Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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How do blind people play online chess? (self.Blind)
submitted by EatAllTheWaffles
Hello all, I am currently developing a multiplayer (online and local) chess game for Android. I stumbled upon the accessibility page of the android developer website and thought making a talking chess board might be cool, so I have a couple questions for the people that would potentially be using it. After some research I have seen chessboards that have raised tiles so they can be felt, but I would need to be doing everything through audio. First of all, do any chess apps already do this? Are they good? What's the best way to navigate a chessboard with screen reading technology? What information would be best to have? Would different tones be better than words? Thanks for any advice in advance!
fastfinge 2 points 5y ago
I play online chess with friends, and don't use a fancy app. I just give my moves via algebraic notation over whatever we're using (email, IRC, Facebook, whatever). There used to be a windows app that was accessible called Winboard, but it isn't maintained anymore. Even when I used that app, though, I found that I had to set up my own physical chess board on my desk, so I could keep the relations between everything straight by touch. On a phone, with a small screen, I suspect the problems with keeping track of an audio only board would be even worse. To make me happy, all you'd need to do is announce each players move, give me a way to bring up the move list in case my physical board gets out of sync with the state of play, and maybe provide a listing of the current position of everything on the board. However, that's just me. It's possible some blind person could keep track of a chess board using only a tiny screen and audio. But I'm not that person. :-)
edit to add: Oh, and a textbox to enter in my moves, of course.
edit to add: Oh, and a textbox to enter in my moves, of course.
EatAllTheWaffles [OP] 1 points 5y ago
Thanks for the response!
> "To make me happy, all you'd need to do is announce each players move, give me a way to bring up the move list in case my physical board gets out of sync with the state of play, and maybe provide a listing of the current position of everything on the board."
I would be able to do these things, although probably in a different format. I think what it would end up being is something like a selection deal where you would essentially scroll through the board with talkback and it would tell you the tile location and information and if you clicked a tile with one of your pieces on it, it would list all the available moves. So, to move a piece you could scroll through the tiles for the piece you want, then scroll to where you want to move it.
> "It's possible some blind person could keep track of a chess board using only a tiny screen and audio. But I'm not that person."
Can you explain what you mean by this? Why does the screen size matter if you can't see it?
Do you use primarily use talkback on android or something else?
> "To make me happy, all you'd need to do is announce each players move, give me a way to bring up the move list in case my physical board gets out of sync with the state of play, and maybe provide a listing of the current position of everything on the board."
I would be able to do these things, although probably in a different format. I think what it would end up being is something like a selection deal where you would essentially scroll through the board with talkback and it would tell you the tile location and information and if you clicked a tile with one of your pieces on it, it would list all the available moves. So, to move a piece you could scroll through the tiles for the piece you want, then scroll to where you want to move it.
> "It's possible some blind person could keep track of a chess board using only a tiny screen and audio. But I'm not that person."
Can you explain what you mean by this? Why does the screen size matter if you can't see it?
Do you use primarily use talkback on android or something else?
fastfinge 1 points 5y ago
I use IOS on iPhone myself. What I mean by the small screen is, I doubt the screen would be large enough to contain the entire board. If it was, say on something like the large iPad, I might be able to use two hands on the screen at once, to get a better idea of the relation between two pieces I'm thinking about moving. That's what I do with the physical, carved wooden board on my desk. However, no phone is that large. So no matter what, I'm going to have to set-up my physical board. I'm sure if I played more than a single game every two months or so, I could handle it all in my head. But I don't. :-)
> a different format.
Yeah, doing it that way would work just fine. It'd probably be easier than typing in moves, too. Especially for chess beginners.
> a different format.
Yeah, doing it that way would work just fine. It'd probably be easier than typing in moves, too. Especially for chess beginners.
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