EA expands free library of accessibility patents to make more games inclusive

Electronic Arts has added 23 new patents to its public library of free accessibility tools, including patents for photosensitivity analysis plugins, intelligent personalised speech recognition, and generating expressive speech audio from text data.

EA said that by making the patents available to developers across the industry, free of charge, it is continuing its commitment to inclusive gaming.

The company is also releasing a Unreal Engine 5 plugin that “enables in-engine use of EA’s photosensitivity analysis tech, IRIS, which was open-sourced as part of last year’s pledge update.” The IRIS plugin helps developers analyse and identify frames that “could potentially impact players who experience photosensitivity” in real-time.

“We believe that games should be accessible to everyone and our industry-leading teams are always looking for new ways to make this a reality,” said Kerry Hopkins, SVP of global affairs at EA.

“By making this technology available to others, we continue to work to enhance accessibility and inclusivity for players around the world by removing unintended barriers to access.”

For more, head to the Electronic Arts accessibility portal, an online resource where “players can learn about the accessibility features in EA’s games, raise concerns and make suggestions for improvements.”