SWTOR named AbleGamers’ 2011 Accessible Mainstream Game of the Year

AbleGamers has given Star Wars: The Old Republic its 2011 Accessible Mainstream Game of the Year award due to its strong performance when put through a string of accessibility tests for the disabled.

According to the site, SWTOR won out over the others due to being able to maintain said accessibility while "maintaining a fun environment for those who enjoy solo or group play."

One of the "most unintentionally" accessible features was the game's addition of companions, and the MMO was lauded for including "full subtitles, queueable actions, multiple action bars, area looting, auto looting, and built-in mouse sensitivity."

Built-in features such as auto-facing enemies, maps being colorblind friendly, and having subtitles, were other features highlighted as providing more accessibility to the disabled.

"The developers do have room for improvement by adding features such as click to move, close captioning, and the inclusion of mods to allow things like UI movement, text size changes, and small changes deemed necessary by the player base," said the site.

"However, with Star Wars enabling the ability to use on-screen keyboards, voice activation software, and mouse sensitivity settings, the game can be forgiven for a few shortcomings while hitting the major targets."

This isn't the first time a Bioware game has been acknowledged by the site, as Dragon Age: Origins on PC was awarded as Accessible Mainstream Game of the Year in 2009.

Thanks, Shack.