world-of-warcraft-dragonflight-accessibility

From the Dragonflight UI overhaul to a Dragonriding ride-along feature, WoW is looking more accessible than ever.

World of Warcraft has been a particularly positive force for accessibility in recent memory. The last two years alone has seen such additions as speech-to-text and text-to-speech, enhanced controller support, and motion-disabling features for players that experience motion sickness, to name a few. Now, with Dragonflight less than a week from release, Blizzard has redoubled their accessibility efforts.

One of the most talked-about changes are those to the Dragonflight UI. In a bid to maximize accessibility no matter their needs, players now have freer reign than ever in customizing the Dragonflight UI and HUD. The Talent System, too, brings with it more diversity for players to experiment with and ensure that even their loadout is perfectly tailored to their needs.

Further accommodations have also been made for motion sickness as Dragonflight allows players to reduce the field of vision via the Graphics menu. The same accommodations have also been made to reduce camera motion during Dragonriding.

In terms of casting, players are now able to press and hold a hotkey to continuously cast a single spell instead of tapping ad-infinitum. Plus, the new Empowered abilities that come with Dracthyrs - which charges the strength of a spell or ability - can be achieved through hold-and-release, or press-and-tap modes.

A new Interact Key has been implemented, doing away with the need to click with a mouse. Interactable objects and NPCs will be highlighted as players approach, at which point players can now press F to interact (such as to pay their respects). There is also an option to add an audible notification when within range.

Enemies can now be targeted automatically through the Action Targeting System. The target will automatically change depending on where the player is looking, and does not disable the default Tab Target system.

A minimum text size for display names can now be set, which will fade rather than shrink with increased distance. Plus, improvements to API support will see increased compatibility for controllers, touchpads, and gyros.

Finally, one of the cornerstone features of Dragonflight - Dragonriding - will allow players to 'ride along' with dragon-riding friends as a cute whelp, essentially allowing players to tag-along without needing to pull off the nimble moves that Dragonriding encourages.

All in all, it seems that Blizzard are serious about making strides in the realm of accessibility. Something we'll no doubt see even more of if and when the Microsoft takeover finally happens.