To celebrate the disability community, Microsoft has released a suite of Xbox updates to make gaming on Xbox more accessible than ever before.
The core feature brought in by this update answers the disability communities’ long asked question of “how do I know which games I can play?” as Microsoft has introduced “game accessibility feature tags” for the Microsoft Store on Xbox.
These tags will clearly display which accessibility features are available in each game, so you can make informed decisions about which games are suitable for you to play before devoting your money or hard drive space to them.
The list of accessibility tags will include features such as:
- Narrated game menus
- Subtitle options
- Input remapping
- Full keyboard support
- Single stick gameplay
Furthermore, Microsoft also announced an assortment of accessibility features which will launch onto Xbox “soon.” Here’s a little bit about what’s to come:
Quick Settings
We are making it even easier for you to quickly access and customize your accessibility settings by adding the Quick Settings menu to the Xbox Guide. This allows you to quickly toggle accessibility features without leaving your game or app.
Color Filters
New and improved color filters will launch later this month on Xbox Series X|S to enable those with colorblindness or color vision deficiency to explore more current games as well as titles in the Xbox back catalogue that were previously colorblind inaccessible.
Night Mode Display
Another system-wide update coming to Xbox consoles is a suite of settings that adjusts light sources to help you get a better night’s sleep and support gamers with light sensitivity. The new Night Mode feature is a way to reduce and customize light from the display your Xbox is connected to, such as your TV. Night Mode on Xbox Series X|S also adds a customizable blue light filter for your display.
Globalization of Speech-to-Text / Text-to-Speech Chat Settings
In the coming weeks, gamers worldwide will also be able to set their preferences for Speech-to-Text and Text-to-Speech chat in Settings under “Accessibility -> Game and Chat Transcription.”