(by 1 person)
If you're blind, or have a friend or loved one who is, you probably know how hard it is to find games and social activities that are fully accessible. This lens aims to introduce you to how blind accessible games work, show you where to find them, and point to some places where you can learn more about the games, players, and developers.
Video Games for the Blind???
Sighties (fully sighted people), start here
Its not an oxymoron folks. Thanks to the amazing advances of computer technology, the blind and visually impaired are able to use computers and the Internet to do most of what the fully sighted can do. More impressive though - these advances have made it possible for the blind and visually impaired to do things on their own that previously required help from a friend or family member: They can read the newspaper, pay their bills, go grocery shopping, and yes, even play video games!
Ten years ago only 80's style text-based adventure games were playable. Now the blind and visually impaired are playing video games in the action, adventure, strategy, puzzle, and most other genres as well!
How Blind Accessible Games Work
Synthesized speech often provides players a spoken, play-by-play narration of the action in a game. Sound effects can be used to offer a simple cue (imagine the sound of coins hitting a table in a poker game) or can be crafted to communicate the three-dimensional position of an object moving through a virtual world.
Notable Games
Games worth checking out
- Zork
- Probably one of the first games accessible to the blind, and considered one of the greatest 80's style Text Adventure (also known as interactive fiction) games.
- Troopanum
- Audio-based arcade game in the spirit of the Attari's classic Space Invaders.
- Shades of Doom
- The first blind accessible first person shooter.
- GMA Tank Commander
- Arcade-style tank simulation.
- ESP Pinball
- Very popular pinball simulation.
- Chillingham
- Adventure/adventure game powered by recorded voice and sound effects.
- All inPlay Poker
- First online game where blind, low vision, and fully sighted could play together as equals.
So who makes these anyway?
- PCS Games
- Large catalog of games of many genres and levels of sophistication.
- Jim Kitchen Games
- Maker of simple, and *free*, text-based games.
- GMA Games
- First person shooters, action/arcade, and military simulation using sophisticated audio.
- DanZ Games
- Puzzle and first-person action games.
- BSC Games
- Action/Arcade games.
- Bavisoft
- Adventure games (using primarily sound effects vs synthesized speech).
- All inPlay
- Creates online games that the blind can play with their fully sighted friends and family as equals.
- The AGRIP Project
- An Open Source project working to make mainstream games more accessible to the blind.
- Adora Entertainment
- Action, adventure, arcade, classic, and first person shooter games all using fairly high quality sound effects.
- Accessible Games
- Maker of simple (in a good way!), low-cost games.
Accessible Games-Related Resources
- Audyssey Magazine
- The first, and greatest, game magazine made by the blind, for the blind.
- Accessible Game Developers Wiki
- AGDev is a shared resource that aims to benefit all [blind] accessible game developers by allowing them to help, support and discuss various issues with each other through the flexability of a wiki.
- IGDA Accessibility SIG
- This is the International Game Developers Association's (IGDA) Special Interest Group dedicated to accessibility. The IGDA is the premier professional association of game developers.
- Modifying Games for the Blind
- This website is dedicated to providing tips on how to take traditional, in-accessible games and make them blind-accessible.
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