Last Thursday, in Madrid's Carrera de San Gerónimo, 312 congressmen agreed to reform article 49 of the Spanish Constitution and eliminate the term “disabled.” Coincidences of life, 137 kilometers away, in Cuenca, the (as far as the writer knows) the first International Festival of Inclusive Video Games (FIVI) was inaugurated, which lasted until Saturday.
There are more than 3 billion video game players in the world. Of them, about 200 million suffer from some disability. It is a succulent market to which large companies dedicate more and more efforts (the great accessible Xbox controller has just been added to the Play Station) and which has implications in the world real. Because we have already talked before about how games often involve technical advances that are then transferred to the real world. In the case at hand, it is as easy as asking any association that promotes inclusive video games (Ga11y, ArsGames, ONCE itself…) how the technological advances that video games develop for the disabled not only help them enjoy leisure like any person, but how they help them develop a lot of skills and abilities that later serve them in their family, work or social life.
During those three days, the Fermín Caballero library in Cuenca was the scene of all kinds of workshops and presentations on gamification and awareness with inclusive video games, interactive workshops with hundreds of attendees, accessible works tournaments such as the driving game Forza Motorsport and the fighting game Mortal Kombat I. In addition, of course, there were prizes for the works that have best done their homework in that field during the last year. It was a success.
“The involvement of the people has been wonderful, that the press is talking about the subject, that there have been so many volunteers,” says the promoter of the event, Sergio Vera, a teacher, blind since he was 18 years old and one of the most tireless fighters in Spain when it comes to disseminating and fight for accessibility in video games. With the first edition successfully closed, Vera is already starting to investigate the games, peripherals and programs that will have a place in the second edition of the festival. And during this year the games and consoles used for this first edition will be kept by another of the project's promoters, Delia Millán, to create an inclusive video game club in Cuenca so that whoever wants can join.
The awards given also helped to know what the great advances in accessibility have been in 2023. If you ask Vera which game has done the most for accessibility in recent months, she is clear: Forza Motorsport. “Being able to play force no hands, just elbows; that there is also help for the blind… Involving the disabled in the sensation of driving is really a giant step,” says Vera, although she indicates that in force It is not about arriving and knowing how to play, but rather it requires patience and skill. Quite the opposite of another of the winners of the event: Mortal Kombat I and its combats for the blind and sighted with their eyes covered. The accessible tournaments of these two games provided some of the best moments of the entire festival.
Tomorrow GAconf award winners to be revealed (Game accessibility Conference, one of the most powerful initiatives internationally in terms of video games and accessibility) last year. Vera, Millán and everyone else involved will be attentive to see what they have to bring to next year's edition of FIVI. I hope all video game lovers in the world are also attentive.
![Some of the festival's speakers, with Sergio Vera in the center (in blue).](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/HcOns9mqGOfr4HLEMaMeM1wlaBs=/414x0/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/AZR2E4HN2NFWTFJE4PVPRWAUVA.jpeg)
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