bisoft has made several noteworthy strides in the fight for video-game accessibility today, as they announced the launch of Handigo The Game – a “serious game” created in partnership with Handicap International. The game was conceived as part of the charity’s new “Ability Together” campaign, and is positioned as a tool to raise understanding of difficulties encountered on a daily basis by disabled individuals worldwide.

The game – created by Ubisoft free of charge – consists of three mini-games that each represent a different type of impairment. Every levels ends with a message intended to help the player learn to distinguish between disabilities and understand common everyday obstacles.

Following the debut of the game, Ubisoft made an even bigger announcement when they revealed that they have committed to include subtitles in all of their in-house produced video games from this point forward. Ubisoft stated that they will be modifying some of their game engines in order to accomplish this, and will begin introducing subtitles to the development process at the conception of every new title. They will also try to include subtitles in games already well into production when possible. The first subtitled Ubisoft games to release will include Far Cry 2, Prince of Persia and Shaun White Snowboarding.

I believe that Ubisoft should be applauded for taking this step, and for making the decision a public promise. Ubisoft took some flack from the accessibility community for not including subtitles in Assassins Creed, and it is good to know that the company has listened to consumer requests and accounted for them. Hopefully Ubisoft will act as a pioneer in this regard and will encourage other game developers to follow suit. For more information on video-game accessibility, check out one of our past features here.

If you are interested in playing Handigo the Game, check it out here.