{"id":6707,"date":"2021-12-01T11:10:10","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T17:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ablegamers.org\/?p=6707"},"modified":"2022-10-27T11:00:14","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T16:00:14","slug":"november21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ablegamers.org\/november21\/","title":{"rendered":"November Community Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AIt’s been a busy but great month!\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n


\nAs we approach the 12th\u202fhour… err, month of 2021, it\u2019s a suitable time to look back on all the cool things that have happened this November.\u202fWe\u2019ve\u202fseen\u202fsome major games launch recently and watched various rewards be received at huge award ceremonies. As an AbleGamers team, we are already working on what our 2022 looks like and so\u202ffar,\u202fit looks\u202fAWESOME. We won\u2019t get into all the EXCITING things that we have lined up,\u202fbut we wanted to highlight some of the cool stuff that has happened this month,\u202fsuch as winning the\u202f*gameHERs\u202fAwards Top Charity of the year award!\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s Up?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

We had some exciting\u00a0anniversaries, including Xbox (celebrating 20 years!), GameCube\u00a0(celebrating 20 years!), Wii (celebrating 15 years!), and\u00a0more!\u00a0We have\u00a0also seen the\u202fone-year\u202fanniversary of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series\u00a0X\/S!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking of Xbox, the Xbox team is currently working on Color Filters<\/a>\u202fat the system level that can support\u202fpeople with color deficiencies. Developers should still design games with a <\/span>Second Channel<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in mind so that players can\u00a0<\/span>Distinguish this from that,<\/span><\/a> but this is a great move from Xbox to create an extra layer of support in the case that a game doesn’t include great color options.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We are finally seeing accessibility being developed from the start and not as an afterthought. It really shows in some of the experiences that we are enjoying\u202fnow…\u202fWe have had the honor of working with\u202fsome\u202famazing\u202fstudios over the last 2 years and can\u2019t wait for some of the upcoming titles that AbleGamers has impacted to launch. Technically,\u202fwe can\u2019t talk about these titles and the developers that we\u2019ve been supporting,\u202fbut we\u2019ll just say: next year is going to be a good year for some awesome games with some great accessibility!<\/em><\/span>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Accessibility Wins<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Forza 5 launched with some great accessibility\u00a0options, including\u202fcontroller remapping, subtitles,\u202fextra steering options\u202fand even\u00a0being able to\u202fchange\u00a0the\u202fspeed of the game!\u202fAlso,\u202fshoutout to the\u202ffantastic\u202fcar\u00a0designer\u00a0that\u202fgave us so many\u202ffancy\u202fcreations to look at! (Our personal favorites:\u00a0The\u202f<\/span>AbleGamers Brazil car<\/span><\/a>\u202fand the\u202f<\/span>CIPT<\/span><\/a>\u202fcars!)\u202fForza is now available in stores and via Xbox Game Pass.\u202f<\/span><\/p>\n

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The multiplayer portion of Halo Infinite\u202flaunched, and it filled our Slack channels with discussions about Halo Mountain Dew and arguments over the best game modes. Halo Infinite also launched with a lot of accessibility options\u202fand design choices\u202fproving that the developers have thought about accessibility from the start. Halo Infinite includes controller\u202fbutton remapping and a lot of ways to customize the visuals on screen like the crosshair, enemy color, reticle size, captions and more.\u202fHalo\u2019s Multiplayer is now\u202favailable for free on Xbox Consoles and PC. The paid campaign is scheduled to launch on December 8<\/span>th<\/span>!<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Screenshot<\/p>\n

The Game Awards will be highlighting and crowning the \u201cInnovation in Accessibility\u201d award this year. The\u00a0nominated\u00a0games are Far Cry 6, Forza, Marvel\u2019s\u00a0Guardians\u00a0of the Galaxy, Ratchet\u00a0& Clank: Rift\u00a0Apart and The Vale: Shadow of the Crown.<\/strong> We\u2019ve had the honor of working with most of these studios and are thrilled to see their efforts get highlighted on such a big stage! The Game Awards will be live on December 9th! You can vote for the winner and find out more information at www.thegameawards.com<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

AbleGamers\u00a0News<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

To start things off, The AbleGamers Charity won the Top Charity of the Year award from The *gameHERs awards! Check out our Director of Engineering Jessie Hall accepting the award on our behalf of the team! <\/span>Jessie was also on the PinkPixels\u00a0show<\/a> talking about our mission and her work with the engineering team.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"ScreenClick here to listen to the full interview!\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Windows Team has chosen AbleGamers as the beneficiaries of their Minesweeper Ugly Sweater!
\n<\/strong>Microsoft will be donating $100,000 in support of our mission to combat social isolation and enable play for disabled gamers.
\n<\/span>You can pick yours up in the Xbox Gear shop!<\/a>
\nThe Sweaters are so awesome, they\u2019ve inspired us to finally take our Halloween decorations <\/strong>down. <\/b><\/span>\"Microsoft<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

In other news,\u00a0we have\u00a0expanded\u00a0our team once again and brought on\u00a0<\/span>Roger\u00a0Brooks<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Andy Wu.<\/span><\/a> They will be leading our Peer-Counseling efforts in big ways directly supporting players, hospitals, and facilities around the world! Our team will also be supporting the developers of <\/span>Care Jam<\/span><\/a>, as they develop game experiences around the topic of Care.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our Professional Development team has been\u00a0<\/span>training and certifying<\/span><\/a>\u00a0EVEN\u00a0MORE<\/strong><\/em> developers in our Certified APX class and our User Research team is hard at work supporting studios’ needs for feedback around accessibility in their upcoming projects.\u00a0<\/span> If you are a developer looking to make your studio’s projects more accessible, check out our resources at accessible.games.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Monthly Community Highlights<\/span><\/h3>\n


\n\"Orange
\nOur friends at Face Jam and Voodoo Ranger teamed up to create a shirt for the FaceJam podcast that supports our mission!<\/strong> You can pick yours up at the Rooster Teeth store!<\/a>\u00a0Check out the Face Jam podcast on your favorite podcasting apps to learn more about Chicago Style Pizza in Colorado or the details on the Applebee’s Cheetos Boneless Wings.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"ScreenshotA big congratulations to Steve Saylor, who is\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>Twitch\u2019s newest\u00a0Ambassador!<\/a><\/strong> You can catch Steve Saylor on his Twitch channel, as well as on the front page of Twitch all this week as he shares his gaming experiences and advocates for accessibility and inclusion!
\nTwitch.tv\/BlindGamerSteve<\/a><\/span>
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Top 5 Fundraisers for November!<\/h3>\n

We had some amazing support from the fundraising communities, he<\/span>re are our top\u00a05\u00a0fundraisers for November!\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n