Introduction As stated by the Newzoo report from 2021, the number of video game users in the world currently amounts to three billion people. This multitude of players also comprises representatives of minorities and excluded groups, such as people with disabilities. Foreseeably, communities of people with disabilities have undertaken many actions to increase the accessibility to games, the examples of which are “Open Letter to Polish Game Developers on Facilitating Access for People with Disabilities” from 2019 and the activity of many international organizations and associations, whose mission is to facilitate access to various forms of digital entertainment for users with special needs (for instance, the SpecialEffect Foundation, Games Accessibility Special Interest Group in the International Game Developers Association or the DAGER Systems website, which publishes regular reports on accessibility in specific games). Nonetheless, these groups demand not only greater access to digital entertainment through, for example, dedicated controllers, functionalities, and interfaces, but also proper representation in games. Underrepresentation appears to be a significant problem. As Danielle M. Marascalchi wrote on First Person Scholar (2020): “searching ‘Best Video game characters of all time’ leads you to a list of some of the most popular video games ever created. Of the characters featured on the list: 27 are white men, 12 are non-human men, 9 are white women, 1 is a man of color, and all 50 are able bodied.” Therefore, the aim of the presented report is to investigate in what ways representations of people with disabilities in video games shape up. We chose to demonstrate several fields corresponding to these representations. Disability has been discussed in the following contexts: narrative, visual, game mechanics, and language. Games for the youngest players have been analyzed separately. We hope for the development of a fairly complete picture of disability in video games and contribution to its more proper and comprehensive representation. The report also includes a set of recommendations/suggestions for the video game industry related to the presentation of disability and formulated in cooperation with players with disabilities. We expect that these remarks shall translate into a greater presence of characters with disabilities in games and that they shall encourage game developers to draw on the unique experience and ways of perception of reality by people with disabilities. Ulti-
7
