AXSChat with Tara Voelker, Bryce Johnson & Ian Hamilton
Channel: AXSChat
Date: 2016-09-05

This edition of AXSChat we have not one but three special guests to talk about gaming accessibility.


Tara Voelker

Tara Voelker is AAA industry vet, having shipped titles such as Red Faction Guerrilla, Bioshock Infinite, and The Order 1886. Currently, she is working at Turtle Rock Studios as a producer for Evolve Stage 2, having championed the release of accessibility features such as colorblind mode and remappable controls. She is also a passionate accessibility advocate, having served as the IGDA Game Accessibility chairperson during which time she co-authored a White House policy briefing and established accessibility guidelines with Film Victoria.


Bryce Johnson

Bryce Johnson is a designer at Xbox. Back in his homeland, Canada, he designed the first digital library for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. Now he has the greatest job in the world applying the Microsoft Inclusive Design practice to gaming. As a lead in the Xbox Gaming for Everyone initiative he strives to make the Xbox services, hardware, and games inclusive – including designing the assistive technologies for the Xbox One.


Ian Hamilton

Ian Hamilton is an accessibility advocate and consultant, with a background in gaming for preschool children with profound and multiple disabilities. He now works across all areas of the industry, with developers, publishers, academia, platforms, middleware and industry bodies to raise the profile and understanding of accessibility in game development. Through training, auditing and designing solutions, as well as initiatives such as co-authoring a White House policy briefing, organizing awareness raising events, leading work on industry best practice guidelines, and advising on government funding processes.