Accessibility
Learn about Free Games keyboard navigation, labeled controls, pause options and the accessibility limitations of visual canvas games.
Free Games works with a keyboard, shows a visible focus outline, respects the reduced-motion setting in your operating system, and labels its controls for screen readers. Some games are fully usable without a mouse. Others draw their playfield on a canvas and need visual timing, so they are not accessible to screen-reader users. This page says which is which, and does not claim more than the site delivers.
What works across the whole site
These features exist on every page, including the game library and the category listings.
Site-wide features
| Feature | How it behaves |
|---|---|
| Skip link | The first Tab press reveals a Skip to content link that jumps past the header |
| Focus outline | A 3 pixel outline with a 4 pixel offset appears on any element reached by keyboard |
| Landmarks and labels | The main navigation, the search form and the icon buttons carry text labels for screen readers |
| Mobile menu | Opens as a dialog, closes on Escape, and returns focus to the button that opened it |
| Reduced motion | When your system asks for reduced motion, animations and transitions are switched off and smooth scrolling stops |
| Status messages | Game status text is a polite live region, so a screen reader announces the result without stealing focus |
Games you can play without a canvas
Some games are built from ordinary HTML buttons. Those are the ones to try first if you use a keyboard or a screen reader.
Sudoku, Minesweeper and Tic-Tac-Toe
Sudoku uses a grid of buttons plus a number pad where each digit button is labeled. Minesweeper uses a labeled grid with a flag-mode toggle instead of a right click. Tic-Tac-Toe uses nine buttons and a select element for the opponent. Each board is grouped and named, so you can Tab to a cell and press Enter or Space. More of this kind of game sits in the puzzle collection.
Arcade games and their limits
Arcade games draw a canvas and react to timing. They accept the keyboard, but they still ask you to see what is happening.
Keyboard and pause controls
The canvas is focusable with Tab and carries a label naming the game and pointing at the written control list below it. P or Escape pauses and resumes. A game also pauses on its own when the tab is hidden or the window loses focus, so you do not lose a run by switching away. Each machine has restart, pause, sound and focus-view buttons, and every one of them has a text label. The guide to browser game controls lists the keys for each game.
What we do not claim
A canvas game cannot be read by a screen reader. We do not provide audio description, a non-visual mode or an adjustable game speed. Reaction-based games have no slow setting. If timing is the barrier, the board games in the playbook are a better starting point, since they wait for your move.
Touch and small screens
Layouts and text adapt to smaller screens, and games that need directional input add an on-screen control bar.
Touch button sizing and zoom
Touch buttons are at least 48 pixels tall with a 50 pixel minimum width, which keeps them reachable with a thumb. The bar itself is labeled as touch game controls, and each button carries its own label. Browser zoom works normally everywhere except inside a gesture-controlled game canvas, where a drag is read as a move rather than a pinch.
Tell us what is hard to use
Accessibility reports change this site more often than any other kind of message.
What to send
Name the game, the device, the browser and the assistive technology you use, then describe the control that failed. Send it through the contact page and we will test the same combination. If we cannot make a game usable, we will say so on its page instead of quietly claiming otherwise.