Steam Deck Beta Client Adds In New Accessibility Settings Page With Brand New Settings

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Video games are meant for everyone, and that's why I love seeing titles that take accessibility into account. These settings can make games playable for those who have impairments or are sensitive to certain features, like Motion Sickness. While lots of games do include them, Valve has made the decision to include them in the actual Steam Client, and that's the big highlight for the latest Steam Deck Beta Client update.

The update, which was released yesterday, adds a new Accessibility tab in the settings, giving us some new options to make it easier to explore and use the Steam client. Currently, the menu has UI scaling, High Contrast Mode, reduced motion features, color filters, and a screen reader where you can control the volume, rate, and pitch of the voice. These settings will work across the Steam Deck, as well as any device on SteamOS (Lenovo Legion Go S) and any computer using Big Picture Mode.

Valve also posted a dedicated community post about the new features, going more into detail about their functionality. While every feature works on the Steam Deck, it seems that the screen reader and Color Filters will only work on SteamOS devices, so those using Big Picture mode won't be able to get the most out of it.

Still, these features are fantastic, and I am so happy to see them here. While I don't personally need them, I know many who would benefit from larger UI, reduced motion, and the grayscale color filter. I personally prefer darker colors, which are easier on my eyes as well, so I am tempted to use that color filter too. More options for players are never a bad thing, and I love seeing Valve agree with that line of thinking.

You can download the update yourself in the System Settings on the Steam Deck. Make sure your update channel is set to Beta or Preview.

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