Xbox releases New Accessibility Updates, Halo Infinite Accessibility Features Revealed with other improvements

Xbox through an announcement on Saturday said it is proud of the work it has done to make gaming more accessible for the estimated more than 400 million gamers with disabilities across the globe. 

According to Xbox's Xbox Accessibility Showcase, they will be celebrating accessible gaming and the Gaming & Disability community throughout the month. Let’s look at the new accessibility updates announced for Xbox.

New Game Accessibility Feature Tags for the Microsoft Store on Xbox

Accessibility Features Coming to Halo Infinite

343 Industries joined the Xbox Accessibility Showcase to announce and walk through new accessible and customizable features that will be available in Halo Infinite when it launches on December 8, 2021.

Refreshed Accessibility Spotlight & New Accessibility Features

Xbox said it has renamed the “Ease of Access” section on the console menu to “Accessibility,” to make it even easier to discover the accessibility features available on your console and to customize your experience.

In addition, a new Accessibility spotlight page in the Microsoft Store on Xbox will highlight games that have numerous game accessibility feature tags, have been recognized by the Gaming & Disability community, and/or demonstrate innovative accessibility capabilities. 

This page will allow you to investigate titles by feature category, such as Audio or Visual features. And, in the coming months, you will be able to filter and search in the Microsoft Store on Xbox by one or more of these features to find your perfect game.

Some additional accessibility features announced are

Quick Settings: The Quick Settings menu has been added to the Xbox Guide. This enables users to quickly toggle accessibility features without having to leave their game or app. It's also useful for families or if you share a console with others who have different accessibility needs: use quick settings to quickly turn features on or off, depending on who is currently using the console.

Color Filters: Later this month, new and improved colour filters will be available for Xbox Series X|S, allowing those with colorblindness or colour vision deficiency to explore more current games as well as titles from the Xbox back catalogue that was previously colorblind inaccessible. This feature will also make future games more accessible to colorblind players.
The filters allow users to customize the visual experience and distinguish between colors that may otherwise be difficult.

Night Mode Display: Another system-wide update coming to Xbox consoles is a suite of settings that adjusts light sources to help you get a better night’s sleep and support gamers with light sensitivity. 

The new Night Mode feature allows users to reduce and customise the amount of light coming from the display to which your Xbox is connected, such as your TV. Users can dim the power button on their controller as well as the power light on the console. Night Mode on Xbox Series X|S adds a customizable blue light filter to your display in addition to dimming.

Globalization of Speech-to-Text / Text-to-Speech Chat Settings: Gamers all over the world now have the option to set their preference for Game Transcription. In the coming weeks, gamers all over the world will be able to customise their preferences for Speech-to-Text and Text-to-Speech chat in Settings, under "Accessibility -> Game and Chat Transcription."

Lastly, Xbox has also updated the feature set on the Xbox Wireless Controller, Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 and the Xbox Adaptive Controller to include next-gen features including better cross-device connectivity and reduced latency.