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One really cool thing about accessibility is that making more accessible usually means that the game is more fun for everyone. For instance, if all colors are distinct and double coded with icons, that means that it’s really easy for people to identify the component based on what is easiest for them, so they never have their fun interrupted by thoughts of, “Is that blue or black?” or “Is that the warrior icon or the ranger?”
I do try to keep a list of things or people to test with throughout my process. I have friends that have large hands or are color blind or dyslexic and if they have issues during the playtest, the problem is caught early on. Making sure to playtest with a variety of people, from different parts of the US or outside the US, different ages, and different levels of gaming helps out a lot, too. I go to a lot of conventions (or did before the pandemic) so it was a lot easier to make sure that a game worked for a ton of different types of people.
I’ve found that being willing to ask people questions and incorporating their feedback means that there’s a lot of people that want to give feedback, just like with any other part of playtesting. Treating accessibility as important through the entire process means that I usually don’t think too much about it at any one time, as it’s already happening.
