bevy-a11y

Bevy 0.19 — game accessibility

Accessibility is a cross-cutting product requirement. Start during input, UI, audio, camera, narrative, multiplayer, and save-system design; retrofitting only labels and captions will not solve inaccessible game mechanics.

Standard of work

Use all four layers:

Xbox Accessibility Guidelines as the public game-specific engineering baseline.
WCAG 2.2 criteria, aiming at AAA where they transfer meaningfully to game UI/content.
Platform-holder requirements and certification guidance for every shipping target.
Usability testing with disabled players using their own assistive technology.

WCAG AAA is not a universal native-game certification, and automated checks do not establish conformance. Record scope, exceptions, devices, test builds, findings, and remediation evidence. See requirements.

Ship these foundations first

Every gameplay and UI action is device-neutral, remappable, conflict-checked, persistable, and available through menus without a pointer.
Input supports hotplug, simultaneous devices, multiple controllers per player, unknown controls, adjustable deadzones/sensitivity, and digital analog alternatives.
Holds, repeated presses, chords, rapid timing, and precision input have toggle, timing, or assist alternatives.
UI has deterministic focus order, visible focus, semantic roles/names/states, scalable text/layout, adequate contrast, and no information conveyed only by colour.
Dialogue and meaningful audio have synchronized closed captions; meaningful visual events have narration/audio-description or equivalent cues.
Camera shake, motion blur, flashes, auto-motion, and other vestibular/photosensitive effects have safe defaults or independent controls.
Accessibility settings are available before first gameplay and remain usable after rebinding, language changes, disconnects, and save migration.

Bevy UI semantics and focus

DefaultPlugins includes InputFocusPlugin. Add navigation plugins explicitly and put the accessible name on the same entity as the interactive control:

use bevy::{
    input_focus::{
        directional_navigation::DirectionalNavigationPlugin,
        tab_navigation::TabNavigationPlugin,
    },
    prelude::*,
    ui::auto_directional_navigation::AutoDirectionalNavigation,
};

fn main() {
    App::new()
        .add_plugins((
            DefaultPlugins,
            TabNavigationPlugin,
            DirectionalNavigationPlugin,
        ))
        .add_systems(Startup, setup)
        .run();
}

fn setup(mut commands: Commands) {
    commands.spawn(Camera2d);
    commands.spawn((
        Button,
        AccessibleLabel::new("Start game"),
        AutoDirectionalNavigation::default(),
        children![Text::new("Start game")],
    ));
}

Focus, hover, pointer capture, and screen-reader focus are related but not identical. Test keyboard, D-pad/stick, switch-style scanning, touch, pointer, and a real screen reader. Use AccessKit nodes for custom widgets and expose changing value/state—not only a static label. See screen readers and navigation.

Adaptive and accessibility controllers

Adaptive controllers normally arrive through standard gamepad/HID mappings. Do not gate features on a brand, vendor ID, or a particular device name. Treat every Gamepad entity as capabilities and bindings:

use bevy::prelude::*;

fn read_gamepads(gamepads: Query<(Entity, &Gamepad)>) {
    for (entity, gamepad) in &gamepads {
        let move_axis = gamepad.left_stick();
        let activate = gamepad.just_pressed(GamepadButton::South);
        let extra = gamepad.just_pressed(GamepadButton::Other(0));
        let _sample = (entity, move_axis, activate, extra);
    }
}

With default-features = false, native discovery requires Bevy's bevy_gilrs feature, not only gamepad. leafwing-input-manager 0.21 is a compatible optional action layer, but it does not create accessible settings, UI, persistence, or mechanic alternatives for you. See input and adaptive controllers.

Requirements by access need

Area	Non-negotiable implementation
Blind/low vision	semantic UI, full non-pointer navigation, narration/audio description, text scale, strong focus/contrast, non-colour cues
Deaf/hard of hearing	closed captions with speaker and meaningful sound cues, visual/haptic equivalents, independent mix controls
Motor	full remapping, simultaneous devices, no mandatory holds/mashing/chords, timing/aim/movement assists, pauseability where possible
Cognitive/learning	consistent navigation, plain language, objective history, tutorials, adjustable pacing/difficulty, low-distraction modes
Speech/communication	no voice-only requirement, accessible text chat, speech-to-text/text-to-speech where communication is core
Photosensitive/vestibular	flash safety, reduced motion, shake/FOV/blur controls, no essential parallax/auto-motion

Read visual, cognitive, and motion and captions, audio, and communication.

Implementation gates

Run scripts/audit_input_map.py on the action manifest before input freezes.
Run scripts/check_contrast.py on every theme/state pair; sample image/video backgrounds separately.
Run scripts/validate_captions.py on source and localized VTT/SRT files.
Execute the manual matrix in testing and evidence.
Do not advertise accessibility feature tags until the shipping build and supported input/platform combinations have been verified.

Script formats and CI examples are in tooling.

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