EA adds eight new patents to industry-first accessibility patent pledge

Today, we are celebrating the fifth anniversary of our industry-first accessibility patent pledge by adding eight more patents, including Grapple Assist, a technology used in EA SPORTS™ UFC®.

Announced in recognition of International Day of Persons with Disabilities (December 3, 2025), these newly pledged patents underscore our ongoing commitment to lead the future of entertainment and ensure video games are open to as many people as possible.

“At Electronic Arts, accessibility is central to how we imagine and build our video games. To help us achieve this goal, we listen to our player community to better understand where the barriers to access might be so that we can take steps to reduce or eliminate them,” said Amy Lazarus, Director of Games for All at EA, “Ultimately, this helps improves the quality of our titles for all our players.”

The eight patents also include advancements in speech and audio generation technologies. In addition, we are open-sourcing improvements to our accessibility tool, Fonttik, by adding new color-blindness simulation filters to the existing text size and contrast analysis technology.

“Our aim over the past five years has been to create more accessible gameplay experiences for everyone, no matter how or where they play, and open up video games to as wide an audience as possible,” said Kerry Hopkins, SVP of Global Affairs at EA. “We hope that by making these patents and technologies available to the wider industry, covering areas like photosensitivity analysis and color blindness adjustments, we will collectively be able to reach more players.”

A total of 46 free-to-use patents have been pledged since the initiative first launched in 2021, with the goal of removing in-game barriers and opening up more gameplay experiences for millions of players with disabilities worldwide. The full list of patents can be viewed on the Electronic Arts accessibility portal, an online resource where players can learn about our accessibility commitments, features in our games, raise concerns, and make suggestions for improvements.

The technologies behind the newly-added patents include:

• Intent-based Models for Use in Selecting Actions in Video Games (Grapple Assist):

A technique that simplifies grappling transitions and controls in fighting games, such as EA SPORTS™ UFC®, by automatically identifying and selecting the best transition from a single player input. This technology helps make gameplay smoother and more accessible by reducing the cognitive effort and fine-motor demands required to execute an otherwise complex, multi-input action. 

"The system allows a player to indicate their gameplay intent via a simplified input and then executes a corresponding complex command to accomplish the player’s desired intent.  It’s not about altering the core gameplay, but about interpreting intent so players with different needs,  abilities, or skills, can engage more easily," said Hendrik Blok, Senior Software Engineer on EA SPORTS™ UFC®, and inventor on the Grapple Assist patent.

• Expressive Speech Audio Generation; Robust Speech Audio Generation; Speech Prosody Prediction:

Technologies that enhance voice generation by providing speech that is more natural, expressive, and contextual. These advancements support players with speech disorders or those who prefer or require assistance expressing themselves, enabling richer communication and allowing developers to integrate expressive narration or feedback into experiences that otherwise would have no or limited audible voice.

Five years of impact and innovation

Over the past five years, we have expanded our accessibility goals by empowering developers to adopt solutions that support players with a wide range of needs.

“Shining a light on accessibility through our pledge has inspired further innovation at EA, and we’re already seeing more teams get involved in coming up with new, exciting technologies that help more people access video games.”

In 2021, we pledged a patent covering the Ping System from Apex Legends™, which enables players to transmit contextual audio and visual communications through a mappable controller. We also open-sourced code that helps address issues with brightness, contrast, and color-blindness in digital content.

This was followed by pledging dozens of additional patents and open-sourcing technologies such as Fonttik, a tool that helps developers ensure on-screen text meets visibility and contrast standards, and IRIS, a tool that detects potential photosensitivity issues early in development by analyzing flashing lights and rapid visual patterns.

IRIS plugin working in game development

Last year, we pledged patents covering improvements in speech and audio generation and recognition, and we open-sourced a plugin for Unreal Engine 5 that enables in-engine use of IRIS.

“These technologies expand what’s possible.”

And internally, the pledge has fueled new thinking and invention across EA.

“It motivates our innovators to think about how their ideas can be used to increase accessibility,” said Santiago Velez, Senior Counsel for AI, Patents & Technology at EA. “Shining a light on accessibility through our pledge has inspired further innovation at EA, and we’re already seeing more teams get involved in coming up with new, exciting technologies that help more people access video games.”

On top of that, accessibility technologies and innovations often benefit many others as well.

“When you look at features like captions, we see that innovations built for accessibility end up helping a much broader group,” said Amy. “Grapple Assist is similar. These technologies expand what’s possible.” 

Amy also emphasized the long-term potential of the pledge: 

“What would it look like if 10% of all video games used one of the technologies in our pledged patents? In five years, 20%? Imagine how much more accessible, enjoyable, and sustainable game development could become for players and creators alike.”

“We were the first in the industry to do this, but we hope others will follow our lead,” adds Santiago. “The goal is not to be the only company that shares its accessibility technologies. The goal is to spur more innovation sharing for the greater good of players and the industry.”

Celebrating our commitment to the future

As proud as we are of our commitment and growth in accessibility, we are thrilled to see that EA has been recognized at this year’s Game Accessibility Conference awards as a finalist. This includes a nomination for EA as the most dedicated publisher, technologies such as IRIS, and several recognitions of our titles, including EA SPORTS FC 26, F1 25, and Battlefield 6.

This recognition reflects the passion and dedication of our teams and the players who inspire us. It reinforces our belief that accessibility is not a milestone but a continuous commitment—one that will shape how we innovate, collaborate, and build the future of play for everyone.

Check out other amazing EA stories on ea.com/news.