Pong miniplay1/31/2024 There are a few features game companies add to their titles to better accommodate the visually impaired. Haptic feedback is a major accessibility innovation. "Nine times out of 10, you aren't even able to tell that you're playing with a blind person," Maroney said. AudioGames, an online community for blind gamers, has over 16,000 users and over 250,000 posts on its forums. Maroney plays multi-user dungeon (known as MUD) computer games like Cyber Assault and Alter Aeon, which offer text-based adventures that translate well to audio-only mode, putting blind and sighted gamers on an even playing field. There's a whole genre of video games that cater to the visually impaired. Belanger has been visually impaired since birth. "There's definitely a market for blind gamers wanting to play mainstream games," said Karl Belanger, a technology specialist for the National Federation of the Blind. alone, according to the National Federation of the Blind. There are about 7.4 million people with a visual disability in the U.S. Even colorblindness brings about severe limitations: Overwatch's colorblind mode, for example, is a disastrous psychedelic fever dream - it's borderline unplayable.īy ignoring the visually impaired community, the gaming industry is arguably leaving money on the table. Games also tend to reward players who can see very well. The biggest titles of the past year - think Call of Duty, FIFA and Horizon Zero Dawn - rely on astounding visuals to enthrall and entertain. Most games are made only for people who can see. Visually impaired gamers want to play too "Rich was like, 'Hmm, I'll pass,'" Bundren said, laughing. Then there's the game where you coddle a baby until it falls asleep. "I actually have a beard, and that one's nothing like actual shaving," Maroney said. The couple can also play Table Tennis, Ball Count and Shave, which requires players to (virtually) buzz hair off the face. "It gives you a little vibration right when it says 'fire,' so I'm able to react to it quickly." "One of my favorites was Quick Draw," Maroney said. Maroney and Bundren, 36, were able to play 22 of the 28 challenges included in the party game. In the minigame Safe Crack, for example, players are tasked with rotating the controller to recreate the sensation of opening a locked safe. Most ask you to look at your opponent instead, using a combination of audio cues and haptic feedback - when your controller vibrates in response to something in the game - to guide you. "I'm relegated to playing a blindness-specific game on my computer."ġ-2-Switch, a party game that was released with the Switch on March 3, was different.ġ-2-Switch contains minigames that don't require watching the screen at all. "My wife gets to play Zelda," Maroney said. Maroney used to love Resident Evil, but like most titles, he can't play it without his vision. From the beginning, they shared a love of games, but there were very few Maroney could join in on. He met his wife, a teacher of visually impaired K-12 students, at the end of her internship at an adult rehabilitation center. Maroney, 38, lost his sight in 2002 due to diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of vision impairment among working-age adults, according to the National Eye Institute. Mandi Bundren's launch-day purchase of the Nintendo Switch came with an added bonus: She could play with her husband, Rich Maroney, who is blind.
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