2022 was a bumper year for games accessibility, with more and more studios employing full time accessibility team leads, awards shows celebrating and introducing more accessibility awards, and a continued conversation from indies to AAA about how we can improve. 

To celebrate, each year, from Global Accessibility Awareness Day,  Accessibility Unlocked runs an annual month-long jam - AccessJam! Despite Accessibility Unlocked being focused on Australia & New Zealand, this jam is open to participants around the world!

Accessibility Unlocked is a  a resource and connecting body to industry and those outside it. Our intersections and understanding of accessibility needs are limited to our personal experiences - which while broad, don’t cover every potential need a developer may have, and every person is different. We aim to connect people to the right people for the right conversations, and the right resources. As a volunteer run organisation, we provide a starting point, can answer questions you may be uncomfortable or unsure about asking publicly, and point you to the right people for questions we can’t or shouldn’t answer.

This jam will run for a month from GAAD (May 19th for AU/NZ, May 18th for US etc) to give you adequate time to make a game, big or small, that explores accessibility in a way that suits you best. You can work as an individual or in a group - there are no rules for how this jam must be tackled, only things you are **encouraged** to do. You can make a physical game, twine game, or even upload a recording of you telling your story. Be as creative as you like and make this jam work for you.

You might make:

1. A game about your experiences with disability - it's as broad or as abstract as you want or need it to be. 

 2. A game that does not tell a story about disability, but you implement mechanics or options to make your game accessible to more players. It might be a simple Bitsy game where you ensure it's accessible to all players who are colourblind, through to implementing control remapping or tackling a feature you haven't tried before. 

 3. A tool specifically for an accessibility feature - a palette generator, subtitle creator, options manager for Unity - the list goes on!

If you're struggling for ideas, you can work off our optional theme - Community.

This jam will not be ranked, but we may spotlight some of the games. We really encourage you to experiment with making your game as accessible as possible - whether in storytelling, options, type of game, content - anything.

We know that tackling accessibility in games can be daunting - especially as an abled developer! This is a chance for you to hone your skills, learn more about how to implement accessibility, hear stories from disabled developers and players, and ask questions in a space that's safe and wants to see you learn and succeed. 

We highly recommend looking at Able Gamers APX Design Patterns, as well as the Game Accessibility Guidelines and the IGEA Accessibility Resource Pack to help kickstart your ideas.

We hope you have a great time with AccessJam!