Formats
Different formats support different levels of accessability. when thinking about how one presents their work there are three major modes Web / EPUB / Print. Often when games are published the focus is only on print/pdf format. This is largely due to the fact that pdf is what is used to submit things for print. When thinking about accessiblity, understanding the scaffolds (and constraints) of the format is super important.
- GIVING A DAMN ABOUT ACCESSIBILITY by Sheri Byrne-Haber is “a candid and practical handbook for designers.” Its goal is to make sure that digital accessibility provides equal access to information, functionality and experience on digital platforms.
Accessibility & Design Intention
One of the big things I wanted when writing Liminal Horror was to push mystelf to find ways to support people’s ability to access information. This largely arose from my background in teaching, and how it is important to provide multiple access points and opportunities for people to engage in the work.
- Tips for adding interactivity to your digital publications
- Making Your Game Accessible Is Easy by Nate Lee
- How to make PDFs accessible by Daniel Sell is a short overview about why one should consider integrating additional formats into their repertoire.
- Colour Contrast Analyzer is a tool that allows one to easily determine the contrast ration of your work and optimize it to include text and visual elements that are accessible for individuals with vision disabilities like color-blindness and low-vision impairments.
ePub
There are a lot of benefits to creating epub versions of games. Text only games are able to be used with screen readers, and have boosted accessibility functions (fonts, font sizes, margins).
- Using Markdown and Pandoc to Make RPG Documents for Free by Luke Gearing is a fantastic step by step guide on how to write in markdown and then publish the results in multiple formats (epub/html/pdf).
- Outputting multiple file formats with Pandoc by Loot the Room is a great 13 minute video that shows an adventure being written on a phone and being able to have multiple output methods.
- Accessible Publishing Best Practices: Guidelines for Common EPUB Issues in Plain Language by the Canadian National Network for Equitable Library Service. This document lays out different variables to concider to support accessiblity in information design. The major points are to: add alt text, have clear information hierarchy, hyper-link with titles, and avoid complicated presentation.
- Sean Patrick Cain had the initial twitter thread that went over step by step how he created a ePub version of his game Long Haul 1983.
- Peter Eijk created a followup thread to talk about how one can create accessible tables in ePubs using html.