It’s December, meaning it’s the most wonderful time of the year. Yes, I’m cliché and enjoy the holidays for the warmth and celebrations they bring, but today I’m more interested in reflecting on the evolution of accessibility throughout 2025. And thankfully, this year brought improvements to long-standing franchises, as well as surprise additions to the triple-A and indie scenes.
From my perspective, there were no accessibility moments that revolutionized the industry in 2025. Instead, the year demonstrated a continuous evolution of what disabled players have rightfully come to expect when purchasing a new release. In my opinion, no one game has been better than another, especially in terms of innovation, but that’s not to say this year didn’t surprise me in unexpected ways. So, for this Access Designed, let’s explore some of my favorite examples of accessibility during 2025.
Runner-Up: and Roger
This section contains mild spoilers for and Roger.
The inclusion of TearyHand Studio’s and Roger on my list may surprise some. This roughly hour-long visual novel features numerous quick-time events that guide you through the loving memories of Sofia and her husband, Roger, as Sofia succumbs to dementia. Each minigame puts you directly in control of Sofia as she completes everyday tasks like brushing her teeth, making soup, or looking through old photographs. While these may seem mundane activities, Sofia’s dementia makes each simple event feel like a monumental task. And for disabled players, the intensity of the QTEs is exacerbated by the game’s notable lack of accessibility features.
And Roger features no accessibility tools to help you complete the game. There are no alternatives to finishing QTEs, options to skip them, or settings that have the game natively complete them for you like in this year’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows. You are forced to continuously mash or perfectly drag a white button for every single QTE, something that was immensely exhausting with my physical disabilities. Yet, after completing an event within the first chapter that had Sofia push Roger’s hand away by rapidly mashing a button on the screen, I realized its inaccessibility made the experience much more powerful.





