Since releasing in April, Gears Tactics has received praise for its smart gameplay and storytelling. While the turn-based tactics genre is not exactly an obvious direction for a franchise of third-person shooters to take on, players were pleasantly surprised by the outcome. However, one thing that Gears Tactics hasn't received a lot of attention for is its variety of accessibility options that make it possible for players with a variety of disabilities to enjoy the game.

When first starting up the game, players are immediately asked to choose their settings. Along with fairly standard ones, like optimizing graphics for your PC and customizing the UI, Gears Tactics dedicates a tab to accessibility options, something that all games should learn from.

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By starting out with the settings menu, Gears Tactics ensures that players can adjust the game before gameplay starts. It also gives players a variety of tools to do so, allowing players to remap controls, offering various sizes for captions and having several color blind modes. Selecting one displays an example of what it will look like in-game, ensuring that the player picks the right one for their needs. You can also select "Let the game read to me," which turns on narrations for most of the game's text, such as enemy health bars and menu options.

These options aren't perfect. The option to resize subtitles doesn't come with examples, and "Let the game read to me" is currently only available in American English and doesn't read the text on loading screens. However, the Gears Tactics' approach to accessibility options makes it possible for people with a variety of disabilities to make the adjustments they need to enjoy the game.

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Accessibility is clearly an area where the gaming industry has a long way to go, but there have been improvements. Nintendo recently launched a software update for the Switch that added the option to change button mapping, though this only works with Joy-Cons, the Pro Controller and the Switch Lite and isn't compatible with third-party controllers. And, just this week, Naughty Dog announced that its highly-anticipated title The Last of Us Part II will include over 60 features that will allow players to tweak the game according to their needs.

While Nintendo and Sony have been getting better in regards to making their games more accessible, Microsoft has been a leader in this area for a while now. It has put a focus on inclusive gaming, even releasing the Xbox Adaptive Controller in 2018. The device allows users to plug in a variety of external devices, like joysticks and buttons, and customize their setup. The Xbox website even has a page dedicated to breaking down its accessibility features and inclusive customer support.

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These are all necessary steps for the industry to take, but it's also important to elevate the voices and concerns of gamers with a variety of disabilities. One website that has been doing this is Can I Play That?, which reviews games based on their accessibility features from the perspective of players who use them. CIPT's goal is to inform both gamers with disabilities and developers in regards to what features work well and what could be done better.

Because accessibility is a broad concept that means different features are necessary for different people, each review focuses on how the game plays for those with specific disabilities. For example, CIPT's mobility review of Gears Tactics gave the game a perfect score, but another review brought up a few issues from a blind player's perspective. As more developers look to make their games and hardware more inclusive, it's important that they look both to gamers with disabilities and games like Gears Tactics that have gotten a lot right.

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