As technology advances, so too should accessibility with new features allowing everybody to game equally.
In recent years, subtitles, font customisation, colour blind modes and more have allowed players with disabilities to access games without restriction.
So much so, that the official Accessibly website shared the following about the increase in video game accessibility.
“Video game accessibility ensures that all players, regardless of their abilities or disabilities, can enjoy and interact with video games.
“This inclusivity means designing games that provide accessible communication options and adaptable control schemes, among other features.
Creating accessible video games is crucial as it promotes equal opportunity and broadens the player base.”
However, as important as it is to feature accessibility in terms of hardware customisation, it is equally as important to have disability representation in games themselves.
After all, people with disabilities have existed for millenia and so it only makes sense to faithfully represent them in the media and that is what one creator has hoped to achieve in a brand-new Stardew Valley mod.
Pelican Town Accessibility is a free-to-download mod for Stardew Valley which aims to add handrails and wheelchair ramps to the game’s infamous map.
Created by Midnight Voyager, this mod was created as a way for George, a wheelchair-using villager, to be able to get around the map and if that isn’t a love letter to the game, I don’t know what is.
This One Is For George
“Ever wonder how George got to the Community Center for the opening? Or to the Ridgeside gathering? This mod adds accessible ramps with handrails over ten different staircases in town,” the mod description reads.
The mod replaces four staircases around the map with ramps but players are also able to control which get replaced in the mod’s configurations.
“Compatibility is quite a bit of work for these, so I haven’t obliterated every step in town. (There’s over seventy map patches for ten ramps, especially since I patch them into festivals as well!)
My focus was on places that George goes first of all, which is how I scope creeped to do a few spots in Ridgeside. Secondly, I focused on main town areas and paths to transportation, like the railroad.”
Now poor George will be able to navigate the valley without having to deal with pesky stairs but who knows? Maybe this mod will inspire ConcernedApe to add ramps and handrails in an official future update.
