DwarfPriest Lights a Candle in the Darkness: Accessibility for Disabled Gamers

Earlier this week, I opined WoW blogging is moving into the realm of "mainstream." To be perfectly honest, I’m not certain there is a "mainstream" in blogging. Yet. But if there is, I think the common thread of what has become an increasingly significant element of the "social Internet" and social media, is a concern with "social issues." That is, issues that affect all or a significant segment of our society.

In that light, Dwarf Priest¹ has written a wonderful, insightful, informative, meticulously researched and documented article on the topic of whether Blizzard is committed to disabled gamers.

Dwarf Priest points out that while Blizzard has done some things to make the game more accessible, they have deliberately limited other options to prevent the use of "botting" which, while it can certainly accelerate accessibility and playability for disabled gamers, also has the dark side of enabling "illegal"² game activity:

The interview [with J. Allen Brack, Lead Producer of The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King expansions] continues on to highlight the struggle of balancing game accessibility with over-automation of the game (or in Blizzard’s words: “cheating”)[...]and the struggle against third-party botting software that automates any aspect of game play…

While initially angry at Blizzard for depending on third-party developers to enhance accessibility, Dwarf Priest came to realize Blizzard has in fact incorporated a lot of accessibility features into the game: 

You can move your character across the screen with a single mouse click (click-to-move).  Many character emotes have auditory, visual, and textual cues.  Mobs become a lot easier to identify visually when you have nameplates enabled. Chat font size, color, and background are completely customizable.  And the list goes on…

Blizzard has created one of the most accessible “traditional” video games out there. Many games will not even relinquish basic creative rights of their user interface to their player base.  World of Warcraft developers provide continued support of the UI customization and add-on development community.  Programming a game so open in that regard was surely no simple task, and its continued support is no trivial endeavor.

These excerpts, however, do not do justice to the article. I urge you to go read the original: If nothing else, at least become informed on the issue.