Teaming Up for Change: How AbleToPlay Partnered with Games for Change to Curate the 2025 Accessibility Award
We teamed up with Games For Change to curate the 2025 Accessibility Award. Here's the story behind it!
A version of this post originally appeared on the Games For Change blog đź”—
At the 2025 Games for Change Festival, something beautiful bloomed–accessibility took center stage and inclusive gaming held the spotlight. With an annual theme of Designing For Tomorrow, there was no better time to introduce a new kind of Accessibility Award, powered by deep research into the accessibility of the games released over the last year.
We're thrilled to share the story of how AbleToPlay partnered with Games for Change to curate this year’s Accessibility Award, combining our deep accessibility research with the voice of the community to recognize inclusive, thoughtfully-made games that invite players of all abilities to have fun. And in a fitting twist, the winner was Botany Manor, a botanical puzzle game that proves accessible design can flourish when developers plant the seeds of inclusion from the very beginning.
The Ultimate Inclusive Tag-Team
AbleToPlay’s mission of empowering gamers with disabilities to find accessible games aligns perfectly with G4C's commitment to harnessing games for social impact. As we met and discussed what the future of the awards ceremony could look like, one opportunity was clear: gamers want and deserve an accessibility award that goes deep.
What made this partnership particularly exciting was the opportunity to put our extensive accessibility research to work in service of recognizing excellence. With detailed accessibility breakdowns for thousands of games, AbleToPlay's data provided the foundation needed to identify titles that genuinely excel at inclusive design.
This means the hard data, the qualitative research, and the metrics picked the winner.
Curating Excellence with AbleToPlay
Our role in curating the Accessibility Award went beyond simple recommendations. We leveraged our platform's unique Personal Score™ system and comprehensive accessibility breakdowns to identify games that demonstrated exceptional commitment to inclusive design across multiple categories, from hundreds of considerations such as:
- Visual accessibility features like colorblind support, high contrast modes, customizable text sizing, excessive VFX triggers, motion sickness support, and more.
- Motor accessibility options including control remapping, simplified inputs, reduced dexterity requirements, options to skip or bypass quick-time events or button-mashing, reaction times, and other similar support.
- Auditory accessibility support through comprehensive subtitles and captioning, visual cues, audio descriptions, and audio quality of life features.
- Cognitive accessibility aids like clear navigation, customizable difficulty, reduced time pressure, glossaries, hints, and, of course, quality tutorials.
- Mental health support, such as the option to turn off blood, trigger-warnings for intense sequences, and support for various phobias.
- Quality-of-life features that benefit all players while being essential for those with disabilities, such as pausing gameplay, saving at any time, not requiring an internet connection, and more.
These considerations, along with hundreds more, went into our decision.
Meet the Winner: Botany Manor
After much deliberation, weighing the pros and cons of qualitative design choices, quantitative features, player feedback, and the degree to which Botany Manor’s accessibility aligns with best practices, the choice was clear.
The 2025 Games for Change Accessibility Award went to Botany Manor by Balloon Studios, and it's easy to see why this botanical puzzle game stood out from hundreds of qualifying games.
When we looked at the data, Botany Manor immediately stood out for its well-rounded support. Some of the most impactful accessibility support comes in the form of a game’s core design rather than features, and Botany Manor thankfully has both in spades (get it?). The core experience feels seamlessly considered from the player’s perspective, with a multitude of thoughtful details and options around every corner. Rather than accessibility being an afterthought, in Botany Manor, it feels more like the foundation.
When we reached out to a random sampling of community members for thoughts on some of the qualifying finalists, one thing was clear: the chill botanical vibe and easy-to-jump-in controls made Botany Manor a fan favorite, too.
Congratulations again to Balloon Studios for building such a remarkable game!
Why Awards Matter for Accessibility
Recognition like the Games For Change Accessibility Award does more than celebrate individual achievements–it sends a powerful message to the entire industry about the importance of inclusive design. When world-renowned organizations highlight accessibility excellence, it encourages more developers to prioritize these features from the earliest stages of development.
The Future of Accessible Gaming
This partnership with Games for Change represents more than just one award–it's part of a growing movement toward making gaming truly inclusive. As we continue to expand our platform and work with developers to improve accessibility features, collaborations like this help amplify the message that accessible gaming benefits everyone.
We’re thrilled to continue supporting Games for Change in a partnership to use AbleToPlay’s massive accessibility database and platform to help empower gamers and studios alike for years to come.
How You Can Get Involved
Whether you're a player looking for accessible games, a developer wanting to improve your titles' inclusivity, or an industry professional passionate about accessibility, AbleToPlay would love to help!
For developers interested in having their games evaluated for accessibility excellence, our platform provides comprehensive analysis and scoring that can help identify areas for improvement and highlight existing strengths.
For players, creating a free AbleToPlay account lets you discover games that match your specific accessibility needs while contributing valuable feedback to our community.
Celebrating Progress, Driving Change
Our collaboration with Games for Change on the 2025 Accessibility Award represents a significant milestone in recognizing and promoting accessible game design. By combining G4C's platform for social impact recognition with AbleToPlay's comprehensive accessibility data, we've created a model for how industry organizations can work together to drive meaningful change.
As we look toward next year's festival and awards, we're excited to continue this partnership and see how the industry responds to this recognition of accessibility excellence. Every game that prioritizes inclusive design brings us closer to a gaming world where everyone can play their way.
