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Blind and Visually Impaired Community

Full History - 2018 - 08 - 18 - ID#98dc59
11
Is there anything like video games for blind people? (self.Blind)
submitted by Tyrion_Hamster
Maybe this is a silly question. Are there any kind of popular or widespread electronic games for the blind? I want to say "video games" but of course video is useless if you can't see.

Practically all games have audio, and now there's haptic feedback and surround sound and other touch-related feedback devices. It seems like gaming for blind people should exist, but I never hear about it. There seem to be experimental projects out there, but I wonder if they're very popular, or if this is something blind people would even find interesting.
Marconius 4 points 4y ago
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There are many audio games available for smartphones, many blind and visually impaired gamers have figured out their way through console interfaces, and we have multiplayer gaming environments like RS_Games Client, Quinn's Playroom, etc. The Nintendo Switch has a series of fun games in their 1-2-Switch collection that are purely haptic and audio based so you can play them with anyone. I do really miss the immersion of the games I used to play when I had vision, but it sounds like more pushes are being made to bring more inclusive experiences to gaming rather than just relying on visuals. I was fed up with the options for accessible blackjack games so I learned a bit of Python and coded one myself that I play using iTerm/Terminal.
beadaholic94 2 points 4y ago
Can you give me a few examples of audio games on the switch?
Marconius 5 points 4y ago
The only one I've played is 1-2-Switch, a collection of mini-games most of which are accessible. They have primarily audio and haptic games, like a quickdraw game where you have to "draw" your controller gun and fire faster and more accurately towards your opponent across the room. There is one where you have to guess the number of balls in a box and it uses the phenomenal haptic vibration engine in the Switch controllers. Damned if it doesn't really feel like there are marbles rolling around inside the controller while you move it about guessing how many are "inside." There is a Safe cracking game where you twist the controller, feeling for a difference in vibration clicks to open it. There is a baseball game, a ping-pong game, and a sword swinging game that all use audio and timing to play, no visuals at all on the screen. There is a Rock the Baby game where you try to rock a baby to sleep and lay it down in a crib without the baby waking. Tons of other silly and fun games that are all primarily vibration, movement, and audio based!
Tyrion_Hamster [OP] 1 points 4y ago
Mind blown, now I'm imagining what coding Python blind might be like. Easier than languages with braces, I imagine. XML must be a nightmare for blind people. Or is it easier because it can't hurt your eyes? (kidding, sorta)
Marconius 2 points 4y ago
I code using TexEdit in plain text mode with a VoiceOver Activity set to tell me all punctuation and tab/spaces counts when navigating through my code. I'll sometimes code in Xcode just to have more text editing controls like when I have to shift over whole sections of code, etc. I know HTML and CSS, rudimentary knowledge of JS, and am working my way through Swift at the moment. You learn to parse all the syntax and punctuation listening to it all through a screen reader, plus nothing wrong going granularly through the cone, line by line, word by word, character by character. I build in comments that I can quickly jump to if the code gets really long, sort of like building in semantic structure in websites, plus Xcode has the Jump to Line number function which helps when testing and fixing bugs after getting trace back errors.
softburrito 3 points 4y ago
There is currently a pro Street Fighter player who is completely blind
ENTJ351 3 points 4y ago
Yes, absolutely it does. There are a multitude of audio games and such. And many of them are video game like and very complex. It’s a neat alternative. Don’t ask me though I am not a big gamer but I know enough about them. There’s a sight devoted to this audiogames.net I think?
AllHarlowsEve 2 points 4y ago
There used to be an audio game with Benedict Cumberbatch narrating, actually. So that's pretty cool.

I have issues with orienting based on sound, so I prefer text based or tabletop games instead.
oppai_suika 2 points 4y ago
I think VR games with surround sound headphones will be a cool way for blind people to play games in the future
U5efull 2 points 4y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6IjmmFcoWw
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