Services giant Keywords is now providing accessibility quality assurance (AQA) testing.

To start with, 30 members of staff will be providing this testing capacity across Canada, Poland, Mexico and India. They will be doing "rapid 'audits'" of a game's content, as well as long-term 'cycle-testing'.

AQA testers will be providing what are called 'barrier reports', as well as an indication of how badly this barrier will impact disabled players. Barriers are also categorised to make it easier for specialists to report these issues to developers.

“AQA is the bringing together of Keywords’ QA professionals and our subject matter experts at Player Research, to build a new testing capability that’s fit to radically improve the accessibility of games at a global scale,” said the MD of Player Research, Sebastian Long (pictured).

Accessibility consultant Ian Hamilton, who worked on Keywords AQA offering, added: “It's no coincidence that companies excelling at accessibility — Xbox, Naughty Dog and Ubisoft, among others — have developers in dedicated accessibility QA roles. QA is a lynchpin of accessibility. But it's not something most studios have had access to, limited to in-house teams concentrated at just a few companies. Having this kind of resource and specialist expertise now available as service will make a profound difference to the industry, on our ability to deliver the kind of experiences we want our players to have.”

Disclaimer: Alex Calvin is a freelance writer and photographer who has worked with Player Research in the past