How you feel definitely resonates and is valid. I'm not completely blind, low vision. I don't really play games or video games. There's a bit of a grieving process to this, the loss of vision and ability to do certain things. Whenever I'm feeling like I have no control and the things I want to do are not accessible, I try to focus on what I can control. Things I can and enjoy doing. It's very easy to get swept up in the frustration/anger/depression/grieving of things I can't change or control.

Either way, I'm glad you're getting these feelings out. I know I've been upset about my inability to do certain things, like games. Nowadays, I try to watch and be an advisor to my friends when they play. Albeit, not the same but I can find joy in it.

At some point, you have to accept that you just cant do everything, no matter if you want to or not. It sucks I know. I used to be a big gamer too and it is hard for me to play a lot of games now. It got to the point where I didnt wanna even try new games at all because I knew that I wouldnt be able to play as well as everyone else. My eyesight is not completely gone, but it sucks to know you will never be able to do as good because you just cant. But you have to accept it and do things that you can. Focusing on the fact that you cant do this or that will only make you depressed.

I was never a big gamer but I feel the same. I miss being able to play Sims and Animal Crossing and Pokémon. I know I can still play Animal Crossing and Pokémon, but missing out on the text elements makes me not want to botjer. I hate not being able to play games I want to, like Cyberpunk 2077 or Divinity: Original Sin. i want to make an audio game version of Sims, though, but it’ll be a long project because I need to learn Windows screen readers and how to program. Anyway, sorry for the ramble. I just want to say is that you’re not alone.

I have been dealing with losing my ability to enjoy my favourite games over the last year and a half. Luckily for me old games that I have a deep and intimate knowledge of the story, mechanics and what not I can still play. Most games with voice acting I can also still play though the UI is still a frequent problem as it tends to be much too small. I am also almost strictly a Nintendo gamer which is not known for accessibility, and lack a computer strong enough to run games so that I can install mods that might make it easier on me. Otherwise if I keep my screens as dim as possible I still can play but it is still hard to see. If my vision continues the direction it is going I am honestly not sure what option if any I will have. Basically I share your frustration that the gaming industry puts so little effort into making games more accessible to those who lack good vision.

My approach has been to write to developers of games I used to love like scrabble and ask them to add screen reader support. So far I’ve had two companies say they would look into it for future releases. It never hurts to ask and the more people that ask, the more likely it is to happen. Usually it is just a matter of letting companies know there are a lot of customers they are ignoring by not thinking about accessibility.

I know your feeling. There are so many new games I'd like to be able to play with my friends and can't simply because of my vision loss.

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It especially sucks since I'm trying to find games to stream with my friends that would also be nice to watch as a viewer.

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I don't know how your vision currently is, but for me, turn-based games have been working out pretty well.

Shell shock live for instance has bright colours, so it's easy to keep track of things. Xcom 2's contrast isn't the best, but at least you have lots of time to think about your moves.

I don't play that many shooters, because they tend to go so fast.

If you can see colours, I'd also suggest playing some 3d platformers. I was born when the best ones were released, so hit me up if you want some suggestions. :)

Take care and remember that there are probably many people who feel the same.

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Same. I'm low vision and can play some RPG and hack and slash but I'd like to be able to play games like GTA, Overwatch, call of duty but I can't because of being blind.

I completely agree. I have some friends who are gamers and I can listen to playThroughs of some games but there are a lot of times when watching playThroughs or hearing people tell me about them just isn’t enough. And I know there are text adventure games and some accessible audio games but it would be nice to be able to play mainstream games.

That absolutely sucks man. It's a rhythm game, surely they could figure out something. I'm the developer of Braillemon - I'm sorry that I haven't updated the game because it was my first game and I don't want to deal with a C&D from Nintendo. And watching the accessibility situation in gaming is so frustrating. I still make demos and try to keep high levels of accessibility (altho one of my games is a little broken rn cuz i've been adding a lot of features) but I'm literally one guy who's a drop on the map. Most people just think accessibility is for goodie points and pat my head until I start telling them how to make their games not trigger seizures or basic usability for blind/deaf people.

I haven't talked about this much publicly but I'm also disabled and it took me over 10 years to start to figure out how bad it is. I'm not blind but I share many of the same visual complaints because I'm extremely vulnerable to motion sickness and complex scenes and colors. It will literally make me throw up. It's not just blind people that games aren't made for. I literally can't look at modern games without getting sick, and there's no option to change basic features. In fact, options screens in general are meager and pathetic. This shit robbed me of my career and it robbed me of my ability to use a lot of applications.

Like holy crap I know blind people may not be aware of this but do you know how much software has stupid fancy graphics now? That's why your apps take forever to load btw. They have blurring, shaking, glowing, moving objects, all of which easily trigger migraines that leave me bedridden all day and can even trigger small seizures. Then they put in a meager "Accessibility Panel" to give us the finger. I'm talking about you, Discord...

I have a friend who was struck by lightning, and is a programmer too. And he is so frustrated that he can't play a lot of classic games anymore because of his motor disability. He has told me himself he could code the interface himself if it was more able to be customized.

I'm tired of disabled people being treated like we can't make these interfaces ourselves. The only real reason why we can't is because of how software is distributed to us. They don't even give us the means to construct more usable interfaces with basic plugin support. Nintendo of course could give less of a shit. Disability communities have produced games for themselves for decades now and all they're used for is for some AAA to ask some questions to half ass basic accessibility features.

On the subject of indie games, well, I have some sympathy for them as an indie dev, because expectations are high and they're usually very small teams and accessibility is admittedly not easily available for devs, but something as popular as Friday Night Funkin, a rhythm game of all things! Surely they could afford to add accessibility. But a lot of devs simply don't care or expect the engine to do things for them. Many devs barely know how to properly construct a UI. I was shocked to find how hands off it is, making implementing accessibility on the dev level extremely difficult. This is enabled further and further because of people using prefabricated engines and having less and less understanding of how their games work.

Having to fight with professional developers who refuse to acknowledge that UI is a part of their job is also frustrating. I have to explain the majority of users who can't "figure out how to use a computer" are literally because accessibility sucks and its not just because "they're lazy". It disgusts me how many of these employed "computer bros" seriously act like accessibility doesn't matter and its just for brownie points. "Hey, you know UNIX? And how it was designed for multiple users? I wonder how they considered what users do when designing literally the entire architecture." I swear to GOD these problems are PROLIFIC.

I've met many disabled devs including blind devs who would blow these chucks out of the water, but in the industry the best we can hope for is tokenization, or in the case of invisible disability, working yourself to death or insanity.

The whole Last of Us 2 thing annoyed me too. The accessibility work sounded fantastic, but I noticed a lot of article headlines didn't even attribute the actual contractors who did the work (only deeper in the article where most people would miss it). Not only are disabled people forced into accessibility roles but we aren't even publicly recognized for it. I've had to explain to so many people that the accessibility wasn't done in house, its ridiculous.

Oh, and something I hate - I suspect a lot of accessibility guides receive at best consultation from a single disabled person of each "accessibility archetype". Meaning they get one blind guy's opinion, one deaf guy's opinion... I've shared these development guides with other disabled people and they find them insulting and derogatory, often including assumptions about people's intelligence and knowledge instead of actually dealing with accessibility issues. The way these people talk about mental illness, learning disability and PTSD is absolutely insulting and disgusting and its obvious they did not consult people on it. Hell some of the people who are super involved aren't even disabled themselves. *cough hack cough certain journalists*

Oh yeah and on the subject of mental illness. Do you KNOW how many games there are out there that are basically just schizophrenia stereotypes. It's so painful.

I'm low vision but there's a lot of games I just can't play. One of my favourite games is a rhythm game and luckily its just button pressing so I can still play the songs I was good at before losing my vision really well but get upset when I play ones I'm not as familiar with and completely fail at something I know I would have been good at before.

I definitely feel a lot of frustration playing multiplayer games to an extent I don't want to anymore. My friends play Among Us a lot and I'm so self conscious that I'm bad at the mini games or when I'm imposter I get caught a lot because of the colours of the players against the background. I certainly can't play games in the same way I used to and I grieve this a lot. Not long after I started losing my vision I got Kingdom Hearts 3 and I was still at a stage where I thought it would come back so I put off playing it for ages saying I wanted to be able to play it when I could see all of it, and that depressed me quite a bit at the time when I realised I just wouldn't have the same experience I once had.

I've not really got over it and it does make me really upset sometimes. But games that have accessibility settings make me happy, or even one with aids. I love Assassins Creed Odyssey because I can use the Eagle to mark my enemies and not be killed in seconds like I would in a similar game (I can't even get through the first part of the Last of Us because enemies I never see keep shooting me)

I hope things get better for you and I totally feel wanting to play mainstream games, I don't want to be restricted by my vision either. Ultimately I think its more of a fault of accessibility not being more ingrained in society rather than my fault for just being.

I completely agree!

If I ever get vision, the first thing I’d do would play videogames.

If your looking to play games like everyone else does, as in, not games made for blind people (completely valid and I totally agree), several I enjoy are street fighter, mortal kombat there was a game shank I used to play, theres more but really, fighting games are your best bet. You can memorize the combos as anyone else does, and a lot of them are in stereo so its easy enough to guess where people are. I personally like super street fighter 4 arcade edition for this reason, though others in that franchise are doable as well. Hope this helps some. I agree though, I wished badly that I could play minecraft and halo back in the day lol. I still did, but I think I was lucky because I have a good friend who back then was patient with helping me out with some of the harder games lol.
Oh I forgot to mention, GTA games are somewhat playable if you just wanna blow shit up, 5 being the most playable on pc especially with mods and trainers and what not, there was even an accessibility mod at one point though I don't know how good it is As I've never tried it. But audo driving is another one, a teleportation trainer, body guards, theres several out there to aid us in our playing. And theres the first person mode too that helps with the stereo sound and such.
Good luck to ya.

You may be interested in 'The Last of Us Part Two'. It is a highly rated game with impressive accessibility features. Here is a review from a blind gamer.


https://www.kandugroup.com/2020/11/21/the-last-of-us-part-ii-accessible-game-review/

I certainly understand what you mean, I've had times where people are playing like sports video games or the League of Legends video game and I wished I could join and could not, and my brother likes this one called Deadspace and some of the Star Wars video games and the Arkham Asylum video games and Grand Theft Auto series and so can't relate to him on those but we relate with other stuff like Star Wars and Marvel movies.

Hi all!

I’m a visually impaired gamer. OP, there are quite a few games out there that you could play. If you want a decently accessible console go with Xbox One or Xbox Series S/X. Fighting games are great.

Killer Instinct in particular, has sound cues that help while playing. Whatever side of the tv screen your character is, the sound will be more prominent on that side.

I also play Minecraft Dungeons. The game has a fairly nice narrator. The narrator will let you know when items drop and what they are. If you play with a group of people and you’ve lost your way you can be teleported to the nearest person.

i play on the Nintendo Switch as well. You can download apps like Seeing AI for phones and tablets. It will read text boxes in Pokemon and Animal Crossing.


if you’re an Apple user there are some VoiceOver friendly games. One of those games is Dice World. VoiceOver will read the menus and dice that you or your opponents roll.


You shouldn’t have to give up on a hobby that you love just because of your vision. Gaming is becoming more and more accessible.

I'm older than you probably. My first video game system was a pong and then my next was Colecovision. I have a PS4 now. The other day my wife and I were talking and I said,, "I'm not going to get a PS5." She asked me why and I explained that there is too much happening on the screen and everything happens too fast in video games for me anymore.
I also used to play tons of board games. Those too have become difficult.
I used to commute every other week on the train. It was a 6 hour train ride each way. That gave me lots of time to meet new people and ask a question.
My question was, "Can you think of an activity that I can do alone and with others. I don't want the equipment to take up too much space and it can't be too expensive to do." After asking this question to numerous people over 4 years I finally got a winner. A guy said to me, " why don't you take up bowling?" Lightbulb moment!
I bought a bowling ball and joined a bowling league within a week. I was lucky because the season was about to start. I joined a co-ed league, which tend to be more social and less competitive.
It turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life! I made new friends and really had fun. When I started bowling my average was 68. Because the league that I was in used a handicapping system based on your average I didn't weigh my team down. In fact because if their help I improved so much we won the league championship.
I moved to a bigger city and joined a blind bowling league and an all male league. They each had there plus and minuses. Feel free to message me if you ever have questions.
My only caution about bowling is avoid the drinking and crap food of the bowling alleys.
So this might have been a very long response, but I wanted to share with you that there are options. Think of your criteria. What do you want to do, even if you don't know what that is, and keep asking your question. You just might find your pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

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I felld the same when I starting to lose my vision 2 years ago, I used to Play Overwatch, League of Legends, a lot of main stream games, and now, I can't do it anymore unfortunately, my tip is, try to find other hobby, o, and I'm completely blind and I still can play Mortal Kombat if this helps you, alongother 2d fighting games.