Xbox makes Forza Motorsport playable for gamers with visual impairments

The upcoming racing game Forza Motorsport will have various accessibility options intended for gamers with visual or physical disabilities, among others. The options should make the game more accessible and playable for the target group.

Thanks to the various Blind Driving Assists, the game according to Xbox’ Turn 10 Studios fully playable for the blind and partially sighted. The accessibility options rely on audio notifications and signals, for example by sounding a warning when the car is about to leave the road or by panning the engine sounds left or right to indicate where the car is going. Indications for accelerating, braking, shifting and overtaking should also assist the visually impaired player when driving. The systems were developed in collaboration with consultant Brandon Cole, who has been blind all his life.

Furthermore, all kinds of systems have been implemented that convert visual parts of Forza Motorsport to audio. Think of text-to-speech, verbal descriptions of in-game videos and a voice that provides information about the condition of the car and the race.

For gamers with a physical disability, Turn 10 Studios has made it possible to enable or disable all kinds of assists. The developer calls this One Touch Driving, where the player can adjust button functions at his own discretion. These options are an extra layer on top of customizing the controller layout. In this way, people who, for example, have difficulty pressing several buttons at the same time or have difficulty applying a lot of pressure on a button, should be given the opportunity to tailor the controller input to their specific physical skills.

As far as we know, all accessibility options will be released immediately when Forza Motorsport is available in stores, although it is not yet clear when exactly that will be. Based on recent wording from Turn 10 Studios, the game appears to have been delayed, although no official release date has been announced so far. The racing game will be released for the Xbox Series X and S, Steam, Xbox Game Pass and via the Cloud Gaming option of Microsoft’s gaming subscription.