Tara Voelker

Well, I finally took my own advice about building accessibility in from the beginning. Rebind Studios is officially underway. I’m excited to help teams solve hard accessibility and production problems and, eventually, to make some games of our own. www.rebindstudios.com

Back on the accessibility jury for The Horror Game Awards! 👻 Excited to celebrate the developers making horror accessible to more players. Everyone deserves a good scare. 😈 @horrorgameawards.bsky.social #HorrorGameAwards

I'm enjoying Silent Hill: Townfall but WHY do horror games keep having off-screen ringing phones that aren't captioned? If I had $1 for every time I've encountered this, I could retire. I literally called this out in a talk YEARS ago. THE PHONES ARE STILL RINGING. 😭 www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXo_...

If I had a dollar for every time there is an uncaptioned phone ringing off camera I could retire. This post brought to you by Silent Hill Towndall (which I am enjoying).

The steel mill in my home town that closed town earlier this year looks like it’s going to be replaced with a data center, what a wild ride

I can’t believe I’m stuck in the timeline where BioWare is closing.

What does it take to make a game work with a real screen reader? In her @gaconf.bsky.social talk, Rebind founder @tarav.bsky.social explains how our accessibility expertise is grounded in the realities of designing, building, and shipping games. www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-A2... #GameAccessibility

For so much of my career as a game writer, Bioware stood as the pinnacle of our craft. It's been a long, slow decline, and I knew their last project was troubled, but this still feels like the end of a golden era

We are live!!!

My 1st morning in South Korea: A man who spoke broken English stopped me & Bryce while we were taking a picture and asked if we were from the United States. We said yes And then asked if we were from ILLINOIS. I said yes! I grew up there! He was so excited and knew a shocking amount about IL.

So excited! I have been practicing speaking slowly so I don’t overwhelm anyone 😅

Starting a company means making a lot of decisions about what you want it to become. For Rebind, one of those decisions was easy. If we say that inclusion, access, and belonging matter to us, our actions should make that visible. so be gay, make games

What in the subtitles?!

I'm so excited to go to this event! I'll be both giving a keynote on Day 1 and a part of a panel on Day 2.

🍻💕

⚠️ EVERYTHING IS FINE ⚠️ I tend to joke that if I'm speaking at @gaconf.bsky.social, something has gone horribly wrong. Someone got sick, someone dropped out, another 3rd mystery thing. THAT IS NOT THE CASE. This time I volunteered! Catch my talk: "We Need to Talk About ‘Screen Readers’ in Games"

Remember when build numbers were considered debug text and would make you fail cert? lol

Makin’ moves.

Hooray, FC 27 is here! We’ve got a few new accessibility goodies ⚽️♿️✨ This year brings a new accessibility filter and helpful icons in the settings menu, customizable player indicator colors, and new UI options for The Grounds. Continuous improvement 💪♥️ www.ea.com/able/resourc...

Noooooooooo 😭 Silent Hill and Control both failed to pre-download because my PS5 hard drive was full 😭😭😭😭☠️ Guess I won’t get to play until tomorrow.

I had an interview scheduled for a job TPM role today and I joined the call to tell them thank you for their time and sorry for the inconvenience, but I’m starting my own business. SCARIEST THING I HAVE EVER DONE.

Yes, I would like to hire everyone. Let me get money first 😂

Industry accessibility veteran Tara Voelker launched @rebindstudios.com today, providing accessibility and production consultancy to the game industry. As layoffs disproportionately affect accessibility roles, these services are needed now more than ever. caniplaythat.com/2026/09/21/i...

So this is terrifying and maybe a terrible idea, but what’s the worst that happens? I lay myself off?

Come hang out with me! There will be snacks.

Remedy Entertainment shared that Assist Mode returns in Control Resonant, with several options to finetune the accessibility and challenge of the new close-range combat. Aside from new settings, Resonant also allows players to increase the challenge. caniplaythat.com/2026/09/11/a...

Look at my stuff. 👽

This is how @gaconf.bsky.social spirit meets "Netzwerk barrierefreis Gaming" 😋 Interested in game accessibility? Visit us at Jugendforum NRW (#gamescom hall 10.1 / D020G) - We have cookies!

BUY EVERYTHING TWICE

Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters just told investors that Night School's latest release, Unhinged, became one of its two most successful cloud game launches. Evidently, that wasn't enough to save the studio or its workforce.

Today’s Mood:

On the plus side, I won’t have to decline any more speaking gigs because I can’t get them cleared.

So, who’s hiring? (Yes, I was impacted by the Netflix layoffs even though I was the single accessibility person in gaming.)

I'm currently writing this report for @aftermath.site. If any member of any accessibility team was impacted by the layoffs, please reach out through email, messages, or my signal –4129804478.

10/10 would work with Elisabeth again

The Xbox Accessibility Guidelines are a set of best practices compiled by industry experts, gamers, and disabled people. The guidelines have been written to help developers, designers, and testers make games more accessible to people with disabilities. learn.microsoft.com/en-us/gaming...

Guess whose attending? It’s me! I will be there!

Sponsor shoutouts 💜 We're thrilled that Scopely has provided travel funds for our speakers this year, helping them attend in-person and upholding our goals of supporting our speakers and in-person networking. Read more about Scopely's work on player inclusion: www.scopely.com/en/news/buil...

If you've been playing Forza Horizon 6, the team is looking for accessibility feedback! The link to the survey was shared in an in-game message, but it's easy to miss (we did too). Click here to get to the survey: aka.ms/FH6survey

The games industry

Thank you for watching @gaconf.bsky.social 💕✨

Are you a game accessibility person/disabled gamer in the LA area? Trying to get a list of local folks I can tap for upcoming in person engagements! (Don’t worry if you aren’t local, there are also opportunities there as well)