UK games trade body Ukie has teamed up with the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) to launch Access November, a new campaign launched under its RaiseTheGame initiative to “create meaningful cultural and behavioural change in UK game businesses”.
From Monday 14th November to Friday 25th November, the campaign will offer virtual networking sessions, workshops and presentations, as well as online resources and “some in-person satellite events” to “inspire games industry professionals and companies to make their games more accessible”.
Eurogamer Newscast: Who will buy PlayStation VR2?
You can also expect a series of game-related workshops, talks, and fireside chats at the upcoming accessibility and inclusive design conference, TechShare Pro, which include best practice resources and a workshop on “the importance of considering sight accessibility in games and workplaces”.
“The aim is to inspire games industry professionals and companies to make their games and services more accessible, as well as champion representation of disabled and neurodiverse people both in the stories that games are telling and within the teams that make them,” the organisation explains in a press statement.
“The campaign is also set to deliver a series of games-related workshops, talks and fireside chats at TechShare Pro, Europe’s largest accessibility and inclusive design conference, between Tuesday 15 and Thursday 17 November as part of the campaign.”
The initiative is also keen to increase the number of disabled people working in the games industry, too, and cites that just 4 per cent of the games industry are disabled – and 18 per cent identify as as neurodiverse – when 21 per cent of the working age adults across the UK consider themselves to have a disability.
“Supporting the entry of these workers to the games industry and championing those already in games is an excellent way to foster accessibility and representation within the design of video games themselves,” the statement concludes.
RaiseTheGame is the games industry’s “collaborative and high-impact pledge to improve its equality, diversity and inclusion – creating cultures where everyone belongs, voices are heard and ideas can thrive”. Delivered by Ukie, it currently has just under 170 partners and is open to everyone in the games industry.
You can read an extract from RaiseTheGame’s One Year On report – which I wrote for Ukie last year – on our sister site, GamesIndustry.biz.
