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Starfield is catching some flack from accessibility specialists for its UI text, which some worry could be too small for blind and visually impaired gamers.
This weekend's big Starfield Direct revealed a few screens with UI text that's giving accessibility advocates some serious pause.
"I have MAJOR concerns about the abysmally small text in the UI for Starfield," said Twitch ambassador and accessibility consultant Steve Saylor in a tweet. "I have desperately wanted an accessible Bethesda experience so I can see what everyone loves so much about their games. But I may not be able to see to play."
I have MAJOR concerns about the abysmally small text in the UI for #Starfield. I have desperately wanted an accessible Bethesda experience so I can see what everyone loves so much about their games. But I may not be able to see to play. #StarfieldDirect @bethesda pic.twitter.com/wZdKjZ51msJune 11, 2023
Saylor's tweet prompted reactions from a bunch of folks in the accessibility community, which appears enthusiastically in agreement with the sentiment that Starfield could do better when it comes to in-game text size - provided there isn't already a remedy in place at launch.
"The standard body text size is 11px, but it drops down as far as 8-9px sometimes," said accessibility specialist Ian Hamilton. "There shouldn't be any below 28px even for people with 20/20 vision let alone 20/200."
"I hope there's ways of more information being visible - having a weight-limited inventory system and a loot window that doesn't display anything but name/rarity/quantity? That's going to get frustrating fast," said Xbox's own senior technical program manager for accessibility James Berg.
"That was my thought too. Looked aesthetically very cool. But accessibility wise, not sure how that’s going to pan out," said one Jason Mirah.
Xbox consoles and games have generally become more and more accessible over the years, and Microsoft is often considered a leader in video game accessibility. With Starfield being a first-party Xbox release, it's a little surprising to see it at the center of a controversy within the accessibility community.
It is worth noting that Xbox has yet to comment on the situation and may even have a solution in store that we just don't yet know about. We've reached out to Xbox and Bethesda for comment and will update this story if we hear back.
Sunday's big Starfield blowout revealed a ton of new information about Bethesda's upcoming space RPG - from its Star Trek-like space-folding warp drive to a screenshot some fans think justifies the year-long delay.
