Finding accessible games with AbleToPlay

First off: This is going to be a short one. Those issues I mentioned earlier with numbness alternating with extreme nerve pain? Yeah, I'm still dealing with them, and after a long day at work - plus my side hustle of hand-crafting morale patches (MUST BUY - CONSUME - FEED THE ECONOMY) - my fingertips are on fucking fire.

What is good, though, is that AbleToPlay is now in open beta.

AbleToPlay is a service that is designed to catalog games and give them a wokene.. err, an accessibility score based on criteria you specify in your profile, and I am all about it (and given how absolutely fucked most of us who suffer from various forms of disabilities are - or will be - in the US, a little wokeness in accessibility is welcome here).

It really didn't take long to get my profile set up and start seeing recommendations, and I've gotta say.. It's pretty spot-on.

I'm not saying it's anything innovative or unique, but it does simplify the process of finding games that match accessible needs. Rather than having to research the fuck about a game to see which features it has that you need, this catalogs them all.. Including things that most folks wouldn't consider: Thalassophobia (a fear of deep water)? No problem, they've got a filter for that.

The filtering criteria itself also provides a welcome weighting system without being complex: If you select criteria for filtering, you either mark it as a "Need" or a "Prefer".. Which is a fantastic bit of accessibility right there, I must say. Additionally: As a web developer, I am extremely pleased with just how accessible the entire site is built.

I will note it is not a perfect solution: While the filtering is useful, I myself have recently been dealing with what is hopefully a temporary increase in requirements, and it might be nice to have the ability to provide for an extra level of control there. As well, my preferred controller interface is my HOSAS setup now while I'm dealing with those issues: Being able to filter games by compatibility with common input devices would be a huge boon.

Still, they do save you a LOT of time on the initial search, so that's a net positive.

Anyway, that's about all I can stand to type for now. Go check it out and game. I'm going to lay down and watch old Law & Order episodes until the fire in my fingers fucks off.