With Xbox’s dedication in recent years to having its titular first-party titles come packaged with a suite of refined accessibility options, it was only a matter of time before it was revealed what Forza Motorsport will be bringing to the table to further the publisher’s goals of making gaming easier for everyone.
On April 27, the details of Forza Motorsport’s accessibility efforts were fully uncovered. Not only will the game feature settings such as colorblind modes, text scaling, and dynamic audio description that have become standard, but also new innovations in the form of “Blind Driving Assists” and “One Touch Driving” to aid blind and low-vision players, as well as players with mobility or stamina disabilities respectively.
The team at developer Turn 10 Studios worked closely with Brandon Cole, a blind gamer and accessibility consultant, throughout the creation of the Blind Driving Assists (BDA) feature and the results speak for themselves. In a video released covering BDA, it’s made clear how involved in the development of the feature Cole was, routinely testing the suite of supplemental audio cues until both parties were confident in how it delivered on the promise of making Forza Motorsport accessible to low and no-vision players.
As described by Neha Chintala, Turn 10’s gameplay and accessibility producer, BDA provides players with “audible information about their position and orientation on track, approach and progress through turns, as well as information about the car, such as how much deceleration is needed, when to shift (if playing with manual transmission) and more.” All of the different elements can be previewed within the accessibility menu before taking them on the track as well.
The other major feature addition on this front is One Touch Driving. This setting is focused on reducing the number of simultaneous inputs a player might be required to perform, and it can be customized to each individuals liking. They can choose between their own combination of assists, from enhanced braking and steering assists all the way through to assists for throttle input and pit entry as well.
The full list of features coming with Forza Motorsport focused on accessibility includes:
- Blind Driving Assists
- One Touch Driving
- Screen narrator
- Audio customization settings and dynamic audio description
- Text-to-speech and speech-to-text
- UI colorblindness modes and contrast
- World colorblindness filters
- Controller remapping
- Subtitles and text scaling
- Disable moving backgrounds
It’s a list that builds off of the efforts made by the team at Playground Games in 2021 with Forza Horizon 5, which also included some notable innovations of its own, such as Sign Language support that was added in post-launch. Halo Infinite was similarly spotlighted for the improvements it made to the accessibility of the Halo franchise, with Movement Assisted Steering options for vehicles and significantly enhanced settings for UI and player outline clarity in-game.
With Forza Motorsport yet to have a release date beyond being slated for launch sometime during 2023, it might be a while before players get their hands on these features for themselves. But if they are effectively implemented, Forza Motorsport might just be the most welcoming racing game yet for an entirely new subset of players.
