Mattel makes its games more accessible for colorblind people

🌈 From Uno to Blokus: How Mattel makes its games accessible to color blind people. A lesson in inclusivity in entertainment!

Article written by Amelie. Passionate about board games. Started playing board games around age 1 and hasn’t stopped since. Love board games, cooperative, narrative and others that also end in “tif”. Loves sharing his passion and helping others discover the best and avoid flops.

Amelie

Mattel launches into the accessibility of its games

In the colorful world of board games, a silent revolution is underway. Mattel, the American toy giant, has just launched an ambitious initiative that promises to radically transform the gaming experience for millions of people. Their objective ? Make 80% of their games catalog accessible to color blind people by the end of 2024, then 90% by the end of 2025. An approach that deserves attention.

A quantified ambition for real inclusion

According to the World Health Organization, approximately 350 million people worldwide are affected by color blindness. Faced with this observation, Mattel decided to act. Ray Adler, Vice President and Global Head of Gaming at Mattel, explains: “We have developed custom solutions to ensure that color is not the only way to differentiate cards or components. This is long-term work, but essential for inclusiveness. »

This approach is part of a broader trend in the games industry. Accessibility is becoming a major issue for publishers. It is both a creative challenge and an ethical necessity. We thus remember the Access+ range launched by Asmodee some time ago.

Experts at the helm at Mattel

To carry out this project, Mattel surrounded itself with experts in color vision deficiency and consulted color blind people, including among its own designers. The result ? Tailor-made solutions for each game, with the addition of icons and tactile cues to complement the colors.

Take the example of Uno, Mattel’s flagship game. In its new version, each color is associated with a unique symbol. Thus, red is represented by a circle, blue by a square, green by a triangle and yellow by a diamond. These subtle changes allow colorblind players to fully participate without altering the experience of other players. And yes, I only put “players” and not “players”. It’s desired. I will come back to this below.

Other popular Mattel games are also benefiting from this overhaul. Apples to Apples sees its cards redesigned with distinctive designs for each category. Phase 10 now includes different textures on its maps in addition to colors. As for Blokus, his pieces are now marked with small raised symbols corresponding to each color.

Mattel: A commitment that goes beyond sales

But Mattel’s commitment doesn’t stop at simply adapting its products. The company announced a donation of more than $30,000 worth of newly adapted games to summer camps in the United States, in partnership with the YMCA. This initiative will allow many children, both colorblind and non-colorblind, to discover these inclusive games during their vacations.

This gesture is part of a broader approach by Mattel in favor of accessibility. In 2017, the company had already collaborated with ColorADD, a global organization specializing in accessibility for color blind people, to create the Uno ColorADD deck. In 2019, a Braille version of Uno for visually impaired people was also released.

Color blindness: a little-known reality

To better understand the importance of this initiative, it is essential to look at the reality of color blindness. This anomaly in color perception takes its name from John Dalton, an English chemist who, at the end of the 18^e century, identified its own condition.

Color blindness results from an abnormality in the photoreceptor cells in the retina, called cones. In people with color blindness, one or more types of cones do not function properly, which impairs the perception of certain colors.

There are several forms of color blindness, the most common being confusion between green and red. Other rarer forms exist, such as the confusion between blue and yellow. In extreme cases, some people only see in shades of gray, a condition called achromatopsia.

Color blindness mainly affects men, with a prevalence of 5 to 8% depending on the population, compared to only 0.5% among women. This disparity is explained by the location of the responsible gene on the X chromosome.

The gaming industry is getting in tune

Mattel’s initiative is part of a broader movement in the gaming industry towards more inclusiveness. Other publishers have also taken steps to make their games accessible to colorblind people.

Days of Wonder, for example, adapted its hit Rail Adventures game by associating a unique symbol with each color of train car.

At Space Cowboys, publisher of games like Unlock and Time Stories, we use graphic design software equipped with filters simulating different types of color blindness. A company spokesperson explained to us: “We are creating a version of our games with the most disabling form of color blindness and checking whether it can still be played. It is a demanding but necessary process. »