Inclusive Gaming: How to Boost Accessibility for Hearing-Impaired Gamers

Sound design is an aspect of video games that is often overlooked and underappreciated… sometimes by the developers (devs) themselves, and sometimes by reviewers. It’s easy to forget just how much sound matters to the medium. It’s used for immersive storytelling, improving the overall feel of moment-to-moment gameplay, alerting the player to some mechanic that needs their attention, and warning players of threats.

When it’s done wrong, it can be frustrating. But when sound is practically non-existent for a gamer with a hearing impairment, it’s more than inconvenient. It can render a game unplayable.

Making digital products – from games to a VPN for Linux – more accessible isn’t just beneficial. It’s a core part of PIA’s philosophy that everyone should be able to freely and safely use the everyday products that help us fill up our days, keep us safe online, and help us connect with others. Plus, as a team of gamers, we understand the importance of inclusivity. 

That’s why I’ve been tasked with exploring how game devs can make games better for people with mild hearing impairments and those who are Deaf.

• This article will cover:
  • The kinds of hearing impairment and how they differ
  • How accessibility tools improve the experience of gamers with hearing impairments.
    • See also: how those same tools help devs and publishers, and even players who don’t have hearing impairments.
  • The accessibility tools available to game devs.
  • Examples of good audio accessibility in video games.

A Basic Introduction to Hearing Impairment

You might wonder how many gamers are affected by the lack of accessibility features for hearing disabilities. The statistics are staggering. According to the World Health Organization, over 5% of the world’s population – about 430 million people, including 34 million children – experience disabling hearing loss that requires rehabilitation. By 2050, this number is expected to rise to over 700 million people or 1 in every 10. 

Additionally, nearly 2.5 billion people are projected to have some degree of hearing loss by 2050, with at least 700 million requiring rehabilitation. Alarmingly, over 1 billion young adults are at risk of permanent, avoidable hearing loss due to unsafe listening practices.

As it stands, this means that many games are nearly unplayable to 5% of the world’s population – and, with that number set to grow, it’s a statistic that demands attention. Given that playing video games is one of the most popular hobbies in the world, it’s essential that game devs address these accessibility issues.

Causes and Types of Deafness and Hearing Loss

Hearing impairment falls into two main categories: the kind you’re born with and the kind you develop later in life. The first type can be caused by genetic factors, intrauterine infections, lack of oxygen at birth, and more. The second type can result from chronic ear infections, diseases, smoking, osteosclerosis (remember, your ears have bones), trauma to the ear or head, excessive exposure to loud noises, and many other factors.

These two categories of hearing loss can also be divided by severity. “Hearing loss” often refers to partial loss, where a person can still hear, but not as well, or they might have lost hearing in one ear. “Deafness” describes near-total or total hearing loss.

Interesting fact: You can have perfectly functional ears and still experience hearing loss. Audio Processing Disorder (APD) occurs when damage to the brain makes it difficult to interpret sounds. This can impact everything from following conversations and keeping up with fast speech to distinguishing between different sounds (like virtual combat versus footsteps or character dialogue) and determining where sounds are coming from.

It’s also worth noting that conditions like ADHD and autism can present with difficulties in processing auditory information, similar to APD. For example, people with these conditions may find it challenging to filter out background noise or process rapid speech. As someone with ADHD, I’ve found subtitles to be incredibly helpful in games. Given how common ADHD is—affecting an estimated 3% to 6.8% of adults worldwide—many others likely share this experience.

Why Accessibility in Gaming Matters

Understanding the causes and types of hearing loss highlights just how varied and widespread this issue is. For millions of gamers, hearing loss significantly impacts their ability to fully experience and enjoy video games. That’s where accessibility features come into play. 

By implementing thoughtful design choices, game developers can create an inclusive environment that allows everyone, regardless of their hearing ability, to engage with their games on equal footing.

Benefits of Hearing Impairment Accessibility

Making games more accessible isn’t just about ticking a box—it’s about enhancing the experience for hearing-impaired gamers, the Deaf community, and, believe it or not, everyone else too. 

Benefits to Hearing-Impaired Gamers and the Deaf Community:

• They get to enjoy games as they should be.
  You wouldn’t believe how many gameplay mechanics are almost inextricably linked to audio. Offering alternative ways to interact with these mechanics can be the difference between a game that’s playable and one that’s not.
  
  These mechanics include, but are not limited to:
  • Dialogue and storytelling.
  • Directional cues (footsteps, the sounds of players clashing in the distance).
  • Sounds made by enemy NPCs in single-player games before they attack.
  • Notifications and alerts.
  • NPCs (Non-Player Characters) can grab the player’s attention to introduce quests or start conversations.

• It’s easier to connect with other players.
  Even the most solitary among us must occasionally venture into the world of multiplayer gaming, and people with disabilities often rely on video games to get their social interaction fix. Multiplayer games that rely on voice chat alone basically exclude Deaf gamers outright.  Alternatives are essential.

Benefits to Other Players

• People without hearing impairments can still experience audio challenges one way or another, as mentioned above. Shout out to those with ADHD!
• People whose first language isn’t available in the audio translations can benefit greatly from features like subtitles.
• Some players may not have access to high-quality speakers or headphones, which can cause a poor sound system to make everything sound jumbled.

Benefits to All Players

• Greater security and safety.
  It might seem like a stretch, but think about it. Some multiplayer games practically hide their security, privacy, and user safety features. Building a game that’s accessible in general means making it easy and simple for people to decide how much information they want to share, and with whom.
  
  It also means giving simple and readily available ways to block players who are behaving badly, as well as easy ways to report them. Accessible safety features mean safer gaming overall.

Benefits to the Developers

• You’ll be expanding inclusivity and reach.
  Making your game accessible is about doing the right thing and reaching more players, expanding your audience.
• Accessible game design leads to better game design overall.
  Seriously, being required to make every feature in your game accessible forces you to think through the design very carefully, paying attention to every detail. This ultimately results in a product that’s more intuitive for everyone.
• When it comes right down to it, leaving out players with hearing loss leaves a lot of potential customers looking at the competition.
  If two major games launch at the same time and only one is accessible, it’s easy to see where players with hearing loss will go.

Why It Can’t Be Left Up to Third-Party Tools or Mods 

Relying on third-party tools or mods (modifications) to provide accessibility features might seem like a quick fix, but it often leads to more problems than it solves. 

• Some accessibility tools can get players banned for cheating.
  • This is particularly true for tools that interact directly with the game’s processes while it’s running.
• The cost of these tools can be a barrier to entry.
  • Consider the Audio Radar. It’s an incredibly cool device that plugs into your sound system. It listens for directional sounds like footsteps and uses some LED light bars attached to the user’s monitor to show where the sounds are coming from. Unfortunately, it costs around 400 USD, which is a massive barrier for many gamers. Especially if they just spent all their cash on a new PC.
• Mods and third-party tools often break when games update.
  It’s better for accessibility features to be built directly into the game. Ideally, these features should be planned during the pre-production stage and implemented alongside the core mechanics.

Accessibility Tools for Game Devs

So, how can game developers make their games more accessible? There are some solid tools out there that can make a real difference for hearing-impaired gamers: 

Subtitles and Closed Captions

The difference between subtitles and closed captions is this: subtitles only transcribe dialogue. Closed captions also include things like the sounds a character makes, objects falling in the distance, the rumbling of thunder, and even the titles of songs playing in the background.

Side note: Many Deaf people enjoy music in their own way. They may not experience it the same way as others, but music is made up of vibrations and rhythm, which can still be appreciated by those with hearing loss.

So, just having subtitles for dialogue isn’t enough. Closed captions should be an option to convey what’s really happening in the game world, not just what’s being said.

Here are a few more tips:

• Using natural break points for subtitles.
  • If you need to break up a sentence, do it where a natural pause occurs. For example, you could break the previous sentence after the comma.

• Keep your subtitle length reasonable.
  • Subtitles should be long enough that they don’t just appear on the screen for a split second, but short enough that players can read them in time for the next line of dialogue to start.
  • For example, in Final Fantasy XIV (FF14), the game allows you – unless you change the settings – to manually progress from one line of dialogue to the next. It’s a smart way to handle the issue, but it should probably be optional, as it can throw off the pacing of a scene.

• Take note of off-screen dialogue.
  • If a character is speaking off-screen, make sure to add their name or designation (e.g. “Guard 2”) to the subtitles.

• Read the Netflix Partner Help documentation.
  • No, really. Netflix’s Partner Help site has a whole list of handy guidelines for how to split and punctuate English subtitles, and they work just as well in games as they do on TV shows.

Communication Tools

• Ensure you have a text chat option.
  • You need it. Period. If you’re going to have any kind of chat, have a text chat option. Not everyone can use voice chat due to hearing impairments, language barriers, or simply because they’re in an environment where they can’t speak out loud. Text chat ensures that all players can communicate effectively, no matter their situation.

• Enable STT & TTS for audio chat.
  • One way to help everyone communicate is to integrate some sort of speech-to-text and text-to-speech functionality in your game. This lets players at any level of hearing loss communicate with each other without stopping to type or read.

• Make emotes easily accessible.
  • You don’t always need words—sometimes a thumbs up, jumping for joy, or blowing a raspberry says it all. Let players communicate visually with a quick emote, and they’ll thank you for it.

• Use ping systems.
  • Having an Apex Legends-style ping system, where you can point out important things on screen and on the map for your fellow players, isn’t just handy – it’s a word-free communication tool that gets the job done faster than saying, “There’s a box of loot and also all the other enemy teams 50M to the right of the hill.”

Directional Visual Cues

• Include directional damage indicators.
  • People need to know where they’re taking damage from. See: almost every shooter game. In the screenshot below, the curved red lines near the center of the screen are the damage indicators. The one at the top basically says that damage is coming from ahead, and a little to the left. The one on the left means that damage is coming from, well, the left, and maybe a bit behind.

• Use footstep indicators.
  • Fortnite uses an optional radial graphic, similar to a damage indicator, to show the direction of footstep sounds. The curved orange lines near the center of the screen have much the same purpose as the damage indicators above, but they show where footstep sounds are coming from instead.
  • Minecraft takes a simpler approach by adding directional indicators into the closed captions when Creepers make sounds. Definitely something worth replicating. 

• Offer stealth indicators.

Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry games make great use of stealth indicators to show you which guard is starting to notice you crouch-walking with an arsenal strapped to your back. I find this feature useful, but it’s especially important for players who can’t hear the guards shouting insults at them.

The stealth indicators in the screenshots below serve much the same purpose as the damage and footstep indicators above. The yellow line above the NPC indicates that they are alarmed by the player pointing a gun at them (understandable), and the white line below indicates that another guard located behind the player is beginning to notice them.

• Consider a compass.

Showing enemies on an in-game compass is a handy, but not overpowering, way to track enemy movements. It’s mostly used in single-player games, and Skyrim is one of the most famous examples.

• Offer minimaps and radar.

First-person shooter games like Call of Duty have been using minimaps and radar indicators for a very long time. These tools typically show the general location of enemy players when they make noise, like shooting their guns.

During the chaos of overlapping sounds, I personally make use of these tools when gaming.

Environmental Cues

• Include easy ways to identify interactable objects and collectibles.
  • Some games rely on a high-pitched, “tinkly” sound when players are near secret areas or collectible objects. While these are generally meant to be hidden, it would be good to include an option for visual indicators too.

• Use “yellow paint” on climbable objects and other interactable elements.
  • I know, a lot of people hate it. They say it’s un-immersive and takes them out of the world. But if you can’t rely on audio cues, like an NPC saying, “Oh look, you can climb that wall!” from off-screen*, then you need a visual cue for accessibility.
  • *And yes, you should have subtitles for dialogue hints like that, too.

• Consider rhythm indicators
  • Remember how I mentioned earlier that plenty of Deaf people enjoy music too? Most rhythm games include visual indicators to help players stay on beat, but it’s especially important when the player can’t actually hear the music.

Visual Attack Telegraphing in Combat

• It’s common for enemy moves to be telegraphed visually. Occasionally, however, games will rely entirely on audio cues. In short, don’t do that.

Marketing

That’s not a joke – you should be advertising your game’s accessibility features. After putting in the work to make everyone’s lives easier, the most accessible thing you can do is let people know about it.

It’s often hard for people researching new games to get clear and insightful information on accessibility before they buy. They end up relying on recommendations from friends, their community, or waiting for a specific reviewer to cover it.

Make it easier for them and tell people your game is accessible. You could start by including international accessibility symbols in your marketing materials. A landing page that outlines your game’s accessibility features would also be a big help for those searching online.

One Last Note on Security

A lot of game developers and publishers collect data on their players, like which game modes are played most, which weapons are used, and which features are most popular.

If you’re collecting identifiable information on users who enable accessibility features, be careful with that data. Protect it as you would their credit card info.

People with disabilities still face discrimination in some places and industries, and if their info is leaked, it can be devastating. It’s not just about preventing your players from getting SWATed – though that’s important – it’s about ensuring your game can never be used to harm them in any way.

Plus, when you follow that philosophy, your game becomes better and safer for everyone.