Global Accessibility Day – AGDAs

Happy Global Accessibility Day!

This year, we wanted to highlight a decision made across the award categories for the AGDAs 2021.

Based on community feedback, and in collaboration with Accessibility Specialist Ian Hamilton, the AGDAs team wanted to re-evaluate how we approached accessibility in the AGDAs judging criteria.

We believe that accessibility should be in the heart of all design elements – from art, to audio, to gameplay. Previously, we showed this in our AGDAs 2020 – Judging Criteria, by having accessibility as a category for all of our awards.

This year however, we heard from our community that we should be doing more for accessibility – a sentiment we’re always looking to honour. Not only are we making the decision to continue judging accessibility across all criteria’s, but we have brought back our Excellence In Accessibility award.

We want to recognise Australian games that are going above and beyond. That are catering to underrepresented and underserved communities, that are using accessibility in innovative and extraordinary ways. We want to honour those who are working towards making games accessible to all.

The team is still in the process of reworking our judging criteria with the help of Ian Hamilton, who we cannot thank enough for his time, resources and assistance.

If you’re stuck on where to start on your accessibility journey to make your game available to underserved gamers,  IGEA has released an Accessibility Pack free to use, an index collating fantastic resources from around the globe.

And if you’re looking to keep up to date with other important events like this, check out our Inclusivity, Diversity, Equality and Accessibility Calendar – IGEA!