Video games are for everybody, so it’s always wonderful to see new accessibility features come to the biggest franchise. When it comes to racing games on Xbox, there’s nothing bigger than Forza, and Horizon 5 will be adding American and British sign language support in its next update.
In a new promotional video, Microsoft chief accessibility officer Jenny Lay-Flurrie (paired with a signer) explains the importance of this new addition. “Deafness varies from hard of hearing to people who are deaf and use sign language as their first language,” Lay-Flurrie says. “It’s important for us to be inclusive of the entirety of that spectrum.” Forza Horizon 5 already includes captions in many languages of course, but adding ASL and BSL is another great step toward full inclusion. The game will receive an update on Tuesday, March 1, that adds optional sign language support for every in-game cinematic.
This isn’t the first time Forza Horizon 5 has expanded its language offerings. Last month, developer Playground Games announced that full Mandarin voice localization was coming to the game, alongside a set of four Chinese cars. That was done in celebration of the series’ biggest launch in China. In fact, Horizon 5 is going strong all around the world — the last player count was a massive 15 million people at the start of the year.
