Steam just made it easier to find games tailored to different accessibility needs. You can now search the store by specific accessibility features, and more than 5,000 games have already included detailed info. This change could make a big difference for players looking for games that fit their preferences or requirements.
Valve announced this update back in April, and it’s finally live. On game pages, accessibility features appear in the sidebar under controller support. But the real game-changer is that the Steam search page has a new section called “narrow by accessibility feature.” Here, you’ll find toggles like “playable without timed input” or “color alternatives.” If you’ve ever bought a puzzle game only to find out you can’t adjust colors to suit your needs, you’ll appreciate this.
Valve mentioned they gathered helpful feedback from developers and players with disabilities to build this. They say over 5,000 games already show accessibility details, with more being added daily. Baldur’s Gate 3, for example, has ten accessibility features listed, including adjustable difficulty and no timed input requirements.
Accessibility Features Explained
Gameplay
- Adjustable Difficulty: Allows players to change gameplay difficulty.
- Save Anytime: Players can save progress manually or automatically at any point.
Visual
- Adjustable Text Size: Text size can be changed for in-game text, menus, dialogs, and subtitles.
- Subtitle Options: Customizable subtitle display for spoken content and important audio cues.
- Color Alternatives: Either no very important info relies on color, or players can adjust colors used.
- Camera Comfort: Options to reduce or disable effects like screen shake, motion blur, or camera bob.
Audio
- Custom Volume Controls: Volume levels for different audio types can be adjusted or muted separately.
- Narrated Game Menus: Menus can be listened to through narrated audio.
- Stereo Sound: Players can tell direction of sounds on the left or right.
- Surround Sound: Players can locate sounds coming from any direction.
Input
- Keyboard Only Option: Game can be played using only the keyboard.
- Mouse Only Option: Game can be played using only the mouse.
- Touch Only Option: Game can be played using only touch controls.
- Playable without Timed Input: No need for quick-time events or precisely timed button presses.
- Text-to-speech: Text chat is read aloud in real time.
- Speech-to-text communications: Voice chat is transcribed into text live.
Wow, this is a solid step toward making gaming more accessible for all kinds of players. Have you tried searching Steam with these new filters yet? What features do you think should get even more attention? Let me know in the comments!
