FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
REDMOND, January 26th, 2022 – The winners of this year's accessibility awards were broadcast over YouTube on Wednesday 25th at 9am PST / 12pm ET / 5pm GMT.
Awareness of the importance of game accessibility has increased hugely in recent years, with ever more developers realising the benefits. The GAconf awards are a continuation of the industry-wide movement to recognise the stellar efforts of people across and around game development to raise the bar for accessibility, presented under the banner of GAconf (Game Accessibility Conference). The awards recognise efforts in 18 different categories from all across the industry, from AAA excellence to best academic research, from most dedicated publisher to best representation of disability.
The ceremony was hosted by the inimitable Steve Saylor, with a host of accessibility stars presenting the categories including SightlessKombat, Phil Spencer of Xbox, Paul Amadeus Lane, David Tisserand of Ubisoft, Jay Justice, Chris ‘DeafGamersTV’ Robinson, Mark Friend of Sony Interactive Entertainment, and Dr Mick Donegan of SpecialEffect.
Accessibility of the event itself was also a priority, with audio description for blind viewers, signing in ASL and BSL, and subtitling in English, French, German, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.
Sony had a great year, winning seven of the nine categories they were nominated in. Ubisoft and Microsoft took home three trophies each, Grant Stoner picked up two.
The full list of winners is:
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AAA Excellence - God of War Ragnarök
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Indie Excellence - Return to Monkey Island
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Best Deaf / Hard of Hearing accessibility - God of War Ragnarök
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Best physical / mobility accessibility - Rocksmith+
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Best blind / low vision accessibility - The Last Of Us Part 1
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Best cognitive accessibility - The Quarry
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Best representation - Just Dance 2023
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Best journalism - Grant Stoner – How Disabled ‘Elden Ring’ Players Conquered The Lands Between
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Best academic research - Understanding the perceptions and experiences of the deafblind community
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Best resource - Microsoft Gaming Accessibility Fundamentals
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Most accessible gaming event - Ubisoft Forward
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Hardware innovation - Microsoft Adaptive Accessories
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Most improved - The Last Of Us Part 1
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Biggest accessibility surprise - Microsoft Gaming Accessibility Fundamentals
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Most dedicated publisher - Sony Interactive Entertainment
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Most dedicated studio - Naughty Dog
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MVP award for most dedicated developer - Mila Pavlin, Santa Monica Studio
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The advocacy award - Grant Stoner
The finalists for each category, together with links to information on why each finalist is nominated, are available at https://www.gaconf.com/2022-awards/
The full ceremony is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDe5AYG41fw
Quotes:
My mind's blown. The presentation, the [audio] description, everything. That was legitimately amazing.About GAconf:
Understanding and implementation of accessibility has been growing at an exponential rate with every year seeing many developers making their first forays into the field and many more consolidating and building on past experiences. This progress presented an ideal opportunity to take stock and exchange experiences and expertise. A conference founded to push accessibility content beyond awareness raisers into finer details of theory, process, and implementation. To connect developers to each other and to the community, to amplify marginalised voices, and to act as a showcase of how to approach event accessibility.
About IGDA-GASIG:
The IGDA Game Accessibility SIG is a special interest group of the International Game Developers Association. The IGDA-GASIG volunteers have worked since 2003 to aid the game industry in making games accessible to all players, regardless of impairments or other limitations. For more information, visit http://www.igda-gasig.org.
Press contacts:
Tara Voelker & Ian Hamilton, gameaccessibilityconf@gmail.com
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