Sam Schaffel

Sam Schaffel is an Accessibility Design Researcher at Insomniac Games. Sam was born with Cerebral Palsy, which affects his left side; from a young age he problem-solved and dreamed of making games more accessible for everyone. In June 2018, he got the opportunity to work at Naughty Dog helping with QA and Developer Support for accessibility on The Last of Us Part II. In 2020, he worked as an Associate UX Accessibility Designer on God of War: Ragnarök. Most recently, starting in 2022, he worked on Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and is currently working on Marvel’s Wolverine.

The Accessibility Journey: Journey Shapes and Keys to Success

Starting an accessibility journey can be intimidating. In this roundtable, we will discuss what these journeys can look like. There is no one size fits all and no two journeys are the same, but there are common keys to success including: Collaboration, Adaptability, Timing, Simplicity, Efficiency, and Communication. 

There are also questions that need to be answered along the way: When should I start my journey? Can I make the game accessible by design? What are key features? How should features be prioritized? When are the best times to work on accessibility? What are easy wins? What principles inform implementation? 

In this roundtable, join Sam Schaffel (Insomniac Games) to discuss these questions and come away with shared lessons that inform our accessibility journeys no matter how far along we may be.