2023 Game Accessibility Conference Awards Announced With Nominees And Air Date

The Game Accessibility Conference has announced the nominees and broadcast date for the 2023 GAConf Awards, which celebrate advancements and achievements in accessibility across the industry.

The awards set out to recognize the efforts of both independent and AAA developers in making video games accessible to disabled players. Though it is the awards' focus, the nominees are not limited to literal game development. The awards also recognize hardware advancements, academic research, and journalism. Narrative also gets a nod with the representation award. This year, games from PlayStation Studios--including God of War Ragnarok, The Last of Us Part 1, and Horizon Forbidden West--rank highly, as well as Xbox indie As Dusk Falls.

The event will be hosted by accessibility advocate Steve Saylor. Several others will present individual awards, including SightlessKombat, Phil Spencer of Xbox, Paul Amadeus Lane, David Tisserand of Ubisoft, Jay Justice, Chris 'DeafGamersTV' Robinson, Mark Friend of Sony Interactive, and Dr. Mick Donegan.

Naturally, the event itself will also be accessible, including audio description, signing in ASL and BSL, and subtitles in English, French, German, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese.

The GAconf Awards will be broadcast on January 25 at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET. You can watch the awards on the GAconf's official YouTube channel or in its official Discord. The full list of categories and nominees is below.

2023 GAconf Awards Nominees

AAA Excellence

• Horizon Forbidden West
• The Last of Us Part 1
• God of War Ragnarok

Indie Excellence

• As Dusk Falls
• Sifu
• Return to Monkey Island

Best Deaf/HoH Accessibility

• The Quarry
• God of War Ragnarok
• LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

Best Physical/Mobility Accessibility

• The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe
• Rocksmith+
• As Dusk Falls

Best Blind/Low Vision Accessibility

• As Dusk Falls
• God of War Ragnarok
• The Last of Us Part 1

Best Cognitive Accessibility

• Rocksmith+
• Return to Monkey Island
• The Quarry

Best Representation

• Soundly/0929Lego Roblox hearing aids
• Just Dance 2023 wheelchair user
• Saints Row avatar prosthetics

Best Journalism

• Ben Bayliss - DualSense's haptics need to find the right balance of immersion and functionality
• Grant Stoner - How Disabled 'Elden Ring' Players Conquered The Lands Between
• Clair Jackson - Consent And Compassion: How Devs Are Reshaping The Conversation Around Content Warnings

Best Academic Research

• The Pedagogical Value of Creating Accessible Games: A Case Study with Higher Education Students
• Understanding the perceptions and experiences of the deafblind community
• Including the Experiences of Physically Disabled Players in Mainstream Guidelines for Movement-Based Games

Best Resource

• Microsoft Gaming Accessibility Fundamentals training
• PlayStation accessibility site
• SpecialEffect DevKit

Most Accessible Gaming Event

• Ubisoft Forward
• Xbox at Gamescom
• A11yTOGaming

Hardware Innovation

• PS5 OS Upgrades
• 8BitDo Lite SE Controller
• Microsoft Adaptive Accessories

Most Improvement

• The Last of Us Part 1
• Dead Cells "Breaking Barriers" update
• Deathloop update 3

Biggest Accessibility Surprise

• Apple Unity accessibility plugin
• Forza user research in ASL/BSL
• Microsoft Gaming Accessibility Fundamentals training

Most Dedicated Publisher

• Sony Interactive Entertainment
• Xbox Game Studios
• Ubisoft

Most Dedicated Studio

• Naughty Dog
• Rare
• Ubisoft Kyiv

MVP Award For Most Dedicated Developer

• Mila Pavlin, Santa Monica Studio
• David Tisserand, Ubisoft
• Guide Dev, Hearthstone accessibility mod

The Advocacy Award

• Grant Stoner
• Chris "DeafGamersTV" Robinson
• Erin Hawley