FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
REDMOND, September 28th, 2022 – The line-up has been announced for accessibility conference GAconf USA, taking place on October 24th-25th.
GAconf is a game development conference dedicated to making games more accessible to gamers with disabilities, hosted by the IGDA's accessibility SIG. The event features talks and networking for all disciplines of the games industry, exploring recent and future advances in game accessibility. The USA 2022 event is hybrid, both a free to attend online event held through Zoom and Discord, and an in-person gathering in Redmond.
Topics include deep dives on individual features and processes like the Guardians Of The Galaxy’s captioning system, and Schell Games’ accessibility prioritisation matrix; case studies on games like Rocksmith+, Lost & Hound, and The Last Of Us Part 1 remake; panel discussions on personal lived experiences of disabled mobile gamers and on accessibility for producers; and many more sessions including mental health representation, 3D printed controller mods, imposter syndrome & resilience as a disabled advocate, in depth look at XBox's new free accessibility training course, and Ubisoft’s 5 year accessibility strategy.
Speakers include indie accessibility superstars Whitethorn Games and Daisy Ale Sounds through to AAAs and publishers like Xbox, Naughty Dog, Eidos, Riot, Blizzard and EA, and disabled gamers, advocates, and specialists such as Rachel Kowert, Grant Stoner, Kyle Abbate, Ben Bayliss, Alexx Aplin, Licia Prehn, and Shell Little.
Line-up - http://www.gaconf.com/schedule
Registration - http://www.gaconf.com
Awareness of the importance of game accessibility has increased hugely in recent years, with ever growing numbers of developers seeing the benefits. Attendees will take home practical knowledge of how to ensure their vision can reach as wide a range of players as possible, allowing more of those players to benefit from the access to culture, recreation and socialising that gaming brings.
Attendees can expect a wide range of topics from all sectors of the industry and an abundance of networking opportunities, leaving with inspiration, new contacts, and practical tips to ensure any game can reach as many people as possible. So no player is unnecessarily excluded from everything that games have to offer.
"This was the most inspiring conference I've ever been to"
- Jess Hider, Technical Designer, Rare
“So happy to have first hand accounts from players about their gaming experiences”
- Nikki Crenshaw, UX researcher, Blizzard
“Fantastic day at GAconf celebrating and getting tons of hot game accessibility tips!”
- Jenny Lay-Flurrie, chief accessibility officer, Microsoft
“The most informative conference I’ve been to in a very long time!”
– David Tisserand, Senior Manager of Accessibility, Ubisoft
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
Social:
Twitter - https://twitter.com/GA_Conf