[games_access] Deaf-Blind gaming possibilities

[Ian Hamilton]

Here are two more nice examples of haptic / tactile game interfaces, firstly pong with X and Y coordinates translated into levels of vibration in two Xbox 360 pads:

http://www.fdg2013.org/program/festival/sightlence.pdf


Secondly Tetris, with the pieces shown by the raised pins on a refreshable Braille display:

http://www.ndadamson.com/index.php?slab=dotris

Also on the topic of Braille, this isn't related to digital gaming but might be of interest anyway. Traditionally blind-accessible card/tabletop games are highly expensive limited runs of a rare few games, such as this:

http://www.maxiaids.com/products/526/Braille-and-Low-Vision-Monopoly.html

Sighted avid collectors (magic the gathering etc) often put their cards in transparent plastic sleeves, to protect them from wear and tear, eg

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B002K8I50W?pc_redir=1396965541&robot_redir=1
So someone has seen another possible use for the sleeves, they've had the genius idea of buying a braille embosser and embossing the card text as braille onto the sleeves, meaning that existing games can be adapted to order for a tiny cost, instead of the publishers having to making an expensive alternative version of the game, which is extremely rare.
They're also adding stickers with QR codes on to the sleeves for more detailed information, and for other players they're also providing the option of sleeve stickers to essentially provide a colourblind mode,  explaining any information that is conveyed by color alone.
The possibility of adding a simple option to convey the information in an alternative way is pretty much taken for granted in digital, but it's great to see something like that in the physical world, where due to cost it normally has to be one size fits all.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/64ouncegames/board-games-now-blind-accessible/
Ian

----- Reply message -----
From: "Barrie Ellis" <barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk>
To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" <games_access at igda.org>
Subject: [games_access] Deaf-Blind gaming possibilities
Date: Thu, Apr 10, 2014 06:28


Guessing most of you may have seen this clip:
http://switchgaming.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/tangible-media-deaf-blind-gaming.htm<http://switchgaming.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/tangible-media-deaf-blind-gaming.html>

Looks like it could be a really interesting way in for deaf-blind-gamers
for games and beyond.
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