Valve released a new Steam Client Beta today, and it’s focused on adding accessibility options to Big Picture Mode on PCs and SteamOS on handheld PCs like the Lenovo Legion Go S and Steam Deck.
Specifically, it is adding a UI scaling option, toggles for high contrast mode and reduced motion, and additional screen reader and color filter settings. These options can now all be found in an Accessibility sub-menu that’s now part of SteamOS and Big Picture Mode’s settings menus. The image below shows off exactly what this new menu looks like. With these additions, Valve now recommends that Steam users who require features such as screen readers use Big Picture Mode instead of the standard Steam client.
SteamOS specifically will see particular benefits from the Screen Reader and Color Filter updates. For the Screen Reader, players will now be able to adjust its pitch, speed, and volume and consistently hear it read out each item being highlighted. Meanwhile, there are now filters called Greyscale, Invert Brightness, and Invert Colors that people can use to adjust how both Steam and games are displayed while using SteamOS.
All of these features are still currently part of the Steam Client Beta, and Valve has not shared when exactly they will exit the beta. It is committing to improving accessbility options on Steam, teasing that “these new settings are only the first available of the accessibility features we’re working on,” in a blog post. Steam has also added tools that allow game developers to highlight the accessibility features in their games.
