Tara Voelker launches Rebind Studios to put Accessibility at the heart of game development

After nearly two decades working in video game accessibility, including roles at major companies such as Xbox and Netflix, and as a co-founder of GAConf, Tara Voelker is striking out on her own. The industry veteran has announced the launch of Rebind Studios, a new company that will initially help developers and publishers make their games more accessible. But the studio already has a more ambitious goal for the future: developing games of its own.

Voelker is one of the most recognized figures in the field of game accessibility. Before founding Rebind Studios, she worked at Xbox and Xbox Game Studios, where she led accessibility initiatives, contributed to the development of accessibility standards and compliance programs, and worked with studios across the Microsoft ecosystem. More recently, she helped build Netflix Games' accessibility program.

She is also a co-director of the Game Accessibility Conference, better known as GAConf, one of the industry's leading events for developers, accessibility specialists, and players interested in inclusive game design.

Now, all of that experience will come together under Rebind Studios.

The new company will initially offer consulting services to developers, publishers, and platforms. Rather than stepping in only when a game is nearing release, Rebind aims to work with teams throughout the development process.

Its services will cover everything from developing an accessibility strategy and reviewing products to production support, training, and workshops. The company's work can also extend beyond games to platforms, websites, applications, and events.

Accessibility succeeds when it is connected to the realities of making and shipping a product, Rebind Studios exists to help teams turn good intentions into decisions, processes, and experiences that work for players. The goal is not to hand over a checklist. It is to help teams build the knowledge and systems they can use again. Tara Voelker, Founder and Studio Director of Rebind Studios

Rebind therefore aims to help teams turn good intentions into practical processes and concrete decisions, while giving developers the knowledge and tools they can continue to apply to future projects.

From consulting to game development

And this is where what is arguably the most interesting part of the announcement emerges: Rebind Studios also plans to create original video games.

That philosophy is at the heart of Voelker's vision for Rebind. After nearly two decades spent shipping games, building accessibility programs, and working alongside teams across the industry, she now wants to put that experience into practice by making accessibility an integral part of the development process.

Eventually, those same principles will also be applied to games created directly by Rebind.

The launch of the studio also comes at a particularly difficult time for the industry.

As Can I Play That? has highlighted, the ongoing wave of layoffs has also affected accessibility professionals and specialized teams. When those positions disappear, years of expertise and institutional knowledge can be lost with them. At the same time, there are still relatively few companies dedicated exclusively to game accessibility.

Rebind Studios aims to help fill that gap, giving teams without dedicated in-house accessibility specialists access to expertise built through years of work with some of the industry's biggest platforms.

For now, Rebind Studios is primarily a consulting company, and no original game has been announced. The plan to develop its own titles belongs to a later stage of the project and does not mean that a first game is already in production.

The long-term direction, however, is clear: Rebind will begin by helping other developers and, eventually, demonstrate through its own games what it means to build accessibility into a project from day one.

After helping shape accessibility programs at Xbox and Netflix Games, Tara Voelker is now putting that experience to work across the wider industry. And if her plans come to fruition, Rebind Studios will eventually put those principles into practice through games of its own.