Addressing Dyslexia in Gaming with Lowtek

The conversation around accessibility in gaming has been gaining momentum over the past couple of years. While both AAA and indie games have started to incorporate more features for a wider range of abilities, dyslexia remains a largely overlooked issue despite its prevalence. In the UK, approximately 10% of the population has dyslexia, which translates to around 6.3 million people. The European Dyslexia Association estimates that between 5% and 12% of the global population is affected by dyslexia. Alastair Low, who is dyslexic himself, has been working tirelessly to educate the gaming industry about the impact of dyslexia. His Unity plugin, Dislectek, allows developers to add dyslexic-friendly text-to-speech options to their games. Recently, Low won a Scottish Games Award for Dislectek and was nominated for a TIGA Award. 'It's a universal tool that enables text-to-speech functionality in games using the default Unity text or TextMeshPro,' Low explains. 'It can grab text from anywhere on the screen, pause the game, and read the text using the native operating system's text-to-speech functionality.' Low's journey into game development began during the pandemic, when he decided to leave his job as an artist and animator at Ninja Kiwi to start his own company. At the time, he was working on Dislectek and had just completed a successful Kickstarter campaign for Flea, a platformer for the NES. He also released A Familiar Fairytale: Dyslexic Text-Based Adventure, an experimental project aimed at showing the frustration that comes with being dyslexic. 'It was less about showing what dyslexic people see and more about conveying how it feels,' Low says. 'And it was effective, as I saw parents reading it slowly and kids' eyes lighting up when they realized that's how they read too.' Low points to an article by Kotaku editor John Walker, who expressed his frustration with A Familiar Fairytale after a few chapters. 'That's the point,' Low says. 'If you were dyslexic, you would give up too.' Low's dyslexia has significantly influenced the type of games he creates. He mentions that his interest in making 'old games' stems from the fact that they are often simpler and don't require much text. He is currently working on a puzzle platformer called Playhead, which allows players to rewind and fast-forward through the game. Low believes that text-to-speech is the primary solution for making games more accessible to dyslexic players. 'It needs to encompass the entirety of the game, including the UI,' he says. 'Even some games that are fully voiced may not have voiced menus or large passages of text.' He also suggests the possibility of having text available in 'dyslexic English,' a language designed to be simpler and more accessible for dyslexic individuals. However, Low acknowledges that implementing text-to-speech can be challenging. He cites The Last of Us Part 2 and Assassin's Creed Valhalla as examples of games that have done it well. Dyslexia not only affects one's ability to play games but also their ability to work in the gaming industry. Low notes that game engines like Unity and Unreal can be complex and difficult to navigate, even for non-dyslexic individuals. 'I wish there were more user-friendly documentation and video tutorials for dyslexic people,' he says. 'YouTube has been an invaluable resource for visual presentations and tutorials.' Low emphasizes that dyslexia-friendly fonts are not a one-size-fits-all solution and that the industry needs to move beyond this approach. 'It's a spectrum, and there will never be a catch-all solution,' he says. 'I just want to make some change in the industry. If someone else picks up my idea and runs with it, I'm happy.'