Hi Dark, I tend to agree with you on that point. You are probably right, and based on my own experience dealing with rehab centers and blind agencies they tend to have over simplified notions of blindness. The APH games is a case in point where I believe the author thought he was doing something original, not knowing of the Audyssey list, and wrote the games based on his own simplified view of how a blind gamer would play an audio game. Which I'm afraid is all too common do to the fact most audio game companies don't get much public recognition.
I remember reading an article about some MIT student, I think it was, wrote an audio game and the article said it was the first audio game developed for blind people. I felt like writing the author who wrote the article and setting them straight. After all, audio games have been around for quite a while, clear back into the Dos days with PCs Games and Kitchens Inc, and yet the majority of blind agencies let alone the general public are ignorant of that fact. Even if they are aware of audio games they tend to go for games that would appeal to children or people over 60 and everyone else in between is just not taken into account. We can see a similar trend when discussing accessible board and card games. If you look in a standard rehab center catalog you will see a standard deck of playing cards with large print and braille, a deck of Uno cards with large print and braille, an accessible Chess set, a pack of braille and large print Bingo cards, and maybe a copy of Connect Four with square and round holes in the checkers so you can tell them apart. Beyond that there really aren't any board and card games available for the blind. I don't know if this is the fault of the companies who make the games or the rehab centers, but I've found their selection rather limited. There is more that could be done to create a wider selection of card and board games. They could, for example, go out and buy a standard deck of Phase 10 cards, and braille the deck and sell them. They don't have to depend on the company to do the work, and I'm sure there would be some younger clients such as my wife and I who would buy them if the deck of cards and instructions were brailled. Yet, they haven't done this, and I have to braille my own if I want to play that card game. As for board games a person can do a lot with a clear sheet of braille labels and could label the squares on a board, could braille the playing cards, and perhaps replace the standard dice with a set of braille dice. Even if some board game isn't made accessible from the factory someone at the rehab center could in theory make up perhaps 10 or20 sets for sale and if they do well make more accessible board games. If not at least it was a decent experiment. Instead the general feeling I get from looking at these catalogs is that their major clients are older people, and although I can use some of the same products they clearly don't have someone of my generation in mind. Certain products I've found I can live without such as a liquid indicator, but if you read the add the rehab centers make it sound like something every blind person needs. Beeper baseballs, sockerballs, and basketballs are nice but I think I've out grown those sorts of things and really have no use for them. Certainly not for the kind of prices they are talking about. There is no way I'm going to pay $65 for a beeper sockerball just so I can play socker with my son now and then. :D In short, I often find the rehab centers have something more for children such as beeper balls, games like Connect Four, etc or something that might appeal to an older person like regular playing cards, Bingo, and so on. Although, I don't mind a good game of cards, Bingo, etc there is a lot more games out there that I'd find more interesting and the rehab centers don't carry accessible versions. Cheers! On 6/6/12, dark <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Tom. > > It's possible that they had partially deaf gamers in mind, though nothing > like that is mentioned in the docs, and the way they seem so self > congratulatory about how accessible the games are to blind people I think > they probably would've. > > Myself, I'm more inclined to the theory that they just have an over > simplified view of blindnesss and the capabilities of blnd people, though it > > might be that because so many institutions in the Uk (the rnib not the > least), have this view, that I am jumping to a conclusion. > > eitherway though, sinse they have ignored every attempt I've made to contact > > them regarding their games and have done nothing concerning updates, it's > probably going to be easier just to alter the db pages with a major warning > > and leave it at that. > > Beware the grue! > > Dark. > --- 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://mail.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].
