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EA Creates Accessibility Portal For Disabled Players
Electronic Arts has made a portal website catered to guiding disabled gamers.
EA has had posts about helping disabled gamers on their titles' websites, but this new portal puts all the informational eggs in one basket. "For those with medical differences, game accessibility means pulling down barriers that are preventing play," EA sports accessibility lead Karen Stevens writes in a post. "The Accessibility Portal site has been created to better serve these diverse needs. The portal is intended to act as a compliment to official game pages, making it easier to find what accessibility-specific features and resources are available across games."
A forum on the site allows people to voice feature changes they want in games, as well as general discussions. EA says any news regarding the site will come through the EA Accessible Twitter account.
There are currently three games on the accessibility site: UFC 3, Madden NFL 18, and NHL 18. Each title lists ways to help various types of disabilities, including color blindness and blindness, the latter of which has instructions detailing the number of button or joystick directional presses to access parts of the game. NHL 18, for example, has a two-button gameplay option to assist those who may not have flexibility with their hands.
[Source: EA]
Our Take
It might be easy to take a jab at the publisher that's been named the worst company in America a few times, but you have to respect EA for helping those who can't play games in the typical fashion. Video games are arguably the greatest entertainment medium in the world, and everyone should have the chance to enjoy them.
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