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Sign Language Support Comes to Forza Horizon 5 - 1st March
- Thread starter Gowans
- Start date
OP
OP
This was announced end of last year but great to see it coming tomorrow and also well worth watching the 7min video explaining the journey.
MS making accessibility such a big focus has been such a great thing for the industry as a whole, with more and more companies helping to improve things in general.
Long may it continue, and get better and better for all!
Long may it continue, and get better and better for all!
Real question and pardon my ignorance. How/why does this replace simple text on screen/subtitles?
The video goes into it, there are substantial differences between written English and sign languages such that native ASL/BSL speakers have to do extra work to interpret captions and this can distract from the enjoyment of the game.
This is one hell of a feature. It's heartening to me that AAA dollars are being spent to lead the way on accessibility features far beyond what anybody else is attempting in the space.
The first person in the video explains it a bit, it's two different languages.
So basically if your first language is ASL (in this case), you still need to process the text in English.
Is this the first AAA game to incorporate sign language?
Everyone should learn sign language at school IMO.
Everyone should learn sign language at school IMO.
I have never considered that the spoken/written language would be a deaf person's second language. In hindsight, it makes perfect sense that interpreters would be more comfortable to read.
So glad to see accessibility features become a serious focus in games the last few years.
So glad to see accessibility features become a serious focus in games the last few years.
Wow, this is great. Microsofts pushes for a11y are sorely needed in the medium (avid XAC user here). I wonder if eventually we could have 3d characters do the signing without the need for a video-captured overlay, but since the video said it relies on many subtle cues, I guess we're not quite there yet...
Incredible nontheless and should be the standard for coming big-budget titles!
Incredible nontheless and should be the standard for coming big-budget titles!
Also not sure if I missed it, but a lot of SL you use your visual peripheries to interpret it. It's actually bad form to just stare at someone's hands, so this could help not having to just stare at text as well.
Hard agree. It was one of my favorite languages to learn and it could be incredibly useful for everyone just to have some understanding of it. It's really great when you encounter someone that is hard of hearing (and knows ASL) and can communicate easily with them. It'd also make driving so much more enjoyable, just to be able to sign to other drivers instead of just the ONE sign people use.
Same here, I just never considered that written text would be harder for a deaf person than it would be for me, but it makes sense. It goes to show how just knowing about other people's condition/culture/etc is one thing while experiencing it is completely different.
This is cool as fuck. Accessibility should be at the forefront of every studio's minds and Microsoft has been doing fantastic with pushing it. Hope more developers take note of stuff like this. I know a very minimal amount of sign language but it'd be cool to learn more one day.
Also great for younger people. Kids start learning sign language young and it can far easier than quickly moving written English for younger kids that are hard of hearing.
I didn't realize ASL was so much different from English. In addition to this accessibility push generally allowing more people to play and fully enjoy games, I think it's really educational for everyone (myself included) who just assumed subtitles were enough of a solution for something like this.
And if you're not watching it, they've got BSL too, which is considerably more different from ASL than the 2 respective audio/written Englishs are.
I do see one issue they don't go into, Forza has a tendency to dispense exposition "mid-flight" as it were. I'm hoping there's a way to pause the game to see it because attempting to set a 3 star time while watching it. Also a problem with subtitles as well but it feels more so in this case.
This was great. I love these companies that are paving the path. The truth is that it's not easy to do accessibility right and someone needs to bite the bullet and then be an open resource for other studios . Great on Microsoft for pushing this so hard (and all the other studios, like Naughty Dog).
