Welcome back for another edition of the GAconf Awards, once again recognising and celebrating the efforts of people across and around game development to raise the bar for accessibility.
This year we have 19 categories, shortlisted by an expert panel, with winners decided on by a combination of public and jury vote which ran during the week of Nov 25th – December 1st.
The winners of the GAconf Awards will revealed in January by the inimitable Steve Saylor together with a host of special guests. You will be able to watch the full ceremony on the IGDA-GASIG youtube channel, with audio description, ASL, BSL, and full captions.
This year’s finalists, together with links and info on why they’re finalists, are:
Accessibility in a game made on big budget / by a big team
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
Highlights include lots of accessibility by design e.g. pinning screenshots to the map, text size & contrast, colourblindness, no QTEs, no info through sound alone, training area, conversation log, etc. And options, like gameplay high contrast mode that has presets for colourblindness, lots of assists inc platforming, melee, parrying & aiming, broad & fine grained difficulty settings, guided mode adding icons & available/blocked path info to map
Star Wars Outlaws
Highlights include configurable gameplay contrast, detailed menu narration inc. HUD updates and blind-accessible open world map, UI size & contrast inc. large text option on title screen before any menus, audio description for cinematics, automation & assists baked in by design through low-precision Nix companion mechanic inc. interact, attack, pick up, and see through walls, further wide range of assist settings inc. auto-walk, auto vault/mantle and auto-perfect reload, cognitive accessibility focus with the accessibility presets including one for cognitive, granular difficulty including per-minigame, no info through sound alone inc. detailed subtitle & captions system with dedicated overheard NPC chatter panel, wide range of sim sickness settings inc. space flight sim sickness considerations by design, and audio focus mode
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Highlights include wide range of fine grained difficulty inc. invincibility, configurable combat inc. parry timing & aim assist strength, customisable HUD, text size settings, customisable subtitles, optional audio cues for some visual mechanics inc. incoming attacks, lock-on, and conversation wheels, sim sickness settings, mono audio mode with left/right panning slider, holds to taps, object glint distance & visibility and spatialised ping, world & local maps available at all times, melee/ranged thread indicators, no info by sound alone inc, visual combat/exploration cues, waypoint visibility, detailed codex inc. lore glossary, all spiders removed by default
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Highlights include presets for simplified controls / low motor strain / visual support / motion reduction, asymmetrical hearing compensation, intelligent movement automation, customisable HUD with a range of presets, holds to taps, improved gameplay high contrast, arachnophobia settings, customisable color palette for key elements
Life Is Strange: Double Exposure
Highlights include content warning pause with optional warnings across a wide range of triggery content and also warnings for sudden brightness or volume changes, longer choice times, major choice confirmation, camera assist, simple power effects, hotspot pinging
Accessibility in a game made on a small budget / by a small team
Periphery Synthetic
Blind-first audiogame
Another Crab’s Treasure
Wide range of gameplay modifiers in a Soulslike game, including 1-hit-kills by giving the crab a gun
Botany Manor
No time pressure or fail states, breaks encouraged, sim sickness considerations, non-serif text overlay, dual channel
Pine Hearts
Text options, gameplay high contrast mode, simplified controls
Plucky Squire
Story mode, jump assist, disable falling platforms, show hidden portals, invincibility, one hit kills, hint companions
Accessibility for players who are Deaf or hard of hearing
Skull & Bones
Customisable subtitles & captions with display of distance in metres to the source of the sound, presentation settings include letter spacing
Spider-Man 2 caption update
captions for non-dialogue sounds in cutscenes, including names of songs & artists for music
Star Wars Outlaws
No info communicated through sound alone inc. optional minigame visual cues, detailed subtitle & captions system with alien translations and dedicated overheard NPC chatter panel, presentation settings include scaleable to very large size and bold text option, audio focus mode to pare back the mix to just the most important sounds
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Asymmetrical hearing compensation allowing frequency ranges to be adjusted for each ear, setting to reduce tinnitus sounds
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Melee & ranged visual threat indicators, no info by sound alone inc. visual combat/exploration cues, detailed subtitle presentation settings, detailed captions for sounds, mono audio setting with mono panning slider
Accessibility for players with motor impairment
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
Very powerful remapping allowing button combinations and choice of input type per action – tap, double tap, short hold, long hold, toggle
Soundtown
One button controls, designed specifically for kids with complex motor disability
Just Dance 2025
Dances suitable for seated play
Star Wars Outlaws
Ability to simplify precision and complexity by design via instruction your pet companion, and an extensive range of optional assist settings
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Intelligent movement automation covering sprint assist, mantle assist, crouch assist, and corner slice, available in PVP games
Accessibility for players with low/no vision
Periphery Synthetic
Blind-first audiogame
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
Gameplay high contrast mode with presets for colourblindness, large high contrast UI by default
Star Wars Outlaws
Highly configurable gameplay high contrast modes, text/UI scaling & high contrast settings with prompts for menu narration & large text before any menus, detailed menu narration inc. fully accessible map and HUD updates, audio description for cinematics
Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred
Blind nav assist update, adding multi-layered audio cues to navigate to quest map markers
Toby Doom Mod 7 & 7.5
Blind accessible Doom mod – 2024 updates include improved menu narration, area scanner, snap to target system, map announcement system, and pathfinder to set and navigate between audio beacons)
Accessibility for neurodiversity and cognitive/learning disability
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
Guided mode for extra map assistance, consequence-free training area, & memory shards feature to pin screenshots to the map
Star Wars Outlaws
Cognitive accessibility preset covering a range of settings from menu narration to minigame timings to fonts
Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble
Helper mode with ghost to follow and extra checkpoints
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Helpers, granular difficulty, combat/nav assists
Botany Manor
Everything that can be interacted with has a white dot over it, no time limit for puzzles, read clues with a plain text overlay toggle which features sans serif text on a mostly opaque black background
Accessibility for trauma, phobia, and other mental health conditions
Home Safety Hotline
Toggles to hide images relating to 7 common phobias
Until Dawn remake
Extreme content censoring setting
Life Is Strange: Double Exposure
Configurable in-game content warning system, with the option to pause while warnings display
Alan Wake 2 v1.15
Limits jump scare flashes
Silent Hill 2 Remake
Content warning with link to mental health resources
Representation of disabled characters and experiences
The Sims 4
61 vitiligo patterns for sims, Winnie Harlow collab
Hellblade 2
Player character has psychosis
Rainbow 6 Siege
Wheelchair user player character, via robot drones
Dragon Age: The Veilguard
Cataracts & vitiligo options in character creator with sliders for pattern and amount, companions with realistic arm & leg prosthetics through collab with multiple consultants on art and animation
Just Dance 2025
ADHD themed song, visuals & choreography
Article about game accessibility
Why games need a thriving third-party accessibility scene, by Geoffrey Bunting
How Accessible Hardware Bridges the Gap Between Individuals and Options, by Grant Stoner
Playing Pokémon By Ear, by Stephen Totilo
Xbox at Gamescom, by Antonio Martinez
A Prominent Accessibility Advocate Worked With Studios and Inspired Change. But She Never Actually Existed, By Grant Stoner
Published academic paper on game accessibility
Surveyor: Facilitating Discovery Within Video Games for Blind and Low Vision Players, by Vishnu Nair et al
Detecting Discrepancies between Subtitles and Audio in Gameplay Videos with EchoTest, by Ian Gauk et al
Representation of Invisible Disability: Exploring the Lived Experience of Teenagers with ADHD to Inform Game Design, by Kathrin Gerling et al
“I may only be able to sit through 30 minutes”: Gaming Sickness and Its Impact on Players’ Experiences With Games, by Anna Chen et al
Playing on Hard Mode: Accessibility, Difficulty and Joy in Video Game Adoption for Gamers with Disabilities, by Jesse J Martinez et al
New or improved accessibility tech
PlayStation Access Controller
Highly customisable PlayStation 5 controller kit
Microsoft Adaptive Joystick Button
Four-way switches in joystick format
XAC firmware updates
Each USB port now supporting 12 buttons (instead of 8), a second stick and a hat switch, and latched inputs (‘toggle holds’)
8BitDO Lite SE for Xbox
Low cost lightwieght controller with all controls on the face, with lower resistance buttons, highly sensitive joysticks, two minijack ports and two switches included
Byowave Proteus
Completely modular accessibility controller
Resource for players or resource for developers
Rebellion accessibility test brief
Format for a practice assessment for students & aspiring specialists to gain experience and portfolio material
Xbox Accessibility Workshop Toolkit
Resources on how to carry out accessibility workshops
Gamescom stand accessibility regulations + recommendations
Mandatory guidance on how to make booths wheelchair accessible, optional guidance on a range of other booth accessibility considerations
RNIB Devkit
Guidelines on making mainstream games blind-accessible
Collection of Rebellion accessibility feature usage data
Across Sniper Elite 5, Zombie Army 4, and Evil Genius 2
Efforts to share & promote accessibility work with the community, and to share & promote in an accessible way
Access-Ability summer showcase
Accessibility previews of upcoming games & guest appearances from disabled players & consultants, with captioning, ASL, BSL and AD
Diablo IV community showcase video
Mini-documentary on how the UR team partnered with disabled testers
Xbox area at Gamescom
Audio description tours in German & English, wheelchair accessible, adjustable height desks, adaptive controllers, ASL & DGS interpreters, free sensory aid kits, quiet room, ‘here to help’ staff
Ubisoft area at Paris Games Week
Star Wars Outlaws accessibility featured on Xbox’s main stage, sign language demoists, accessible main stage, accessibility talks on SW Outlaws, Prince of Persia TLC and Just Dance 2025, R6 Siege showcase matches between Deaf players and content creators, disabled content creator demoing PoP:TLC, CapGame collab on accessibility of AC Shadows escape room, seating available in queues, accessibility of player stands including XAC + accessories, and other best practices like no thick carpet, and room for large electric wheelchairs with desks wheelchair-accessible by default
Star Wars Outlaws preview rounds
Including a wide range of disabled creators across the world
Progress through patches, mods, or remakes/remasters
STAR WARS: Jedi Survivor
High contrast & audio ping patch
Spider-Man 2
Patch with many updates, including audio description, screen reader, audio+haptic nav assist, mono, captions, in-world translations, aim/target/dot color settings, motion aiming, UI holds->toggle, disable touchpad, and improvements to gameplay high contrast and toggles
Diablo IV
Wide range across multiple patches, including character highlights, auto-pin, compass, audio nav assist for blind player, and lots of improvements to screenreader
Star Wars Outlaws
Wide range across multiple patches, including adding large text setting before any menus, configurable adrenaline rush timer, and upgrades to subtitle presentation, auto-walk, menu narration breadth / speed / priority, volume granularity, sensitivity granularity, key remapping, inversions, electrobinocular effect intensity, and settings ordering and descriptions
Toby Doom Mod 7 & 7.5
Blind accessible Doom mod – 2024 updates include improved menu narration, area scanner, snap to target system, map announcement system, and pathfinder to set and navigate between audio beacons
New steps forward for the industry
Diablo IV overworld navigation audio cues, first for ARPG genre
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown memory shards feature to pin screenshots to the map
Byowave Proteus completely modular accessibility controller
Gamescom stand accessibility regulations and recommendations
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 asymmetrical hearing compensation
The publisher making the most significant or most consistent accessibility efforts
Electronic Arts
Dragon Age: Veilguard, Tales of Kenzera: Zau, IRIS, updates to The Sims and Jedi Survivor
PlayStation Studios
Rise of the Ronin, Stellar Blade, Lego Horizon Adventures, Astrobot, Helldivers II, update for God Of War Ragnarok, remakes of Horizon Zero Dawn and TLOU2
Ubisoft
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown + updates, Star Wars Outlaws + updates, Monopoly, Skull & Bones, XDefiant, Just Dance 2025, Just Dance VR, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Forward, Gamescom, Paris Games Week, Outlaws creator engagement
Xbox Games Studios
Hellblade 2, DOOM/2 remakes, Age of Mythology: Retold, updates to Sea of Thieves, Accessibility Workshop Toolkit, Partner Preview, Showcase, Gamescom area
Rebellion
Atomfall day 1 accessibility info, accessibility test brief, extensive usage data sharing
The studio making the most significant or most consistent accessibility efforts
Blizzard Team 3
Diablo IV updates
Ubisoft Massive
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Star Wars Outlaws + updates, global disabled creator engagement in preview rounds
Ubisoft Kyiv
Developing accessibility features for games all across Ubisoft’s portfolio
Rare
Sea of Thieves updates, talk about audio aim at GAConf and Topher on the live service games panel for GAConf US
Respawn
SW Jedi Survivor updates, willingness to share details
An individual developer without a large public presence making significant and consistent efforts internally within a company (this can include people working in accessibility roles)
Jennissary, Descriptive Video Works
Driving force behind the industry’s adoption of audio description
Kaitlyn Jones, Xbox
Superhuman driving many of Xbox’s leading innovations, from hardware to informational resources
Jordan DeVries, Respawn
Lead UI/UX on Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, promotes accessibility publicly on social media and presented Jedi’s cognitive accessibility talk at GAConf
Joost Peters, Ubisoft Massive
Accessibility lynchpin across both Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Star Wars Outlaws
Cari Watterton, Rebellion
Driving accessibility across all of Rebellion’s games and initiatives
This award can be someone either in a development role or not – anyone who is an advocate using their voice to make a difference across the wider industry
Matthew Allcock (The Wobbly Gamer)
Partially sighted advocate, consultant, content creator and streamer working to improve visual accessibility
Antonio Martinez
Editor of Game Accessibility Nexus
Mollie Evans (LittleMoTAC)
Disabled content creator, advocating for more inclusion in games, founder of Nothing Without Us event
Elisabeth Sivertsen(Arevya)
Disabled and chronically ill accessibility advocate, public speaker and content creator, developing resources and advocating with national orgs
Marijn Rongen (ActiveB1t)
For their years’ worth of work with Can I Play That?, as well as contributing to & propping up others like Game Accessibility Nexus, GAconf, and gameaccessibilityguidelines)
HOW THE AWARDS WORK