Games for vision impaired

Gamers with blindness, color blindness, or other issues of sight want to play the latest hit video game as much as their sighted colleagues, and to that end many vision-impaired gamers navigate through video games using audio cues, vibration feedback from their controllers, or special patches and mods that improve sound quality, increase the interface size, read game text out loud, and more.

Some video game genres are easier for people with vision-impairment to play than others, often because their gameplay has a close relationship between sound and the movements of a video game avatar. Other games have been designed from the ground-up to be playable by the vision-impaired, emphasizing audio as a way of perceiving the game world. Night Jar , an iOS game released in , and Blind Legend , released in , are two big examples of games built around audio navigation and blindness as a theme.

Night Jar , a science-fiction horror adventure narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch , is about an astronaut trying to escape a spaceship plummeting into a black-hole, in which players use sound cues to navigate the ship corridors and avoid a stalking alien. Blind Legend , in contrast, is a hack'n'slash fantasy about a blind knight and his daughter navigating and fighting their way through a danger-filled castle. One of the earliest video game genres developed for the home computer, Text Adventures , also called "Interactive Fiction", use text to describe the game world and keyboard commands to interact with it "Go North", "Pick Up Flask", etc.

Classic Text Adventures like Zork , Planetfall , or A Mind Forever Voyaging can be played by the blind and vision-impaired using a text-to-audio interface or digital braille displays. Newer racing car games like Grid , Need For Speed Heat , and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe have been popular among gamers with impaired vision, particularly if the gameplay focuses on safety rails over bottomless chasm for this reason, the arena battle mode of Mario Kart is more popular among blind and vision-impaired gamers than its racing mode.

This section will look at three different games Freeze Up! Freeze Up! Each player is given 60 seconds per game to think of names in the categories.

The last player to use up his or her time is the winner. No vision is needed, just good recall and a sense of fun. Recommended for ages 8 years to mature adults who want to keep their minds nimble. There are plastic game pieces included. Rummikub Original with Braille : The original version of this classic game includes the tiles and 4 sturdy racks for holding them.

The colors stand out boldly against the ivory tiles. Bell Basketball, also referred to as Audible or Can Do Basketball, incorporates the use of a regulation size and weight basketball with internal bells that ring whenever it is in motion. A buzzer Goal Locator in a pouch can be placed on the basket, and an extra bell to attach to the net so that it rings when the ball goes through it.

Goalball has since become the premier team sport for blind athletes and is played competitively in countries. In goalball, two teams of three players each face each other across a court that is nine meters wide and 18 meters long. Your opponents listen for the oncoming ball and attempt to block it with their bodies. The body parts of the bug are made using hard plastic that comes in different colors.

This game helps develop motor skills. Dice with Braille inserted in it are also available. Playing Cards : Normal playing cards with Braille can lead to a varied number of games options for visually impaired children.

Games like Uno can also be enjoyed with Braille. The game requires rolling five dices and scoring points for three-of-a-kind and straights. Tic-Tac-Toe : Use a cake pan that is divided by magnet strips and large paper cut outs of X and O for a large game. Pegs and pegboards can also be used. Musical Toys : Musical toys offer auditory feedback and stimulation to visually impaired children.

Computer Games : Various modified versions of games are available for blind or visually impaired children. Some of the adaptations are: Divide sections of board games with glue and different textures. Add Braille labels to each section of the board.

Use Velcro in sections of the board. Braille the instructions and game cards. Record game instructions on tape.