Accessibility resources

You can be compliant with WCAG but still have a webpage that is not accessible to most people.

Curated resources for the accessibility game projects. Each section is ordered most-useful first. ⭐ Anbefalt marks the core resources to start with; the rest is useful further reading.

Start here

• ⭐ Anbefalt WCAG 2.2 — the current international standard for digital accessibility
• ⭐ Anbefalt How People with Disabilities Use the Web — essential reading before any design work
• WCAG 2 Overview — orientation to the WCAG family
• WCAG 3 (draft) — where the standard is heading
• Teaching Accessible Computing — web book, useful for both students and educators

Understanding disability and inclusive design

• ⭐ Anbefalt Microsoft Inclusive 101 — the persona spectrum and the solve-for-one principle
• Understanding Accessibility — permanent, temporary, and situational impairment explained
• Mike Oliver — The Social Model of Disability: Thirty Years On — the social model, from one of its originators
• Types of disabilities and barriers
• What are cognitive disabilities — and why they matter for web accessibility
• Making the web accessible: a focus on cognitive disabilities

Games and simulations

The research core — games and simulations for accessibility education.

• ⭐ Anbefalt Greg Gay — Teaching Accessibility Awareness with Games — W4A '21
• ⭐ Anbefalt Kletenik & Adler — Let's Play: Increasing Accessibility Awareness and Empathy Through Games — SIGCSE '22
• ⭐ Anbefalt Parthasarathy & Joshi — Accessibility Education for Software Engineers — evaluating the impact of game-based learning
• ⭐ Anbefalt Oda Marie Colquhoun — Games for Educating Responsible IT Students — guidelines and heuristics for design (NTNU MA, 2025)
• Spyridonis & Daylamani-Zad — A Serious Game to Improve Engagement with Web Accessibility Guidelines
• Naul & Liu — Why Story Matters: A Review of Narrative in Serious Games
• Access to Escape — VR escape room for accessibility education
• What dyslexia feels like — a visceral demonstration of a reading challenge
• Accessibility Maze — online accessibility learning game
• EQUAL Games — accessibility awareness games
• Accessibility Game

Testing tools

Developers use these to find and fix accessibility issues. Useful to know when designing what knowledge a game should build.

• Axe DevTools — the most widely used automated accessibility scanner (browser extension)
• WebAIM Contrast Checker — check colour contrast ratios against WCAG
• Color.review — visual contrast exploration
• Color Blind Web Page Filter — simulate how pages look with different colour vision deficiencies

Screen readers — try one out to understand how your interface sounds. Your phone already has one built in, and mobile screen readers are more predictable than desktop ones, which makes them a good place to start.

• ⭐ Anbefalt Android TalkBack — built into Android; how to turn it on and the basic gestures
• ⭐ Anbefalt iOS VoiceOver — built into iPhone/iPad, with a built-in practice mode
• NVDA — free screen reader for Windows, widely used for desktop testing

Method and learning theory

Background for designing and evaluating game-based learning.

• Hevner — A Three Cycle View of Design Science Research — the design-science method
• Schön — The Reflective Practitioner — how professionals think in action; foundation for reflective learning

Statistics and background

• ⭐ Anbefalt WebAIM Million — annual accessibility analysis of the top 1,000,000 home pages
• NHF — tall og fakta (Norwegian)
• Bufdir — funksjonsnedsettelse, begreper og kunnskapsgrunnlag (Norwegian)
• Blindeforbundet — fakta og statistikk om synshemninger (Norwegian)
• UN Sustainable Development Goals
• Lost job because IT systems were inaccessible — real-world consequence (Norwegian)