Game Accessibility on Windows: A Checklist for Text-Heavy Games

Strategy games and RPGs ask you to read a lot: events, tooltips, journals, item descriptions, whole books. If the text is small, the font is hard to follow, or you are simply tired, that reading becomes the hardest part of the game.

This is a practical checklist for game accessibility on Windows, in the order we would try things: the game's own settings first, then a few Windows settings, then tools that read the text to you. Windows details link to Microsoft's own pages, because menus move between versions.

1. Start in the game's own settings

UI scale and font size

Look for a UI scale, interface size or font size option. Some games have exactly what you need: the Baldur's Gate Enhanced Editions have a Font Size slider under Options, Graphics, and RimWorld has a UI scale setting in its options.

Scaling has limits. On the Steam forums, players report that raising the UI scale in Victoria 3 hides parts of the interface, and that EU5's fonts stay small even with the scale raised. Try it, and if it costs you more than it gives, the later steps help.

Fonts

A few games offer dyslexia-friendly fonts. Disco Elysium: The Final Cut added OpenDyslexic on PC in 2022, as Can I Play That? reported. Check the accessibility or interface tab.

Subtitles, colourblind modes and narration

Turn on subtitles if the game has voiced lines, and raise their size and background if it lets you. Check for a colourblind mode, and for built-in text to speech or menu narration: our list of PC games with text to speech built in covers the ones we could confirm.

2. Run the game in Borderless or Windowed mode

This one setting makes almost everything else on this list work better. In exclusive fullscreen, the game takes over the display; in Borderless Windowed it looks the same but shares the screen with other tools, including overlays and on-screen readers like Corvo Reader. The option is usually in the game's video or display settings.

Worried about performance? On Windows 11, Microsoft's Optimizations for windowed games setting upgrades how DirectX 10 and 11 games present frames in Windowed and Borderless Windowed modes, for lower latency. You'll find it in Settings > System > Display > Graphics, under the default graphics settings.

3. Windows settings worth checking

Text size and display scale

Windows 11 has a Text size slider in Settings > Accessibility > Text size, and an overall Scale setting in Settings > System > Display, as Microsoft's Make Windows easier to see page explains. They make Windows, launchers and many apps easier to read. Most games draw their own interface at their own size, so don't expect these to change in-game text; use the game's settings for that.

Magnifier

Press Windows logo key + Plus (+) to turn Magnifier on and Windows logo key + Esc to turn it off. It has three views: full screen (Ctrl+Alt+F), lens (Ctrl+Alt+L) and docked (Ctrl+Alt+D), according to Microsoft's Magnifier guide. The lens view is handy for a quick look at a tooltip; for long reading, panning around gets tiring.

Colour filters

Settings > Accessibility > Color filters changes the colour palette of the whole screen, which can help you tell apart things that differ only by colour, like map modes and status icons. Microsoft lists Windows key + Ctrl + C as the shortcut to turn colour filters on or off; you may need to switch the keyboard shortcut on in the Color filters settings first. Because it works on the whole screen, it can help in games that have no colourblind mode of their own; check how it looks in yours.

Contrast themes and mouse pointer

Contrast themes and a bigger, brighter mouse pointer (Settings > Accessibility > Mouse pointer & touch) help outside the game. Many games draw their own cursor and colours, so expect these to matter most in launchers and menus.

Live captions

If a game has voiced lines without subtitles, Windows 11 can caption them. Live captions (Windows 11 version 22H2 and later) turns any audio on your PC into captions, processed on your device. Press Windows logo key + Ctrl + L to turn it on.

4. Have the text read to you

Bigger text still has to be read. For long events, journals and tooltips, listening is often easier than any amount of zoom, especially with dyslexia, ADHD or visual fatigue.

• Built-in text to speech: try it first where it exists.
• Mods: some games have a community text to speech mod. They read with Windows voices and cover one game each.
• An on-screen reader: Corvo Reader reads any text you box, in any Windows game, with a natural voice.

With Corvo Reader, press Ctrl+Shift+E, draw a box round the text, and listen. Save the spots you check often, like an event window or a dialogue box, as regions; saved regions read with one key. Text size stops mattering once you are listening.

One setting matters: run your game in Borderless Windowed or Windowed mode. In exclusive fullscreen, Windows keeps the game's picture away from other apps, so there is nothing for Corvo Reader to read. The setting is usually in the game's video or display options.

One honest note: you choose what to read by drawing a box on the screen, so Corvo Reader is for players who can see where the text is. It is not a screen reader for blind players; our guide to screen readers for games covers the tools that are. And if you are weighing up voices, we compared AI game text to speech, Windows voices and mods.

5. For very long text

On paid plans, Corvo Reader's Summarize gives you the short version of a long event chain or lore book, and Translate reads text in another language. The Free plan gives you standard neural voices for 20 minutes of narration a week, with no card; Core ($6.99), Plus ($12.99) and Max ($24.99) a month add weekly premium-voice minutes and unlimited standard voices.

The checklist

• Game settings: UI scale or font size raised, as far as the layout allows.
• Game settings: dyslexia-friendly font, subtitles, colourblind mode, built-in narration, if offered.
• Display mode: Borderless Windowed or Windowed.
• Windows 11: Optimizations for windowed games on, if you play DirectX 10 or 11 games windowed.
• Magnifier shortcuts learned: Windows + Plus, Windows + Esc.
• Colour filters chosen, with the shortcut turned on.
• Live captions ready for unsubtitled speech: Windows + Ctrl + L.
• A reader for long text: built in, a mod, or Corvo Reader.

Game-specific notes, including where each game keeps its display mode, are in our guides for EU5, Victoria 3, RimWorld, Baldur's Gate EE and many more.

Frequently asked questions

Does Windows text size make game text bigger?

Usually not. Most games draw their own interface, so use the game's UI scale or font size setting. Windows text size helps in launchers and other apps.

Do Windows colour filters work in games?

They change the colour palette of the whole screen, so they can help in games without a colourblind mode of their own. Check how they look in your game, since some colours shift a lot.

Why does Borderless mode matter?

In exclusive fullscreen, Windows keeps the game's picture away from other apps, so on-screen tools like Corvo Reader have nothing to read. Borderless looks the same and works with them.

Do I need mods for any of this?

No. Everything here is either in the game, in Windows, or an app that runs alongside the game, like Corvo Reader.