Ubisoft Releases Revolutionary Software to Help Color Blind Gamers

Ever since Mario and Luigi could be distinguished only by their red and green outfits, color has played an important role in video games. Ubisoft’s Chroma software attempts to give developers a chance to improve their accessibility for color blind gamers. According to Endgadget.com, the tool “throws a filter over the screen that simulates various types of color blindness. This allows testers to flag accessibility issues in real time.” The software can be downloaded from GitHub for free, and it advertises that it “works on all games.”

Color Blindness Simulation

Chroma is able to simulate three of the main forms of color blindness. It can simulate protanopia and deuteranopia, which make it difficult or impossible to tell the difference between red and green, and it can also simulate tritanopia, which makes it difficult or impossible to tell the difference between colors like “blue and green, purple and red, and yellow and pink.” Since color blindness has no cure, tools like Chroma can help people with color blindness to better enjoy games and feel more included.

Chroma Only Gives Information

While Chroma could be a helpful diagnostic tool, it doesn’t actually fix any issues. It is up to the developers to decide what to do with the information the tool gives, and some issues may be easier to fix than others. Some developers could consider implementing modes with alternate color schemes or brighter colors to assist color blind players. However, for small indie developers, extra modes could be difficult or expensive to implement.

The Future of Color Blind Accessibility

The release of Chroma will hopefully help to raise awareness of how important accessibility is in games. How many developers will actually use Chroma and how many will actually implement accessibility for color blind gamers? That remains to be seen, but perhaps Chroma will help inspire developers to develop software that fixes color blind accessibility issues. In any case, this is another step on the road to making gaming something anyone can enjoy.