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Top 16 Web Sites for Gamers who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing - 2016

RankSiteComments
1

GameCritics

www.gamecritics.com
Still the number one place to go for reviews of deaf accessible mainstream and indie games.

You'll find many reviews, very current, every one specifically including deaf accessibility issues.

The site offers many articles, including interviews with developers and gamers who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Their forum has over 11,000 members, though it is not specifically directed at gamers who are deaf. It's very active. On a random Saturday afternoon there were 10 members logged in.

Searching the site for the word "deaf" on their site's Search field yielded 10 pages of hits, some very recent.

The site is easy to navigate for general use.

The vast number of game reviews and articles makes it hard to find a review of a specific game by name because there appears to be no good way to sub-filter on the large number of hits.

Founded in 1999. Updated constantly.

Alexa rank 677,617

508 Compliance: Missing Alt attributes, missing frame titles, missing form labels.

Categories: Reviews, Information, News, Community.

In their own words: "Our Mission: To elevate the quality, culture and perception of video games as contemporary arts and entertainment through game criticism and community development."

Why should I go there? For professional grade reviews of deaf accessible games, especially mainstream games. Also for current gaming news, and for community.
2

IDRT

www.idrt.com
The Institute for Disabilities Research and Training. offers over 50 Commercial deaf-accessible (ASL) games for children and adults.

Their Web site makes it easy to shop for games. They have a site map.

Founded in 1997. Updated occasionally.

Alexa rank 5,074,722

508 Compliance: Missing frame titles, missing NOSCRIPTs.

Categories: Games.

In their own words: " IDRT is dedicated to improving the lives of people with disabilities, their families, and service providers through research and development, training, technical assistance, and advocacy. Although our work benefits people with all disabilities, we specialize in research and development efforts on behalf of children and adults who are deaf and hard of hearing. We have particular expertise in the development of American Sign Language (ASL)-accessible computer software and other assistive technology products."

Why should I go there? For Commercial deaf-accessible (ASL) educational games for children and adults.
3

The Game Accessibility Project

www.game-accessibility.com
This site has been totally rebuilt since its venerable earlier incarnation.

It offers reviews, news, help for developers, articles and papers on game accessibility, articles on projects, and a short list of game accessibility organizations.

Their Accessibility Guidelines section offers reviews of, and links to, eight different sets of guidelines.

Their Games section has game reviews. Each game has ten accessibility ratings:
  • Deaf
  • Blind
  • Low Vision
  • Color Blind
  • Tremor
  • One Arm
  • One Key
  • No Voice
  • Illiterate
  • Epilepsy
Reviews also include discussion of specific accessibility issues, including hearing impairment.

The site is easy to navigate. It has a site map. You can search on specific game names.

Founded in 2006. Totally rebuilt in 2015.

Alexa rank: 2,633,301

508 Compliance: PERFECT.

Categories: Information, News, Reviews.

In their own words: "The Game Accessibility project has been setup to address these problems by to informing disabled gamers about the availability of accessible games and by providing resources for developers, publishers and researchers in order to stimulate accessibility in games."

Why should I go there? For the very latest information, news, and reviews on deaf accessible games.
4

D.A.G.E.R.S

dagersystem.com
Provides reviews and previews of accessible games using the Disabled Accessibility for Gaming Entertainment Rating System.

This site just keeps on getting better.

They explicitly address the issue of accessibility features that are in the version they previewed that might not work the same in the released version.

Many of the games are non-Windows XBox, Playstation, etc. But they do include the very latest Windows games.

Games are rated by:
  • Overall Accessibility
  • Auditory Rating
  • Fine-MotorRating
  • Visual Rating
They offer industry news, mostly about new releases.

They present their annual D.A.G.E.R.S Diamond Award for excellence in accessible gaming.

The site is easy to navigate for general use.

We were able to search for reviews of specific game titles.

They also offer an effective way to filter games by platform, genre, and review rating

Founded 2011. Updated constantly.

Alexa rank 18,403,507

508 Compliance: Missing Alts, missing Input labels, Missing NOSCRIPTs.

Categories: Reviews, News.

In their own words: "The leading game journalism site for disabled gamers, featuring disability game reviews and perspectives on video game accessibliity."

Why should I go there? For reviews of the very latest deaf accessible games, and previews of forthcoming deaf accessible games.
5

Her Interactive

www.herinteractive.com
This mainstream developer offers 32 Commercial desktop Nancy Drew games, all of which are deaf-accessible (Subtitled, sometimes including subtitled sounds)

Has an active forum, an up-to-date blog, Facebook page, Twitter feed, YouTube channel, and a newsletter.

Founded in 1997. Updated often.

Alexa rank 173,810.

508 Compliance: Missing Alts, missing frame titles, missing form labels.

Categories: Games, Information, Community.

In their own words: "Our vision is to be the undisputed leader in creating high quality, fun and inspiring games for girls of all ages. ... We strive to create high quality synergy between game play, story and aesthetics that result in a fun and engaging experience."

Why should I go there? For mainstream Commercial deaf-accessible (subtitled) games. (Full disclosure: We enjoy playing them ourselves.)
6

One Odd Gamer Girl

oneoddgamergirl.net
This site provides reviews that focus on deaf and hard of hearing accessibility.

All of the reviews rate games on:
  • Subtitles
  • Visual Assists
  • Visually Engaging World
The author of this site is deaf. Her reviews demonstrate her personal experience trying to get games to work for her.

The site is easily navigated.

Founded in 2016. Constant updates.

Alexa rank 19,187,289

508 Compliance: Missing foreground color specifications, missing frame labels, missing form labels, missing NOSCRIPTs.

Categories: Reviews.

In their own words: "...I truly hope my reviews can help other deaf and HOH gamers."

Why should I go there? For game reviews that focus specifically on deaf and hard of hearing accessibility, written by someone with personal experience.
7

7-128 Software

www.7128.com
This independent developer offers 30 Commercial and 7 FREE games that are accessible (non-auditory and CC) to gamers who are deaf.

Also offers the ALERT (Accessible Learning through Entertainment and Recreation Tools) project, FREE information on applying accessible computer games in a learning environment.

And, of course, this annual Top 25 review.

Founded in 2007. Updated monthly.

Alexa rank 3,776,791.

508 Compliance: Missing foreground color tags, missing NOSCRIPTs.

Categories: Games, Information.

In their own words: "Our games entertain you with stories, puzzles, and word challenges that are fun for and accessible to every casual gamer."

Why should I go there? For Commercial and FREE deaf-accessible (CC) games for grown-ups and children, including very young children.
8

AbleGamers

ablegamers.com

Unstoppable Gamer
unstoppablegamer.com/

Includification
includification.com
Ablegamers Foundation is the number one organization in the United States that assists and advocates for gamers with disabilities.

This year, its founder and leaders, Mark Barlet and Steve Spohn, were invited to the White House to publicize computer accessibility.

These three related Web sites offer numerous resources for accessible gaming, and are excellent sources of information about deaf-accessible games.

In particular, Unstoppable Gamer provides game reviews with every review containing an Auditory Breakdown section including: subtitles, close captioning, audio controls, background vs. foreground sounds, game sounds vs. incidental sounds; very thorough.

In addition, that site lets you identify yourself as a deaf gamer and then filters reviews explicitly tagged for Deaf Gamers. Our search found 50 games with this tag.

They have a search feature, but we were unable to get it to reliably locate a specific game that we otherwise knew was in its set of reviews.

Their forum has been deactiviated, though you can still view archived posts.

Another separate, but related Web site, Includification presents a well organized and useful set of guidelines for developing accessible games.

It specifically includes an extensive section on hearing-related accessibility.

The main site, Ablegamers is an excellent place to find out where accessibiity issues are being presented at events such as PAX East and GDC.

All three sites are well organized and easy to navigate for general use.

Founded in 2004 and are current.

Alexa rank 1,120,000.

508 Compliance: Missing Alts, missing foreground color specs, missing frame labels, missing input labels.

Categories: Reviews, Help, Information

In their own words: "The AbleGamers Foundation, also known as AbleGamers Charity, is a 501(C)(3) nonprofit public charity that aims to improve the overall quality of life for those with disabilities through the power of video games."

Why should I go there? For all kinds of information and assistance enabling games for gamers who are deaf or hard of hearing.
9

Game Accessibility Guidelines

gameaccessibilityguidelines.com
This site is an information resource for developers and gamers.

It presents an extensive set of guidelines for developers who want to make their games accessible. These guidelines are grouped by:
  • Basic
  • Intermediate
  • Advanced
Within these groupings, the guidelines are further grouped by:
  • Hearing
  • Motor
  • Cognitive
  • Vision
  • Speech
  • General
This information can also be useful to gamers who want their favorite game to be made accessible.

They provide a common set of technical concepts and terms that a gamer can use to communicate with a developer.

Many of the entries include links to Web sites that offer games that are examples of best practices for resolving a particular accessibility issue. This could be a good resource for gamers seeking such games.

The site is very easy to navigate. Their section labelled Full List is an excellent place to find their complete set of Hearing Guidelines.

Founded in 2012. Updated occasionally.

Alexa rank 3,845,452

508 Compliance: Missing form labels, missing NOSCRIPTs.

Categories: Information.

In their own words: "A collaborative effort between a group of studios, specialists and academics, to produce a straightforward developer friendly reference for ways to avoid unnecessarily excluding players, and ensure that games are just as fun for as wide a range of people as possible."

If you're a gamer, to find the words you need to tell a developer how to make your favorite game accessible to you. If you're a developer, to find out how to make your games accessible to all.
10

Valve

www.valvesoftware.com
This mainstream developer produces 12 Commercial deaf-accessible (subtitled) games.

They also offer many third-party games developed for their Steam platform. Many of these are deaf accessible.

Twelve of Valve's own games, including Half Life, include subtitles.

For modders or third-party developers, they offer features that enable modded extensions to be subtitled or fully closed captioned.

The site is easy to navigate.

Founded in 1998. Updated occasionally.

Alexa rank 21,819.

508 Compliance: Missing Alts, missing foreground color specs, missing NOSCRIPTs.

Categories: Games.

In their own words: "When you give smart talented people the freedom to create without fear of failure, amazing things happen."

Why should I go there? For mainstream Commercial deaf-accessible (subtitled, CC) games.
11

AbilityPowered

abilitypowered.com
This site provides previews, news, articles, and guides that include deaf gaming.

It's emphasis is motion-impaired gaming, but this site does address audio and visual accessibility.

It has a link to the Ability Powered Gamers group at Steam. It has a section dedicated to World of Warcraft.

The author this site is motion impaired. Her reviews, including the parts that address audio accessibility, reflect personal experience trying to get a game to work for her.

The site is easily navigated.

Founded in 2013. Constant updates.

Alexa rank 5,315,303

508 Compliance: Missing background color specs, missing frame labels, missing form labels.

Categories: Information, News, Reviews, Community.

In their own words: "...we hope to be your source for reviews, guides, and information to keep you at the top of your game no matter what your abilities may be in real life."

Why should I go there? For news, information, and previews of the latest games, with specifics related to audio access.
12

The Geeky Gimp

geekygimp.com
This site provides reviews of what the author calls "geeky stuff" including computer games.

Her computer game reviews specifically address audio accessibility issues.

The author of this site is motion impaired. Her reviews demonstrate her personal experience trying to get games to work for her.

The site is easily navigated.

Founded in 2014. Constant updates.

Alexa rank 8,555,472

508 Compliance: Video or Audio elements lack KIND, frames lack titles, forms lack lables, missing NOSCRIPTS.

Categories: Reviews.

In their own words: "I thought I could take my perspective as a disabled woman and apply it to reviews of these geeky things that I love."

Why should I go there? For game reviews that include audio accessibility issues.
13

Ergohacks

ergohacks.com
This site provides product reviews with an emphasis on usability, including accessible computer games

Their game reviews include:
  • Hearing Accessibility
  • Dexterity
  • Cognitive Challenge
  • Color Blindness
The audio parts of the reviews vary considerably in their level of detail.

The site navigability has improved since last year. Game reviews are easy to find.

Founded in 2013. Constant updates.

Alexa rank 1,389,482

508 Compliance: Missing Alts, missing NOSCRIPTs, missing form labels

Categories: Information, Reviews

In their own words: "Ergohacks is a review and news site that focus on how technology and design can improve health and life quality. We share a passion for technology, accessibility and universal design."

Why should I go there? For current information on accessibility, sometimes including reviews of the latest games, including audio accessibility.
14

International Game Developers Association - Game Accessibility SIG

igda-gasig.org

Game Accessibility Top Ten

gameaccessibility.
blogspot.com


gameaccesssig.
forumotion.com


IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Listserv Archive
This is an industry advocacy group seeking to motivate developers to make their games more accessible to gamers with special needs.

The sites tend to focus on motion impairment, but also address general issues related to disabled gaming, including deafness.

They offer a Game Accessibility Top Ten list of accessibility features list.

Both the blogspot and forum sites appear to have been inactive since 2013. However, the new idga-gasig.org site is active.

The listserv is active with members of this SIG discussing issues related to game accessibility.

Both public sites are easy to navigate.

Founded in 2007. Listserv and idga-gasig.org are active.

Alexa rank 15,352,033

508 Compliance: Missing Alts, missing form labels.

Categories: Information.

In their own words: "The Game Accessibility SIG was formed to help the game community strive towards creating mainstream games that are universally accessible to all, regardless of age, experience and disability."

Why should I go there? For news as to what the SIG is up to.
15

Language Rocks

www.languagerocks.com
This independent developer offers 8 (2 packs of 4 games each) Commercial children's educational games. The games are all deaf-accessible (non-auditory).

This site has become more complete since last year. To find games they make themselves, as opposed to resell, go to their General Site Information, WindmillWorks page.

Founded in 1998. Updated occasionally.

Alexa rank 17,594,410.

508 Compliance: Missing Alts, missing foreground color specs, missing NOSCRIPTs.

Categories: Games.

In their own words: "Language Rocks is a division of our original company, Windmill Works that started in 1992 originally creating software specifically designed for deaf and hard of hearing students of all ages. However, since that time, our company has created products, free online learning games, a apps, and ebooks for mainstream students of all ages!"

Why should I go there? For Commercial deaf-accessible (non-auditory) educational games for children.
16

Universal Access Games

universalaccessgames.com
This independent developer offers one FREE (with registration) Upgradeable-to-Commercial program that contains one deaf accessible (CC) educational game.

Game teaches basic computer skills.

Founded in 2008. Updated rarely.

Alexa rank N/A

508 Compliance: Missing NOSCRIPTs.

Categories: Games.

In their own words: "Imagine a place where all children can play together."

Why should I go there? For a FREE (with registration) Upgradeable-to-Commercial deaf accessible (CC) educational game for children.

Sites to Watch

These are sites that don't fit in the above rankings, but that we think should be brought to your attention.

SiteComments

Ouch!

www.bbc.co.uk/ouch
This is the BBC’s Web site for the disabled including people who are deaf.

It offers a constant stream of timely and entertaining articles, blogs, and a message board.

Not specifically for gamers, though they do have related articles.

The site is easy to navigate.

Founded in 2002. Constant updates.

Alexa rank 104

508 Compliance: Missing Alts, missing foreground color tags, missing form placeholders.

Categories: Information

In their own words: "Ouch explores the disability world in blog posts and a monthly internet radio talk show."

Why should I go there? For a lot of current information on accessibility, sometimes including gaming.

GameBase

www.gamebase.info

SpecialEffect

www.specialeffect.org.uk

SpecialEffect is an organization dedicated to making computer games accessible to people with disabilities.

Their focus is motion impairment. However, their GameBase includes a collection of 100 game reviews that specifically address deaf-accessibility.

They stopped adding reviews in May of 2013. However, the game reviews still exist at that site.

Some reviews include ratings for:
  • Hearing Accessibility
  • Cognitive Accessibility
  • Input Accessibility
  • Sight Accessibility
  • Content Appropriateness
Both Web sites are easy to navigate. To find game reviews, go to their Categories list.

GameBase was Founded in 2009. It stopped being updated in 2013.

Alexa rank 622,726.

508 Compliance: Missing Alts, missing Labels for Forms, missing NOSCRIPTs.

Categories: Help, Information, archived reviews.

In their own words: "...our website is giving information worldwide to many people who might need immediate specialist advice about accessible games and controllers."

Why should I go there? For archived reviews of deaf accessible games.

Gone Sites

These are sites that were previously on this list but have gone away.
We keep them around awhile because sometimes you want to know what happened to a site.

SiteComments

DeafGamers

www.deafgamers.com
For all the years our list has existed, this Web site was the best source on the Internet for game reviews of deaf-accessible games.

Alas, it is gone.

In the Web master's own words: "After well over a decade of running Deaf Gamers, it's finally time to bring it to an end.

I no longer have the money to purchase new consoles and with the old consoles being flaky at best, and my PC hardware being rather long in the tooth, I think it's time to call it a day.

I've taken the website down for now but in the future I hope to have fixed its various problems and intend to restore it.

For now, all I can say is thanks for visiting over the last 13 years and I hope you're all still enjoying your gaming."

Survey Methodology

Data comes from 7-128 Software market research of over 100 Web sites relevant to the accessible gaming community, including: developers, gaming media, and organizations.

Because we rank only what we ourselves understand well:

We specifically address single-user, desktop games that run on Windows.
We specifically do not address games that run on the Macintosh.
We specifically do not address games that run on consoles, smartphones, or in your Web browser.

Ranking is based on, in general order of priority:

Games

Games you can get: FREE or Commercial, via download or on CD.

This means games developed at the surveyed Web site.

This also includes Web sites where you can directly download FREE games developed at another Web site.

This also includes annotated links to Web sites where you can download FREE games developed at another Web site.

We rank FREE games higher than Commercial games.

We specifically do not include resellers unless they also offer games they themselves have developed.

We may include games that are under development when the available version is playable and interest by the gaming community is evident.

Help

Help from other gamers or technically knowledgable people.

This means not only forums or other interactive means of sharing, but also a group of people who will give technical advice.

Information

Gaming news, technical specifications, tips.

This means information about games, including industry and academic gaming news and announcements, game descriptions, tips, cheats, walkthroughs.

It includes links that are annotated with something that adds value to the link, for example personal suggestions.

Reviews

Reviews of games.

This means game reviews that include deaf and hard of hearing accessibility issues.

Community

Interaction with other gamers and game developers.

This means forums, blogs, chat lines, and other interactive means of sharing.

Currentness

How frequently is the site updated.

This means how often does it get new games, game updates, new information, or posts by gamers or developers.
Sites that have not been updated for a long time are ranked down.

Reach

How well known is the site in the deaf gaming community?

This means how often is the Web site mentioned in forum posts, in media articles. How many comments, and commenters, are there for the Web site’s forum or blog posts. What is its Alexa rating? What observed influence has it had on our industry.

Alexa rankings indicate how often a Web site's home page is hit by users. Lower values are better.

Sites that have very little traffic or are not mentioned by the gaming community in forums and such, are ranked down.

Accessibility

Web site's 508 compliance.
This means checked with accessibility Web checkers and passes with no failures that would deny reasonable accomodation to people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Does it Work?

Do all of its parts work?

This means does it have broken links?
Does it have broken Javascript?
Is its storefront inoperative or do its free downloads not download?
Is the site itself down for a significant part of our year-end survey period?
Is the gaming community complaining about lousy service?

Longevity

How long has the site been around.

This means when the Web site was founded.

Breadth vs Depth

Preference is given to breadth.

This means that, all else being equal, Web sites that offer help or information as well as games tend to be ranked higher than Web sites offering just games or just information.

Mainstream vs. Independent vs. Educational Game Developers

For the purpose of this survey, Mainstream developers tend to be larger companies, producing Commercial games with more features.

Independent developers tend to be smaller companies or individuals, producing simpler Commercial or FREE games.

Educational developers tend to be Independent developers who produce games that emphasize learning rather than entertainment.

This rough labeling is our way to indicate what kind of games you'll likely find at a developer Web site. It has no bearing on rankings.

Exceptions

Exceptions to the above are put in our unranked Web Sites to Watch section.

Data is current as of May, 2016