Apple makes a game-changing accessibility move literally, for iOS games

Date:
Thu, 09 Jun 2022 13:48:24 +0000

Description:
Unity-powered games can now benefit from VoiceOver and much more thanks to a new Apple plug-in.

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Apple has taken a big step forward in terms of making gaming more accessible, having just released an open source plug-in for the Unity game engine that allows developers to tap into the assistive features of iOS .

As introduced by Eric Liang, an Apple software engineer, in a video from the recent WWDC 2022 conference hat tip to 'Can I Play That?' for spotting this one the Apple Accessibility plug-in comes with all sorts of neat tricks for making games far more inclusive.

For starters, theres the ability to incorporate VoiceOver, the screen reader tool in iOS, with games, allowing for on-screen text to be read out for the benefit of blind or low vision players, and also enabling custom gestures for game controls.

Support is also present for Switch Control, so multiple external switches can be used for in-game controls. Then theres Dynamic Type Support, which gives developers the ability to change the size of the text in-game to match the users specified text size from Settings, so its bigger and more easily readable if needed. (Also, in an example Liang shows of a simple playing card game getting the benefit of the plug-in, the face values of the cards can be made larger in conjunction with the text, too see the image at the top of this story).

Further capabilities include the ability to increase contrast for better visibility of interface elements, or the power to reduce transparency of the background, making it opaque so text stands out better.

Developers can get hold of the Apple Accessibility plug-in at Github , and
its free to use. Analysis: Apple is making commendable progress with accessibility

Unity is a widely-used game engine , powering the likes of Hearthstone and Rust. While accessibility plug-ins have been available for Unity in the past, their third-party nature doesnt always make for the most reliable experience, as you might imagine.

But with Apple bringing forth its own effort, we can expect a much more solid and well-supported plug-in going forward, and thats obviously great news for game developers using Unity who want to ensure their products are accessible across a wide audience of gamers.

As the linked instructional Apple video shows, its easy to implement these accessibility features in iOS games , and they can make a big difference in all sorts of ways.

All this is part of a broader drive by Apple to improve accessibility,
because as weve seen recently, iOS 16 is set to benefit from the likes of
Live Captions, a Door Detection feature and more Enjoy gaming on your
iPhone? Then youll love these top games which are free



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/apple-makes-a-game-changing-accessibility-move- literally-for-ios-games/


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