https://www.finnegan-mcelwain.com/blog daily 0.75 2026-03-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/677e1d5231dd3a22b68bff04/1761521276466-B9Z16S03BFDTXIZZ7O9Q/me_i.png https://www.finnegan-mcelwain.com/blog/what-accessibility-means-to-me monthly 0.5 2026-03-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/677e1d5231dd3a22b68bff04/d6cc95d6-c9af-4370-8db5-d9f7c3582f82/Lil%27Me.jpg Blog - What Accessibility Means to Me Growing up, I never felt like a gamer. I would watch countless hours of gameplay and lore videos on YouTube, so I would know more than almost anyone around me about video games. However, I found that many games I would try to play weren’t built for me. I had a hard time with games that needed me to be exact with my movements, games with lots of words, or games that were particularly punishing. Daily life as a kid was hard for me. I have dyslexia and ADHD, so it was a daily battle to get any assignments done. Everything around me, including myself, told me that I wasn’t as smart as everyone else. I wanted to escape to a world where that didn’t matter, where I could just be myself and not be punished for how my brain worked. Yet, many of the available games focused on punishing the player until they were a master. I am now at a point where I play hundreds of hours on games, but I only got here thanks to some wonderful game designers who focused on making experiences for players like me. I now feel like there are games that I can fully escape to. This has inspired me to make other experiences for people like me, people for whom many games just aren’t made for. https://www.finnegan-mcelwain.com/blog/dyslexia-font monthly 0.5 2026-03-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/677e1d5231dd3a22b68bff04/e214c462-be7b-4c6a-951e-c1150fdc4f90/OpenDyslexicEx.png Blog - Why I Hate Dyslexia Specific Fonts - Make it stand out Example of OpenDyslexic https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/677e1d5231dd3a22b68bff04/1770937081622-U2A8FCG2A8O0UOYIH04M/Lil%27Me.jpg Blog - Why I Hate Dyslexia Specific Fonts - This information is not hidden, it is just not taught. https://www.finnegan-mcelwain.com/blog/cognitive-overload monthly 0.5 2026-03-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/677e1d5231dd3a22b68bff04/1771539938452-5HSV1028WSV622F1Q3B2/unsplash-image-QwoNAhbmLLo.jpg Blog - The Cognitive Overload of Existence My cognitive issues are the main reason I did not feel games were made for me. It took years for me to realize and unpack the fact that I had been taught that the games that I did enjoy playing, and were cognitively accessible to me, were “not real games”. I would play hours of Animal Crossing or Sims and still internalize that I was not a “real gamer” because I didn’t play games like Elden Ring. This meant that I didn’t feel welcome in gaming spaces, even though I consumed an insane amount of video game lore, and would play 2-6 hours of games everyday. It took me going to a game school to realize why some of my favorite games were accessible to me, and why some other games that were seen as “the standard”. Some of my favorite being BotW, TotK, Animal Crossing, and Fallout 4. All of these games allow me space to create my own player driven goals, and not worry about arbitrary time limits and goals. When playing them I don’t feel guilt for not being as “skilled” as the average player. Life is stressful enough, I don’t need my escape making me feel like I am lesser-than because I have a harder time meeting their goals. https://www.finnegan-mcelwain.com/blog/developers-and-accessibility monthly 0.5 2026-03-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/677e1d5231dd3a22b68bff04/1771807594212-331MCU3FJK5TMVITU09J/unsplash-image-kwzWjTnDPLk.jpg Blog - A Developer’s Experience—Designing for Accessibility In general, being in a creative field, like game design, has some strong ups and downs. One day you can be thrilled about a new feature you were able to add that will greatly increase your players’ enjoyment, and the next you can be having a crisis about how you just spent 6 months on a mechanic that you love, and now you have to cut it. These emotions get even more complicated when you add a specialty like accessibility that is highly based on empathy. Now when you add a new feature that helps your player, you get the pleasure of seeing players get to experience something that they wouldn’t have been able to without it. However, you can also experience more negative emotions when a feature that you created for your players has to get cut. https://www.finnegan-mcelwain.com/blog/community-input monthly 0.5 2026-03-06 https://www.finnegan-mcelwain.com/blog/controls monthly 0.5 2026-03-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/677e1d5231dd3a22b68bff04/1771540114668-OP1PEJGDPQ3VV718NY13/unsplash-image-K_QbvoNqRvo.jpg Blog - Controls—Simplifying and Adjustments Your game’s controls are your player’s window into the experience you have created. They are what make a game a game. Without them, even if you make a gorgeous game, it will be just a frustrating movie. Unfortunately, without keeping accessibility in mind when creating your controls, you take that window away from a good chunk of your players. Controls are one of those game features that can be influenced by many different barriers. Whether that be a temporary case of carpal tunnel, a sluggish morning, or having to pet your cat while you play. Or it can be permanent issues with motor control, vision, or cognitive ability. All of these can prevent your player from having an enjoyable experience, or even playing your game at all. The best way to account for all of this is to allow for control customization and/or ensure that your base controls are simplified https://www.finnegan-mcelwain.com/blog/accessibility-for-everyone monthly 0.5 2026-03-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/677e1d5231dd3a22b68bff04/1771540289710-WS61K2R3YLYPDX59JF4K/unsplash-image-ABGaVhJxwDQ.jpg Blog - Accessibility is for Everyone, Even You Many features that are created for the disability community are used by the wider population. Sometimes features like captions are used by a wide variety of people, from people with hardware issues, to people with auditory processing issues, to the actual deaf community. 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