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Electronic Arts (EA) has announced that six more patents have been added to its accessibility patent pledge.
The pledge was first launched back in August 2021, and allows other developers free access to accessibility-related patents and technologies developed in-house at EA, who say they are sharing it as part of their “ongoing commitment to positive play and to reducing or eliminating as many barriers to access as possible in video games”.
The patents added include a machine learning system for improving a player’s controller configuration and helping them to discover accessibility settings, as well as a haptic feedback technology that helps to communicate content displayed on a screen to a player through vibration signals.
They also include technologies that make voice interaction and touchscreen interactions easier, as well as a diagnostic system that can identify color-blind conditions and adjust accessibility settings as necessary.
On top of these patents, EA is making Fonttik open source. Fonttik helps to determine whether text in video content meets size and contrast ratio criteria, helping to ensure that it can be read by people with vision conditions.
“Innovation, creativity and inclusivity are fundamental to who we are and when we launched the accessibility patent pledge last year, we were humbled by the positive feedback we received, both from the industry and our players. Everyone at EA truly believes that nothing should come between our players and our shared love of video games, and so we’re pleased to be able to keep adding more of our latest pioneering accessibility solutions to the pledge.” said Chris Bruzzo, chief experience officer at Electronic Arts.
“When an idea from one of our incredible teams has the potential to help reduce or eliminate accessibility barriers and empower our players, we want to get it out there for others to use, even if we’ve not used it yet. This sharing of ideas and innovation for the good of our video gaming family is at the heart of our Accessibility Patent Pledge.”
