Hi Cara: Very true. We, the Audyssey community, do need to get more pro active about encouraging ACB, NFB, AFB, etc in getting more games made available to the blind community. A lot of times people on this list and over on the Audiogames.net forum complain about accessibility of mainstream games for XBox, Play Station, Wii, etc and I frankly believe that is beating a dead horse. We can, however, get more standard card and board games made accessible because it is easier to make braille versions of Monopoly, Life, Trouble, etc than it is to get company x to rewrite a video game to be blind friendly.
In fact, I've been doing that for years. I would go to a store buy a game like Monopoly and then braille the property cards, money, stick braille labels on the board, etc. If I can do that with a standard Monopoly set you know the manufacturer could do the same and sell it that way without much cost to the manufacturer. As it happens standard Monopoly is already available from In dependant Living Aids here in the States, but there are games like Mad Gab, Trivial Per suit, Sorry, and so on that would be just as easy to produce in braille versions too. They haven't and I imagine that is because none of the organizations like AFB, NFB, and ACB have made an issue of it. If they did I am sure we could get companies like Hasbro, which owns Parker Brothers and Milton Bradly, to produce accessible versions of their board games much easier than getting Sony, Activision, Capcom, etc to make accessible video games. Cheers! On 12/4/13, Cara Quinn <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Thomas, > > excellent point about affecting the decisions of manufacturers. > > Let me suggest that this is where our lobbies come in or rather, are > supposed to come in. ;) > > Groups such as the ACB and NFB are really supposed to be fulfilling these > roles as they do place themselves in the position of being the voice of the > blind. > > Until we can simply get wide-ranging notions in place in society that we are > just as varied a group of individuals as our sighted counterparts (though > our numbers are much smaller) the lack of awareness will continue. > > Right now, the average individual really has only the occasional concept of > the 'Hollywood' version of the blind person, in essence. Once that portrayal > is gone from the consciousness then the subject never comes up again, until > the next stereotypical 'Hollywood' portrayal arises. > > We need to not only have a more constant portrayal of blind individuals but > also a more realistic and wide ranging portrayal of said individuals. In > other words, many more of us need to be seen and heard from on a national > and world stage, more often. > > This will help to enhance peoples' general consciousness on a daily basis > and help to bring this community more out of the shadows. > > Short of this, I'm not sure how quickly progress will be made. Does this > make sense? > > this sort of thing can start as simply as a person giving a talk at a school > or library. Despite the fact that it may seem like we should be much further > along than this, as a society in the 21st century, many, many people are > still very interested / curious about how blind people go about their daily > lives in the world. Many people really do want to understand and do care. > this includes CEOs as much as it includes the quote average person. The info > just needs to be out there more. :) > > This truly is a question of basic awareness. > > Thanks for a great topic! > > Smiles, > > Cara :) > --- > iOS design and development - LookTel.com > --- > View my Online Portfolio at: > > http://www.onemodelplace.com/CaraQuinn > > Follow me on Twitter! > > https://twitter.com/ModelCara --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
