Xbox Store to Add Accessibility Feature Tags - News

by William D'Angelo , posted on 04 October 2021 / 1,192 Views

Xbox director of accessibility Anita Mortaloni in a blog post on Xbox Wire announced the Xbox Store will be getting accessibility feature tags, to help players with disabilities figure out with games are suitable for them.

"To make this easier for gamers, we are proud to announce that game accessibility feature tags (formerly known as accessibility metadata tags) are coming to the Microsoft Store on Xbox, which will display the accessibility features available in each game so you can make informed decisions before you buy or download," said Mortaloni.

The tags include a list of 20 accessibility features that gamers usually look for based on user research and discussion with the Xbox Gaming & Disability Community. The list includes the following:

Narrated Game Menus
Subtitle options
Input Remapping
Full keyboard support
Single Stick Gameplay

To avoid confusion, developers have a set of criteria they must meet in order to use each accessibility tag. An example provided is when a game uses subtitles, but the font size is so small it is hard to read. A specific font size needs to be used in order to use the "Subtitle options" tag, as well as requiring subtitles that can be resized by up to 200 percent.

"We know that beyond these 20 accessibility features that there are other features our community would like to see indicated on games," said Mortaloni. "In the future, we hope to add more tags, while ensuring we don’t add so many tags that it becomes confusing."

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.

4 Comments

Zkuq (on 04 October 2021)

A specific font size needs to be used in order to use the "Subtitle options" tag, as well as requiring subtitles that can be resized by up to 200 percent."

I hope this doesn't mean that games will have too large subtitles in the future. Currently the problem is that subtitles are often too small to read comfortably, but I wouldn't want a reverse problem either. Font sizes being too large is something I encounter constantly, e.g. on that Xbox Wire article... It's probably OK on mobile but on PC, the font size is uncomfortably large to read.