Video games are the largest entertainment medium in the world, and from AAA blockbuster titles to the smaller indie games that capture the hearts of fans, there has never been a time when so many incredible gaming experiences were accessible. That said, representation and accessibility remain two key areas where the industry could use some improvement.
From female protagonists to better accessibility settings for gamers of all backgrounds, it’s important that publishers and developers alike focus on making gaming for everyone. The ones that are deaf or hard of hearing are not often in lead roles or lead characters, and in video games, there are far fewer characters associated with it compared to the number of people who play games and happen to be hard of hearing or deaf.
7 Goose feather (moss)
The main character from the popular PlayStation VR title Moss is called Quill. While this little critter has never been confirmed to be canonically deaf, it primarily uses American Sign Language to communicate.
This normally means not only using ASL for a whole new audience of gamers, but it also adds a layer of accessibility for the deaf and hard of hearing that is valued. Quill may not be deaf, but Moss’ developers did their best to ensure the deaf community was seen and understood.
6 Sumio Kodai (Silver Case)
This post contains spoilers for The Silver Case, so be warned. Sumio Kodai is a character in the visual novel The Silver Case, a game from respected game developer Goichi Suda/Suda51. It is a detective story set in a fictional city called the 24 Districts. Kodai is a detective who works in the Heinous Crimes Unit and is hiding a secret.
As a child, he was beaten in such a way that his eardrums ruptured and he remained deaf, an attack that resulted from him and his friends trying to save a girl from a terrible attack. He hides his deafness to protect his identity, as his main goal is to eventually capture and avenge the men responsible for both his disability and the attack on the young girl.
5 Shizune Hakamichi (Kajawa Shoujo)
In 2012, Four Leaf Studios released an interesting visual novel called Kajawa Shoujo which focused on the story of six people and the disabilities they lived with. The six core characters consisted of one man and five women, each of whom had unique disabilities. Shizune Hakamichi was an 18-year-old girl who was deaf.
In addition to the character who signs in the game to communicate, her friend Misha is also said to translate. Hakamichi is a great student who is hard working and very task oriented which goes a long way in showing that people with deafness are just as capable if not more capable than people without disabilities.
4 Dane (The Silent Man)
Despite the silent man and became the subject of internet memes thanks to the perceived quality of the overall game, it happened to have a deaf protagonist named Dane. The game focuses on how the trauma Dane goes through as a child prompts him to create a series of drawings featuring a character he calls “The Quiet Man”.
The game is listed as an action-adventure beat ’em up and was released in 2018 for PC and the PS4. The game ended up getting bad reviews, with most outlets seeing the combat and story as critical weaknesses of the overall experience.
3 Man Bat (Batman: Arkham Knight)
Man-Bat isn’t exactly an A-list villain in the world of Batman, but the evil beast has appeared all over the world Batman Arkham series of games from developer Rocksteady. He was once a scientist working on a solution for his chronic deafness, a fairly rare condition. His experiments resulted in him becoming a human/bat hybrid.
Thanks to his ability to use echolocation, he overcame his chronic deafness, but was left with a new reality in which he was a living nightmare. Fortunately, Batman can eventually heal the scientist and return him to his human form. Be prepared for the amazing viral jump scare that the developers put into the game as a way to introduce Man-Bat to the player.
2 Hawkeye (Marvel’s Avengers)
Hawkeye may not be the most popular member of Marvel’s Avengers, but there are plenty of people who consider the marksman a hero. Clint Barton, better known as Hawkeye, goes through a lot in his story, and one of the big moments is when he goes deaf.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe recently adapted this story beat into the Disney+ show called hawkeye, where it was explained that he lost his hearing as a result of all the conflicts in which he fought alongside superhumans. Marvel’s Avengers has added a full story-based expansion to the base game, focusing on Hawkeye and time travel, with Clint also being canonically deaf. Players must help him save the future by overcoming a hyper-intelligent, power-hungry version of the Hulk named Maestro.
1 Hailey Cooper (Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales)
Millions of people were excited when Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales was first announced as it became the first video game to feature the new-age web-slinging hero. Sure, it delivered on that promise of providing an engaging and engaging Miles Morales video game experience, but it also featured the first deaf black character in an AAA video game release.
The character is called Hailey Cooper and she is a street artist that players encounter in the game who creates murals of Miles Morales’ Spider-Man. She is played by actress Natasha Ofili, who is also deaf, and developers Insomniac Games expressed their focus on portraying more inclusive characters in their video games.
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