It is a fact that Accessibility has been gaining momentum in the gaming industry at a good pace for the last years. Virtual events like showcases and trailers have improved considerably thanks to captions in multiple languages, audio description and in some cases even sign language. On the other hand, in-person event accessibility hasn’t seen such a big evolution to become accessible for people with disabilities, with notable exceptions, though.
It is on this field where for the past three years Xbox’s efforts have been notable, causing a very positive reaction from the disabled community. gamescom is now implementing accessibility requirements for booths this year. We might have reached a turning point if these and other examples extended to more events. To learn more about this matter our editor Antonio I. Martínez interviewed Brannon Zahand, Senior Technical Program Manager in Gaming Accessibility for Xbox.
Hello Brannon, thank you for taking time for this interview. First of all, could you tell our readers a bit about yourself, your work at Xbox and your experience in accessibility?
Brannon Zahand: Sure! My name is Brannon Zahand, and I’m a Senior Technical Program Manager on the Gaming Accessibility Team at Microsoft.
I’ve been working in the games industry since 2002, when I joined Xbox. Additionally, I’ve been working with the disability community for almost 30 years, with a background studying American Sign Language Interpreting and several years spent as a volunteer working with patients at Seattle Children’s Hospital. I’ve held a lot of different jobs, including Certification Lead, Digital Channel Manager, Release Manager, and Producer and have worked on numerous games, including Project Spark, Grounded, Wasteland 3, Halo 5, Halo Wars 2, and Halo Infinite.
My personal gaming accessibility journey started back in 2003, when a patient I was working with at Seattle Children’s Hospital asked me why I didn’t make video games she could play. Up until that point, it hadn’t occurred to me that games of that era, by and large, weren’t very accessible and excluded some people. That’s the moment when gaming accessibility became a passion project for me. I spent most of my free time talking with and learning from the gaming and disability community and accessibility subject matter experts, and then working to share those learnings with others within Xbox and our industry. Then, six years ago, I had the opportunity to join the Gaming Accessibility Team at Microsoft and make inclusive gaming my full-time job.
These days, I spend a lot of time developing educational materials for game developers, working to improve the accessibility of our internal tools for employees with disabilities, partnering with disability-related NGOs, and investigating ways to use artificial intelligence to make gaming even more accessible.
We have seen Xbox increasing the accessibility of their digital events for some years now, with subtitles and even audio description. Now at gamescom is where Xbox has made great advances for in person accessibility. When and how did this begin, exactly?
Brannon Zahand: Thinking back, it’s hard to identify one specific moment that led to where we are now. Instead, it was something that evolved organically over a period of years as we met more and more enthusiastic players with disabilities at our events. Many of these were new fans who had joined the Xbox family because of the work we had been doing to make our gaming experiences more accessible. In our efforts to make gaming accessible through events, we think that direct interaction and learning from the community has been crucial as we progress on this path.
However, learning is pointless unless applied for improvement. You need a dedicated team passionate about accessibility and creating great experiences for people with disabilities to act on these insights. Thankfully, our Premier Broadcast and Events teams are those individuals, and it’s been incredible to see them continuously raise the bar each year.
We have read a post on Xbox Wire and this announcement with the features that the booth will have this year. Can you explain them in detail and their benefits for those who might be unfamiliar with accessibility?
Brannon Zahand: For those who haven’t been to a games conference, it’s very common for booths to be raised off of the expo hall floor a bit for aesthetic reasons, as it allows things like power and networking cables to be hidden away. However, this poses a challenge for some individuals with mobility disabilities, including those in wheelchairs, because it often requires a person to take a step up to enter the booth… and that single step can be enough of a barrier to prevent someone from being able to enter the experience. So, providing ramps so people can enter a booth is critical. To make it as easy as possible to enter the Xbox booth, we have created wrap-around ramps so our booth can be entered from any location without requiring any steps or having to find a single accessible entrance.
Game demos at our booth will also have select stations available with adjustable height desks so that people in wheelchairs can roll up to them and reach our keyboards and controllers, while adjustable height monitors prevent those who are lower to the ground from having to crane their neck upward to view gameplay.
Speaking of demos, our Gaming Accessibility team will be available to help individuals who require assistive technologies to play. We’ll have Xbox Adaptive Controllers and other assistive hardware available, and we can work with guests to create custom adaptive setups so they can play the demos they want.
Sensory kits will be available and are designed to help people who are sensitive to the sights, sounds, and other stimulation that is common at gaming events. And for those who still find themselves overwhelmed, we have an improved quiet room available upon request.
Also, as in the past, we’ll have both American Sign Language (ASL) and German Sign Language (DGS) interpreters available for those who are d/Deaf to make communication easier with our staff and other guests at our booth.
It will also be easier for people with disabilities to find assistance, as we’ll have a “Here to Help” section of our information desk with staff in “Here to Help” shirts that have been trained in disability etiquette. They can answer general accessibility questions and concerns, as well as help people get access to the various accommodations we have available.
However, the thing I’m probably most excited about this year is our dedicated Audio Description tours, an idea our Premier Broadcast and Events teams came up with. We will have dedicated staff who are trained in audio description available to take guests around the booth and describe our various experiences, including game demos. It’s something I’ve never seen before at any games industry event and I’m really looking forward to hearing about people’s experiences with it.
How important is the attendance’s feedback for the process of designing, refining and implementing these features?
Brannon Zahand: Feedback from attendees with disabilities is absolutely essential. You’ll commonly hear those of us in the disability community say, “Nothing about us without us.” It’s a reminder that to create delightfully inclusive and accessible experiences, you can’t do it alone… you must partner with people with disabilities as part of the process. So, a major part of my team’s presence at gamescom and other events is to interact with members of the disability community and collect their feedback. After our events, we comb through everything, noting what worked well and what could have gone better. And then we work with our events team to integrate those learnings into our planning processes to ensure our next event is even more inclusive and accessible.
What would you say are the greatest challenges to make these events accessible to a broader audience?
Brannon Zahand: It never ceases to amaze me how much time, effort, and resources are necessary to put together a large industry event, like gamescom. Our booth has so many different experiences for guests to enjoy, including numerous game demos, theater experiences, photo opportunities, and more. In fact, our events team is constantly coming up with new ideas for innovative activities at our events.
With so many different experiences, ensuring that they are all highly accessible to individuals across a broad community with diverse abilities requires a lot of diligence. When planning, it can be easy to overlook something that may be obvious once you build it out… and often, at that point, it’s too late to fix.
That’s why it is critically important for events teams to familiarize themselves with accessibility fundamentals, engage with disability / accessibility subject matter experts and community members regularly during event planning, and make sure to bring learnings from past events into the planning process for future events.
Now, let’s look at it from another perspective. Every challenge represents an opportunity. What has been the impact on the experience of people who have attended previously? Are there specific examples you can share?
Brannon Zahand: I think it’s important to recognize that we still have a long way to go as an industry when it comes to making people with disabilities feel included. In past years, I’ve met many people from our community who showed up with low or no expectations when it came to being able to participate with their friends or family. For example, one mom told us she had never played video games because of her disability and was only there to spend time with her husband and daughter. She wasn’t expecting to be able to play any demos or participate in most of the other activities various exhibitors had to offer. So, we set her up with a custom input experience using the Xbox Adaptive Controller on a game of her choosing. After a bit of practice, she was able to beat the first level by herself, and she and her family were thrilled.
Another fond memory was working with a younger child who only had use of one hand. They and their parents weren’t aware of assistive gaming technology like the Xbox Adaptive Controller and struggled to play games that required two thumb sticks. We were able to configure a one-handed control setup using the Xbox Adaptive Controller and some additional peripherals that allowed them to use their wrist to move one stick while their thumb moved the other. They were so excited that, when the conference was over, their parents emailed me to let me know they had purchased the same gear we had set them up with and were all having a blast playing together.
My favorite memory, though, was from last year. On opening day, we had numerous people with disabilities waiting in line to be some of the first people to enter our booth. Many of them were people we had worked with in 2022 and wanted to come back, say “hi,” and experience what we had to offer. Because, in their words, they, “knew they’d be able to play at the Xbox booth.”
Last year, at GAConf , Xbox won the “Best resource Award” for the Microsoft Playbook for Accessible Gaming Events. How did this feel for the team and what has been the industry’s response?
Brannon Zahand: We were incredibly honored to have received this award. I think the most exciting aspect was the recognition that being a part of the gaming community is more than just playing games. Events like gamescom, PAX, Xbox Fanfest, and more play a major role in bringing our community together and provide opportunities to socialize, celebrate, and engage with one another as well as form connections with game developers and publishers.
That’s why it’s so important that people think about and intentionally include players with disabilities in these events. Because if we don’t, we’ll invariably and unintentionally exclude them… and no one wants to be excluded.
gamescom has implemented for this year a list of mandatory and optional accessibility requirements. Let’s say some exhibitors are unsure about the return of investment for implementing them themselves or don’t know where to start. What word of advice would you give them based on the experience with Xbox’s booth?
Brannon Zahand: It’s been my personal experience that the gaming and disability community is a passionate, supportive one. Companies that invest to support them generally find them to be loyal customers, but their friends and family as well.
As for figuring out where to start, I think the best thing any events team can do is familiarize themselves with the gaming and disability community. Have staff take disability etiquette training and bring in experts from the community to talk about their personal experiences at events. Focus on what aspects of events they find challenging and what sorts of accommodations they find particularly helpful.
From there, take a look at event guidance like that which is provided by gamescom or Microsoft’s Playbook for Accessible Gaming Events (PAGE). Find things that resonate with you and your team based on your feedback you’ve heard from the gaming and disability community and go after them.
Also, don’t be afraid about getting things wrong, or allow the breadth and depth of the challenge deter you. Listen to the community, do what you can, learn from your mistakes, and improve every year.
Finally, what would you tell our readers who might not be sure about attending gamescom due to accessibility concerns?
Brannon Zahand: As someone with a disability, I know that it can be nerve-wracking to attend an event for the first time without knowing whether there will be the sort of accommodations needed to participate and have fun.
My first suggestion would be to check out information on the gamescom website about the accessibility of the venue and event itself and, if you don’t see the information you need, to reach out to their visitor support team for more details.
Next, if there are booths or other experiences at the event that you know about ahead of time and are eager to explore, check to see if the exhibitors hosting those experiences have posted any information on their websites or social media about their accessibility. For example, our event hub for gamescom 2024 on Xbox.com lists the accessibility accommodations we’ll have available for our guests. And if an exhibitor doesn’t have that information published, reach out to them and ask for details.
Finally, remember that every exhibitor at gamescom is at a different place in their accessibility journey, which means it is probable that you’ll run into experiences that aren’t as inclusive as you might hope or need. In those situations, I’d encourage attendees to provide real-time feedback to those exhibitors. In some cases, they may be able to find creative solutions to whatever is creating barriers for you. But, even if they can’t, hopefully your feedback will drive them to be better in the future.
Thank you for answering my questions. Is there anything else you want to say?
Brannon Zahand: We are really excited to meet with members of the gaming and disability community at gamescom 2024 and hear what they think of the experience. We also would love to chat with any exhibitors who are passionate about accessibility and want to share learnings so we all can make our experiences that much more inclusive. So please, whether you are a player or a developer, please stop by the Xbox booth and say, “Hi!”
Antonio I. Martinez has Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 3 and has been a gamer for most of his life. His background formation in computer programming and English compose his basic skill set. Previously mobility editor for Can I Play That, founded this new project to inform other fellow gamers and offer actionable feedback. As consultant, his work includes publishers like Xbox, Ubisoft and Rebellion. Beyond self-advocacy, he’s done webinars, talks and participated in many interviews on different media channels to educate about the importance of accessibility in games. Judge for The Game Awards and the AGDAs. You can contact him on Twitter/X at @Black1976
