Game entering development after December 21, 2018, will be forced to make any communications and UI fully accessible to people with a wide range of conditions.
According to the International Game Developers Association, The CVAA (21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act 2010) is legislation requiring the accessibility of all advanced communications services (specifically voice chat, text chat, and video chat). This includes video game software, gameplay and distribution networks, and consoles.
Until December 31 of last year, the games industry had a series of waivers, but the last of which is up.
- Games that enter development after this date must be fully compliant.
- Games already in development after this date but released after it must be as compliant as possible, how far through development the game was at Dec 31st may be taken into account in case of a complaint.
- Games released before this date that receive substantial updates after itmust also be compliant.
Failure to reply could result in the FCC stepping in to make sure the issue is fixed. If an issue arises, the FCC will determine how feasible the issue is to fix.