Image via Valve
Steam will soon allow players search for games based on accessibility features—and developers can start preparing for that new functionality immediately.
Valve explained the Steam store and desktop client will eventually allow users to search for titles with specific accessibility options such as narrated game menus, subtitle options, chat speech-to-text, camera comfort, colour alternatives, and more.
To ensure widespread support, Valve is encouraging developers to outline the accessibility options included in their projects on Steamworks. The company has also rolled out a new accessibility-support questionnaire to help developers effectively describe and self-identify how their games support accessibility.
"If your game has accessibility features, you can now enter that information in the Steamworks 'edit store' section for your app," explained Valve in a blog post. "Later in the year (once we've given developers time to work on it from their end) we'll start sharing the resulting information with players in the Steam store and Steam desktop client."
Valve highly recommends Steam developers support new search feature
The company will roll out a few updates to the Steam store and desktop client "later this year" to expose that information.
As well as being able to search for titles based on specific accessibility features, Steam users will also be able to view the accessibility features for individual titles on the right hand side of the store page.
Valve noted that developers won't be required to add accessibility information for their Steam releases, but said the practice is "highly recommended."
"We've worked to make it as easy as possible for developers to indicate these features are available by using feedback to standardize these options as much as possible," added the company.
