Sony Entertainment/Naughty Dog A high-contrast mode makes The Last of Us II more accessible to visually impaired gamers. Last month, the highly anticipated video game The Last Of Us Part II was released for the Playstation 4. Both installments tell the story of a post-apocalyptic, zombie infested future — the original game was lauded for its rich story and compelling characters. But the legacy of this new follow-up might be just how many people are actually able to play it. People like long-time gamer Steve Saylor. "Well mostly when I play video games, it was like watching my brother play video games," he says. Saylor has a vision impairment, which makes it hard to see the things video games expect him to see. "Being able to see text on the screen or look in the distance and see whether I'm seeing an enemy or a tree is really difficult." Like Saylor, many gamers with disabilities struggle to make it all the way through popular video game releases, because few are designed with them in mind. "All my life I thought I sucked at video games, but in reality, it was games that sucked for me," he says. For years, accessibility advocates have been begging for developers to consider their needs when making video games. And some are starting to listen, like Emilia Schatz, a lead game designer at Naughty Dog, the studio behind The Last of Us Part II. "We could make our game — which requires things like aiming, and running and climbing and jumping and things like that — how do we make it so that if you're a player who is blind, can you play our game?" she asks. Sony Entertainment/Naughty Dog A menu of audio cues that can guide visually impaired players. One major tool is the text-to-speech option, which helps a vision-impaired player like Saylor by reading all of the game's text out loud. Just as crucial is the enhanced listening mode, which functions like a sort of sonar that helps locate enemies on screen. Sign Up For Breaking News Alerts Stay on top of the latest stories and developments, sent when news breaks. E-mail address SUBSCRIBE By subscribing, you agree to NPR's terms of use and privacy policy . NPR may share your name and email address with your NPR station. See Details . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. YouTube Audio cues help players locate enemies. Schatz says one of the challenges in designing these features was the range of potential players to consider. "Vision accesibility is a huge spectrum too. Gamers who are low vision, gamers who need glasses to see the TV — there's a huge range there." Because of that, Matthew Gallant, lead systems designer at Naughty Dog, says consultants and playtesters have told him the more options, the better. "Players said they didn't fully trust us to configure those options for them," he says with a laugh. "But they really valued being able to go into the menus and fine-grain control the features to their likings." So there are many more choices — over 60 fully customizable options for vision impaired, motor impaired, and hearing impaired players. Microsoft's Solomon Romney, who has a partial hand, demonstrates the Xbox adaptive controller at a 2018 shareholders meeting. Both the Naughty Dog developers and Saylor acknowledge that while The Last of Us II is a big step forward on the software side, the hardware matters too. This game is a Sony exclusive, and it's not always Sony that has been leading the way with accessibility. "Microsoft has really pushed forward for accessibility for several years now, and I'm really excited to see what they do next," Saylor says. The highly customizable Xbox Adaptive controller is one example of this, designed for gamers with motor disabilities who struggle with a standard controller. But for Saylor, who was consulted for The Last of Us II , this still feels like a huge victory. In a video that went viral just a few weeks ago, he breaks down in tears when booting up the game for the first time, seeing all available accessibility options. Behind that emotional moment were years of hopeful expectation — finally realized. "It was just thinking about all the hard work that went into this, all the hard work the accesibility community has put in for years," Saylor says. "Now everything is there. And it works." This story was edited for radio and adapted for the Web by Petra Mayer.

📷 View photos MoreDayton ‘Wheels’ Jones, pro Killer Instinct player (Michael Martin) Dayton “Wheels” Jones has qualified for two Killer Instinct World Cups (a 32-player finale to the Killer Instinct Ultra Tour similar to Capcom Cup and the Capcom Pro Tour) and has finished in numerous top 8s at major tournaments, including a dramatic second place finish at Combo Breaker 2017. It hasn’t been easy, but his confidence and determination have served him well thus far. He has a bright competitive fighting game career ahead of him. A 22-year-old from Milwaukee, Wisconsin Wheels found his calling in competitive fighting games. Wheels loves sports, but with a condition that prevents him from competing in physical activities, he couldn’t throw a football, dunk a basketball, or hit a home run like other kids. Instead, he learned to throw fireballs and Dragon Punches. And that became his competitive outlet. Growing up with SMA Type 2 Wheels was born with a genetic disease called Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 2 (SMA.) SMA affects the “part of the nervous system that controls voluntary muscle movement,” according to the Muscular Dystrophy Association . Muscles don’t receive signals from the nerve cells, which are located in the spine. As a result, the muscles atrophy due to inactivity. The severity of SMA Type 2 has left Wheels bound to a wheelchair; hence the nickname. His arms and legs aren’t as developed as the average adult his age. His hands aren’t strong enough to hold his Xbox One controller. He has to play with it on a hard surface sitting on his lap. “My muscles are very weak. I’ll be honest, I’m pretty well off considering how bad people usually get. I could be a lot worse right now. I need a lot of physical assistance when it comes to moving around,” Wheels told Yahoo Esports. Wheels said he’s always been confident and maintained a positive attitude, despite his severe physical disabilities. He’s never felt out of place asking to play games, whether it was with the neighborhood kids when he was younger or with other players in PandaXGaming’s 24 hour Street Fighter IV lobbies. “I never felt like I had to be accepted in my life. I just kind of did things. Either you want to hang out with me or you don’t. I never felt like people avoided me or thought about things like that. We’re going to play or we’re not going to play,” Wheels said. Killer Instinct competitive spark His introduction to competition came back in 2010 when he saw Evolution Championship Series on the now defunct G4TV. Wheels admits he dabbled in competitive Street Fighter IV but wasn’t very good at it. But Killer Instinct’s reveal at Evo 2013 planted the seed for Wheels to become a serious competitive player. “I knew about Killer Instinct because my stepfather loved it. I followed tournaments for it because I planned on picking the game up,” Wheels said. “I had more fun with Killer Instinct. It was a breath of fresh air to play something different. KI still has one of the best netcodes. Playing and practicing wasn’t easy in Street Fighter IV and it’s not easy in Street Fighter V either. A good netcode is a determining factor if I’m going to put time in a game or not.” Wheels’ first major tournament ever was Ultimate Fighting Game Tournament 10 in 2014, its final year. Coincidentally, UFGT was the tournament organized by Adam “Keits” Heart before he moved on to work as a designer at Iron Galaxy on Killer Instinct. Since then, Wheels has been to various Midwest tournaments, including Combo Breaker (which is the spiritual successor to UFGT) and Frosty Faustings. As he’s competed in more tournaments, Wheels has risen up the ranks in Killer Instinct. He qualified for Killer Instinct World Cup, which took place in January 2016. It was the first world championship for the game organized by Ultra Arcade owner Brandon “Xbox Viking” Alexander, who also helps sponsor players like Wheels and top Killer Instinct player Ken “Bass” Armas to events. Unfortunately, Wheels couldn’t travel to the event in San Antonio and he had to forfeit his spot in the tournament. “I was bummed out that year. A month before it, I got really sick so I wasn’t able to go,” Wheels said. “I had to redeem myself from last year. I thought I would’ve done really well. At the time, I felt I was better than a lot of players and I was really upset I couldn’t make it. I felt like it was a waste and I had to sit at home and watch.”