesnt mean its not offensive.
please get off my thread abt not being ableist if ur going to be ableist urself! thank you and please educate yourself.
I totally understand this! I have ADHD as well, though it seems to help me come up with great ideas. I also have a sister with ADD, so I support anyone with something like them.
This is a pretty cool guide! Trello on mobile has one of my favourite accessibility features, which adds textured backgrounds to coloured labels. That makes it easy to distinguish between the labels, even if you’re colour blind.
The W3C website also has some articles/documents on developing accessible websites and apps, that could also apply to Roblox games and UI.
In fact, I developed a ColourUtils library which even demonstrates in the README how to generate an appropriately contrasting foreground text colour when given a background colour (based on the W3C guidelines), when making UI programmatically (e.g. Roact, Fusion).
I’m not a dev per se but I am a disabled player who is constantly struggling with inaccessible game design. I’m autistic and I have a jacked up spine, among other things, and the result is a low-energy, irritable person who’s usually in pain when playing games and gets easily overwhelmed. I play with a controller on a PC, which is an…interesting experience, to say the least.
I’ve definitely made enemies of some devs by now by moaning and complaining about accessibility issues that I feel would be so, so easy to fix, but then, some other devs have been kind enough to hear me out and go out of their way to fix them (shout-out to the Crown Academy devs for this – not only did they re-enable gamepad controls after the movement system Roblox ships with was replaced with their own, but they created a unique menu interface! I can’t currently seem to access it, but the game afaik is undergoing a recode). It means a lot to me!
Thank you so much for making this guide. I really, really hope it gets lots of eyes. I’ve definitely annoyed people over my time on Roblox with my constant talks about accessibility this, disability that, but so few people ever actually listen. This is a really, really well-done guide and I hope people take it to heart.
Also, regarding ‘ree’, yes, I was so disappointed two Christmases ago when one of the Adopt Me reindeer said that to me. Fortunately, it seems to be finally becoming less popular, but a lot of people just don’t know how hurtful it is.
As someone who struggled with dyslexia and ADHD, I extremely do appreciate this post and how detailed this post was. I will be implementing all suggested features into my projects (“games”).
I seriously agree with this one and even hold policies within my groups (That I manage/own) over a Safe & Positive Community. I appreciate the fact, you have included a list of words (to ban/blacklist) and knocked down misconceptions (Hopefully, using the right word).
Again, you have formed an extremely detailed post, that I can not thank you enough for spreading this information to developers, so we can not include, but implement such features into projects (“games”) and to integrate them into our projects (“games”)
Main posts updated! Added an example of an epilepsy warning and added a link to the support list that offers good insight on game accessibility outside of Roblox.
This is quite helpful, maybe if i got time il make some open source modules that make it easier for devs to make games that are accessible. But again real good work and thank you for bringing this up!
Sorry about the bump, but I just have a question about making a game accessible. I know that there’s plenty of guidelines on making an accessible game, but I feel like there’s a lack of disabled players/developers which are able to give feedback on what needs work. I want to ensure that any accessibility features are substantial, and not just basic.
Is there any specific place where I may ask disabled players to test my game and suggest ideas? And if there is, how should I approach playtesting in general? (agenda, feedback, compensation, etc.)
we aren’t terribly difficult to come by, actually! maybe that’s just me saying that because i’m in disabled circles and/or i happen to know the signs that another person is disabled (lack of a better term).
i know there’s a good number of groups on roblox that cater to disabled players. a lot of the playerbase for my sensory room are neurodivergent, and a good lot of the regulars have joined my clothing group. you could certainly ask over there.
many kidcore-themed (especially those that lean into weirdcore/dreamcore too) groups will have a good bit of disabled users, since kidcore/weirdcore/dreamcore/liminal space as aesthetics are nowadays heavily pioneered by those of us with childhood trauma and ptsd from youth, or other neurodivergent and mentally ill people. medcore is the same, but i don’t think the specific brand of medcore (driven by those of us with medical-related trauma and ptsd) i’m thinking of is terribly popular on roblox just yet, though you might be able to find some.
a lot of lgbt+ circles will also have a decent bit of disabled members, it’s an acceptance thing.
and maybe check the comments of disability ugc items? i know there’s a handful of comments from disabled users on the wheelchair ugc items, maybe the neurodivergent pins, etc.
generally if you find one disabled player or dev, others will be around. we tend to flock together.
maybe check out the discords of critterspace, jovial’s playground, and pepper’s playhouse? i know the large majority of users there are disabled in some way. systemcore caters to those of us with did/osdd/other plurality, but i think that’s the only disability-specific group i’m in considering i’m very close to the group limit.
hope this helps?? generally whenever i playtest a game i’ll find visual/audio issues and that’s about it, maybe an issue with controls, but while i’m physically disabled myself i don’t run into as many issues as others do when playing games.
the people who have already posted here who have a disability are also likely to agree to playtest!
