Thanks to Fable for sponsoring the transcript for this episode.
Transcript
Nic
Hi, I’m Nic Steenhout. And you’re listening to the accessibility rules soundbite, a series of short podcasts where disabled people explain their impairments, and what barrier they encounter on the web. Quick reminder that transcripts are available for all episodes at the time of publication from the website at https://a11yrules.com. Thanks to Fable for sponsoring this episode. Fable is a leading accessibility platform powered by disabled people. Fable moves organizations from worrying about compliance to building incredible and accessible user experiences, through product testing, and custom courses. Learn more about how Fable can work for your team at https://makeitfable.com/nic. Today I’m talking with Andy fueling. Andy is I think going to talk more about gaming rather than specifically, web accessibility. But I think it all falls into the realm of digital accessibility and it’s good stuff to know about. Hey, Andy, how are you doing?
Andy
Hey doing good, how about yourself?
Nic
I’m doing all right. I’m glad we connected. We haven’t really spoken before, but super excited about talking about this topic.
Andy
Yeah, me too. Me too.
Nic
So what’s your impairment or your disability?
Andy
Um, so I am missing most of my right arm, I actually have one hand, and a very little portion of my right arm itself, actually.
Andy
Okay, so how does that impact your gaming? I mean, the obvious thing I could think of is if you have a console controller, which is basically a two handed thing, but is there any? Any other thing that is maybe less obvious9:38, yeah. So yeah, first one, absolutely correct. Controllers themselves for year, I’ve had issues with constantly because the fact that Yeah, they really are a two handed object. You kind of need both hands to use both sides of the actual controller, primarily the triggers. For a very long time, I was never able to play FPS games, like first person shooters, or any game that really required you to use both the left triggers and the right triggers simultaneously. At the same time, I always ran into that issue. And I had workarounds, you know, like I would, you know, like, jam the controller into my hip, so that I could hit … or like my thigh, so I could hit the right trigger, or the right bumper if I needed to. But I was always discouraged from playing games like Halo, and Call of Duty, even Forzas games, like with a lot of like automobile games, like you had to use the right trigger. So I always ran into issues with that. And then the only other main thing that I have always seen as a big issue with games was custom button. Yeah, button mapping. So like, you know, you can make certain inputs on your controller different from what they are inside of the game. So say you wanted to make a like left trigger, you could do that. I’ve always enjoyed it when I found games I could do that with because I could actually customize it to my own specific needs. So yeah,
Nic
So okay, so apart from controllers what else is there that is a significant barrier for you and gaming?
Andy
Outside of the actual button mapping, and everything else, I would say it’s the competition. And just general play with other people, because the way that I see it, and if you go into and you look around with different players, there are multiple ways you can hold on to a controller. But on top of that you have mouse and keyboard players at the same exact time. I have never been able to play with mouse and keyboard actually. So bringing back too many games, one of the biggest ones is World of Warcraft. I was always, always ran into issues trying to play that game because you kind of do need to have both functionalities of both hands, to press things on the keyboard and to press things or to you know, point and click with your mouse. And so one thing that I’ve always wanted to be able to see was more customization and possibilities for anything that is mouse and keyboard can also be for controller. And also seeing that as a huge disparity because, you know, it brings you away from gameplay, it isn’t the way the developers initially intended you to play the actual game. But the way that I’ve seen is that everybody has an interest in wanting to play almost any kind of game, you know, specifically, World of Warcraft, for me, I played it here and there, but it was very, very pulled back for me, I wasn’t able to be able to press certain buttons on the keyboard fast enough, as I was moving back and forth. With my one hand, trying to use both the mouse and the keyboard or, because I do have like a knob is the actual medical terminology for it. I can’t press more than two buttons at the same time. So, you know, I’m trying to cast a spell on trying to activate an ability, and I’m hitting two at the same time. So it’s like one to gray both at the same exact time. So I’m like, well, that’s, that’s not going to work out. So I’m having to like, you know, go move back and forth and everything. But um, yeah, on top of that, it’s also like, the adjustments you can do for the analog sticks. And or mouse’s, like, menu, cursors, changing fonts, sizes, and their aspects for the screen, so that I, you know, can take a little more time to having to press exactly what I need to press, instead of only pressing one I don’t want to. And I’ve seen games here and there that actually do very, very well with that. One primarily being Apex legends right now. Very much enjoy it. But then another game, I have issues with this Call of Duty, because it’s very, very, very, very, like, what’s the word I’m trying to think of, like, strict, it’s very rigid in the way that it kind of have it, there’s not really that too much customization. They only have like six or seven different controller button mapping inputs that you can change around, and I can’t do much of it. So it’s very discouraging more than anything for me, because I really want to play the games. I just can’t.
Nic
Yeah, that’s kind of defeating the purpose. The idea of gaming is to be fun and exciting. And if you are left with a feeling of discouragement, it just, it’s really well, discouraging.
Andy
Yeah.
Nic
Yeah. If you had a message for game builders, game designers, developers, what would it be?
Andy
Bring us in any of us, individuals with disabilities or impairments, we are more than willing to help you. Because of our in general love for games. We just want to see them, you know, to be more fair to be more accessible to just allow for everybody to play with any sort of disability or impairment. So just let us know, bring out like, have an ad or whatever. Just know that we are out there. We want to help you. Because we want to play your games.
Nic
Yeah, I like that. Bring us in. We are out there. Last census I think said there’s 26% of adults with disabilities in the United States. So it’s not a negligible number really, is it?
Andy
No, no, not at all.
Nic
Right. Well, Andy, thank you so much for sharing that information. And hopefully we have game developers and game studios that pay a little bit of attention to this and improve things.
Andy
Yeah, yeah. And if they do, just Yeah, that’s the biggest thing is we are out there. We play your games. We enjoy them. We want to make them better because we know you want to make them better as well. So let’s do it together.
Nic
Awesome. Andy Feuling. Thank you.
Andy
Absolutely. Thank you.