EA is often referred to as the "evil corporation" for several reasons, including studio closures, greed, and a disdainful attitude towards the gaming community. However, we now want to highlight the positive aspects of this company—how Electronic Arts strives to make the gaming experience more accessible to all players in the industry.
First steps
It all started in 2017 when Karen Stevens was appointed as the Head of Accessibility at EA Sports. Previously, she had worked at Microsoft as a software developer since 2005 before transitioning to EA, starting as a software engineer and holding that position for four years. She currently serves as the Director of Accessibility across the entire EA company.
The EA Sports team is responsible for sports games such as FIFA, Madden, and others, and they are implementing new features to make them more accessible to players with disabilities.
One day, Stevens received an email from a blind gamer who complained that the new force measurement features in Madden NFL 2017 made the latest version of the game inaccessible to him. Reaching out to other blind gamers through forums on audiogames.net, Stevens discovered that numerous players were facing challenges in playing UFC, NHL, and even Need for Speed without being able to see the menus or actions on the screen.
"We already had an audience of players who were buying and playing our franchises, but we were simply ignoring their needs," says Stevens.
Upon learning this, Karen actively joined forums to understand how blind gamers cope with games that were not specifically adapted for them. In games like Madden and NHL, detailed real-time commentary helps them by providing useful information about what is happening on the screen. As she explains, it's akin to listening to a game on the radio. Both games also offer camera options where the player always moves "forward," and artificial intelligence automatically controls teammates until the player takes control, significantly simplifying the gameplay process.
In the game Need for Speed, blind players can navigate the track by following the movement of bot cars. They can rely on audio cues, such as changes in engine pitch (to determine speed), stereo sounds indicating the turning of cars, and whistling sounds when passing obstacles. All of these help create a sound map of the track, even if they can't see it. Over time, these players can memorize the tracks and use controller vibration to determine when they veer off track or crash.
Having identified the audience of blind gamers and their needs, Stevens began working as the first Head of Accessibility at EA Sports. She spent the first six months identifying the challenges faced by blind players and collaborating with the development team to address them. This process was challenging as some developers didn't understand the need for these additional efforts, believing that "a blind person cannot play Madden." However, EA's management provided Stevens with full freedom to act.
Now Madden NFL has added the ability to play sound effects during gameplay events such as tackles and passes. Various sound cues help players identify different types of calls in the menu and feel the ball's movement from hand to hand. After implementing these changes, Stevens literally closed her eyes and allowed the developers to try playing. And they were impressed with the result, realizing that it really works!
In addition, as the Director of Accessibility at EA, Karen created the EA Accessibility Portal - a website that publishes news about accessibility in their games. This website also allows players to reach out to the development team with issues and bugs. Those who make such inquiries can help the team understand the problems and potentially implement new features that will help them and other players enjoy the game according to their needs.
Karen also spoke at the Games Accessibility Conference 2020, where she talked about accessibility and how they created a dedicated department at EA focused on developing special features in games.
"This is not about a simple gaming experience. Yes, it would be great if they had the same experience as regular gamers. But what really matters is that they simply have an experience," says Karen.
Creating new patents and providing free access to them for any developers
EA has shown a unique commitment to accessibility by publishing its accessibility patents in August 2021 and making them available to the public. This is a rare occurrence as not many companies make their technologies accessible to other developers and publishers.
It states the following: "At Electronic Arts (EA), we want games to be inclusive for everyone and nothing to stand in the way of our players and our shared love of video games. To do this, we need to reduce or eliminate as many barriers to access as possible and expand the capabilities of our gamers. As part of our commitment to making video games more inclusive, we have launched our Accessibility Patent Pledge because everyone deserves to play. We are sharing our accessibility-focused technology with a broader industry so that together we can meet the needs of our diverse gaming community. It covers some of our most innovative technologies designed to overcome barriers for players with disabilities. This includes people with visual, hearing, speech, or cognitive impairments. Furthermore, all this intellectual property has been provided without any licensing fees, which means you do not need to pay royalties or licensing fees for its use."
One of the most well-known patents is the ping system in Apex Legends, which significantly improved the game's accessibility for players with various limitations and simplified the online gaming process by eliminating the need for voice chat. The ping system allows players to coordinate actions without using a microphone and also mark the location of enemies, useful items, attack, defense or observation zones, as well as the location of recently encountered enemies.
Three other patents relate to visual accessibility and introduce technologies that recognize and adjust colors, brightness, and contrast in games to enhance model visibility. These technologies are already implemented in Madden NFL and FIFA games.
The fifth patent pertains to audio customization for players with hearing impairments. It allows players to adjust music and sound effects according to their hearing abilities.
Furthermore, EA has decided to publish its code, which is now available through the GitHub platform. This open-source code enables developers to explore and utilize the accessibility technologies developed by EA in their own projects.
"At Electronic Arts (EA), we strive to inspire the world to play, and to make that a reality, it's important to us that our video games are accessible to all players. The Accessibility team at EA has been working on overcoming barriers in our games for a long time. However, we recognize that achieving significant change requires collaboration as an industry and doing better for all players," said EA CEO Andrew Wilson. He emphasized this mission, and in 2022, just a year after the first patents, EA released six additional new patents.
One of the patents relates to a machine learning system that enhances player experience and performance by automatically recommending and applying controller configuration settings based on the player's play style and skills. Two more patents are related to improving voice control features, and an intelligent patent has been developed that adjusts the gameplay based on the player's color blindness condition. Another patent introduces virtual joystick technology that responds to the player's finger position on a touchscreen.
Additionally, EA has released on GitHub a code called Fonttik, which facilitates reading text in games for players with visual impairments by automatically identifying text in video content and checking its compliance with specified size and contrast criteria.
In 2023, EA continues its tradition and has developed a new patent that enhances text-to-speech technology. This system translates subtitles or dialogue text into voiced lines with emotional intonations. The patent also explores customization options for developers, including language, accent, volume, pause duration, and other aspects of the added speech. Moreover, the patent allows players to customize the system to add ambient sound effects to the voice lines.
Recently, on May 18th, EA announced a system that automatically determines the need for accessibility settings for users with color blindness. The system conducts a test based on "virtual color blindness indicator objects" or visually distinct colors to determine the user's type of color blindness. This test can be embedded in EA games through a task or objective that prompts the user to interact with these objects. Then, based on this interaction, the game can determine if the user is color blind and what type of color blindness they have.
EA stated that this approach allows colorblind individuals to avoid the need to immediately change game settings from the very beginning. In video game design, color often plays a crucial role as a visual indicator. For example, a pulsating red outline appearing around the screen can warn of an impending character death, and specific colors may indicate different types of attacks. However, without intuitively accessible accessibility settings, which EA is working on, these details become barriers for colorblind individuals.
EA's statement highlights that accessibility settings, including options for colorblindness, are typically not available during gameplay input. Due to this limitation, colorblind individuals often miss out on crucial visual cues for navigation and progression in the game.
Inclusion and development of accessibility
EA places great importance on inclusivity and the development of accessibility. The company invests significant resources annually in advancing accessibility and collaborating with charitable organizations. For instance, EA participated in the Accessible Gaming Forum Buildathon in Canada. During this event, EA created hundreds of controllers and buttons using a 3D printer and acquired adapters of various types to allow gamers to use devices that align with their abilities.
Chad Lehman, the director of the charity organization NSS, noted that the Buildathon is an example of the tremendous changes that can be achieved when people come together. All devices created during this event are distributed free of charge to gamers and rehabilitation centers, thanks to EA's generous support.
Gamers with disabilities participated in competitions alongside EA game developers, utilizing adapted gamepads, which provided equal opportunities for all players.
"I have been working on EA Sports FIFA for 13 years, and during that time, I have spent thousands of hours using standard controllers. This event reminds me of how important it is to create games that everyone can play." ,says Aaron McHardy, Executive Producer of EA Sports FIFA
Back in 2016, Electronic Arts made a donation of $1 million to five charitable organizations, including SpecialEffect. Founded in 2007, this organization based in the United Kingdom specializes in assisting people with physical disabilities, particularly children, so they can play video games. Peter Moore, one of the directors at EA, is also a member of the vice president's council of SpecialEffect and provides daily support to the organization.
"It is a great honor for me to be associated with SpecialEffect, which has such a noticeable impact on people. Everyone deserves the opportunity to play, and I am continually inspired by the work of SpecialEffect and their contribution to the gaming community," said Peter Moore.
EA has also established the Disability Employment Support Service (DESS) within its Equality and Diversity division.
DESS focuses on the following areas:
- Supporting EA colleagues who have disabilities or have experienced disabilities.
- Supporting EA colleagues who have children with disabilities.
- Employing individuals with disabilities at EA and developing and implementing schemes to create an inclusive environment.
In conclusion
Overall, for many years, EA has consistently demonstrated its commitment to accessibility, believing that games should be accessible to all. By creating inclusive gaming features and removing barriers to the use of their technologies, EA not only expands opportunities for players with disabilities but also fosters a culture of inclusivity that will continue to shape the future of gaming.
