GAConf Awards 2025: What the Award-Winning Games Tell Us About the Future of Accessibility
- Daniele Scibetta
- 6 hours ago
- 3 min read
On January 29, 2026, the winners of the 2025 GAConf Awards were revealed . These annual awards celebrate the greatest innovations in gaming, all those technologies, studios and titles that have been proven most accessible to people with disabilities over the previous year.
For those involved in accessibility, the GAConf Awards aren't just a celebration. They're a barometer of the state of the industry: they indicate which solutions are becoming standard, which remain experimental, and where inclusive design is truly making a quantum leap.
What is the GAConf Awards 2025?
The GAConf Awards (Game Accessibility Conference Awards) is the conference that annually celebrates the achievements achieved in video game accessibility at all levels, from technologies to promoted research, including those titles that have distinguished themselves in the implementation of accessible options in the previous year.
The conference, founded by Tara Voelker and Ian Hamilton , is one of the most followed by the largest companies in the sector and the disabled community.
As every year, the nominations are published at the end of November, along with the reasons for their selection, for a total of 5 titles in each of the 19 categories presented.
In 2025, given the number of relevant titles released, the AA Excellence category was added , which rewards those medium-budget titles that have implemented accessible options within their menus, from graphical customization to gameplay aids for various types of disabilities.
The winners were introduced by Steve Saylor and announced by several accessibility researchers and consultants in a pre-recorded live broadcast on the IGDA GASIG YouTube channel on January 29th and decided through a combination of public and jury voting.
You can view the video, also available in ASL (American Sign Language), BSL (English Sign Language), and with audio description.
Let's see, in detail, who the winners are for each category in 2025.
The Winners:
AAA excellence – FC 26
AA excellence – Atomfall
Indie excellence – The Art of Fauna
Best Deaf & hard of hearing accessibility – Assassins Creed Shadows
Best motor/mobility accessibility – Doom: The Dark Ages
Best blind & low vision accessibility – Hades 2 blind accessibility mod
Best cognitive accessibility – Squeakross
Best mental health accessibility – Abiotic Factor
Best representation – Just Dance 2026
Best journalism – Diablo IV: Second Anniversary interview
Best academic research – How Users Who are Blind or Low Vision Play Mobile Games
Best assistive technology – ByoWave Proteus Builder
Best accessibility resource – Accessible Games Initiative
Best comms and marketing – Atomfall accessibility overview trailer
Most improved – Hades 2 blind accessibility mod
Greatest accessibility innovation – FC 26 high contrast in PVP
Most dedicated publisher – Electronic Arts
Most dedicated studio – Rare
MVP award for unsung hero – Elizabeth Whyte, Bethesda
The advocacy award – Elisabeth “Arevya” Sivertsen
What emerges from the 2025 awards
Strong EA presence, a sign of a structural investment in accessibility.
Growing recognition of mods and community (Hades 2 blind mod).
Competitive accessibility (high-contrast PVP) enters the mainstream.
Beyond the awards, GAConf 2025 highlighted a growing ecosystem: not just games, but tools, community, research, and education. Unseen Diplomacy 2, An Unplayable Game, and Bits & Bops were showcased , along with a look at their accessibility features.
Among the titles presented there was also space for an interview with Angelina Bruno, an amputee dancer who participated in the creation of a choreography for Just Dance 2026 , contributing to the victory of EA's rhythm title as best representation of disability of the year .
Other announcements included the Accessible Games Initiative , which we discussed in a previous article ; the services of Player Research , a platform that helps developers and publishers integrate accessibility into their games; support for Unity's screen reader ; a trailer presenting the Games for Blind Gamers 5 game jam , a friendly competition on video game development for the blind promoted by the Itch.io platform; the Makers Making Change organization with their assistive gaming kits; and, finally, the new Discovery Creators section of AbleToPlay , a platform dedicated to video game accessibility that will allow users to discover creators and content focused on the topic.
Like every year, the GAconf Awards shows us the commitment of developers and the importance it has for communities and researchers, dedicated to making the videogame world accessible to people with disabilities.
Visit the official page: GAConf Awards
Did you see the awards ceremony or will you watch it? Do you agree with the prizes awarded? Which innovation impressed you the most?
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