The Entertainment Software Association is rolling out the Accessible Games Initiative, a cross-industry reference resource that provides information about accessibility features in video games. The effort launches with a set of 24 “tags” advising of the features. The ESA announced the effort at the Game Developers Conference with representatives from five founding member companies: Electronic Arts, Google, Microsoft, Nintendo and Ubisoft. The goal is to have participating companies include the tags with their game product info in digital storefronts, on product pages and elsewhere to help provide players, parents and teachers details about accessibility features.

Among the initial 24 tags are clear text, large and clear subtitles, narrated menus, save anytime and stick inversion (a control setting that reverses a joystick’s vertical movement, so pushing up makes the camera or character look down, and pushing down looks up).

“Tens of millions of Americans have a disability and often face barriers to experiencing the joy and connection that comes with playing video games,” ESA President and CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis said in an announcement, calling the initiative an “industry-wide pursuit of helping more people experience the power of play.”

In addition to the GDC participants, the initiative was cosigned by Amazon Games, Square Enix, Riot Games, Sony Interactive Entertainment and Warner Bros. Games.

“It’s relatively rare for the game industry to pull together over a united cause, but accessibility has been on the radar for a while,” writes VentureBeat, pointing out that “Microsoft launched the Xbox Adaptive Controller for players with limited mobility in 2018” and “also launched a superb Super Bowl commercial with the message, ‘When everybody plays, we all win.’”

The ESA Accessible Games Initiative and its tags “will coexist with other accessibility efforts already available in the industry,” according to VentureBeat.

Beyond helping players identify accessibility features in various games, the initiative will more specifically “hold studios to task in providing consistent terminology across platforms” to describe those features, Deadline writes, providing the example of a player “looking for video games with narrated menus or to avoid something that can only be played with a keyboard” who can now use the Accessible Games Initiative site “as a navigation tool to help them find the right game available or upcoming for their needs.”