The Xbox Play team has daily streams on the main Xbox Twitch channel. Since April, the team has partnered with Sorenson (a communications company with the largest global interpreter base) to launch a dedicated ASL channel with around 25 hours of streams a week. This follows the inclusion of sign language support in Forza Horizon 5 - both American and British.
The news comes as part of Microsoft’s wider accessibility features on Xbox in celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day. An Xbox Wire post from Anita Mortaloni, director of accessibility at Xbox, details new features and emphasises Microsoft’s commitment to accessibility. A new update allows players to search and filter by accessibility features tags in the Xbox store. These were added last year, including the likes of adjustable difficulty, visual options, and input remapping. The Xbox Accessibility Guidelines have been updated to include mental health best practices, including information on representation and content warnings. There’s also a new Gaming Accessibility Resource Hub for developers. For Minecraft, the Education Edition has a new World in partnership with the PEEL school, where students can learn more about identifying and eliminating accessibility barriers. “Nothing should come between players and the games they love, which is why we are dedicated to finding accessibility solutions that help eliminate barriers to play and make it easier to connect with others,” said Mortaloni. “In celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Day, Xbox is thrilled to share some ways players can connect with the community and creators, new resources for game creators and more accessibility features available for players.” You can read the full post on Xbox Wire.
