Abstract

Accessibility in digital games is established to remove barriers that cause exclusion of the target audience. It has the objective to provide an equivalent user-experience (UX). The general objective of this article is to analyze how accessibility features, linked to hearing in digital games, are related to the principles of the Universal Design and Jakob Nielsen’s usability heuristics in order to provide deaf players a good user-experience. As a hypothesis, this analysis makes it possible to notice the strengths that the digital games industry has developed in this area and it will be possible to identify gaps to be explored. As for the methodology, a cross will be made between the found accessibility features and principles of accessibility and usability. It was found that the games industry has invested a lot in resources related to a few principles of Universal Design, while it does not worry about developing functionalities related to another range of principles, which are equally important. It is possible to conclude that this work has potential for future studies, and it opens space for the discussion about inclusion in digital games.