Disability activist visits Ubisoft to work on wheelchair-friendly Just Dance

To make active games like Just Dance more open for people with disabilities, one young campaigner visited Ubisoft alongside the charity Children in Need to help make changes to the franchise

An increasing number of people are turning to technology to help them keep fit, using devices such as Nintendo’s Ring Fit, or VR apps and games like Beat Saber.

This does, however, leave out many people who experience disabilities. To tackle a small part of this problem, a young disability campaigner and member of the Welsh Youth Parliament visited the Ubisoft offices to give input on making Just Dance more accessible to disabled people.

Just Dance is massively popular, with an estimated 135 million people having played one of the titles in the series. The game contains over 500 unique pieces of choreography, but not all of them are accessible to those with disabilities.

Wheelchair-using dancers in Just Dance for the first time

As reported by the BBC, Welsh Youth Parliament member Seth was invited along with the charity Children in Need to try out the latest version of Just Dance at the Ubisoft offices in Paris to give his thoughts on what changes the game could make to become inclusive to more players.

BBC

Seth has a condition called Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a rare condition that causes muscle wasting. Seth admitted that though he greatly enjoys playing games with his friends and brothers, games that require a great deal of physical movement can leave him aching.

At Ubisoft, Seth met with a dancer called Florent Devlesaver, another wheelchair user who features in the latest version of Just Dance.

Florent explained how he adapted the movements of the dance routine to work with his wheelchair and his disabilities. The newest version of Just Dance is the first to feature a routine performed by a dancer in a wheelchair.

Stacy Jenkins, one of the accessibility design specialists at Ubisoft told Seth that while it is very difficult to make a game 100% accessible to everyone, but added that the aim was to make the next game more accessible than the last and that the key to this was listening to disabled people.