Maybe this amuses and impresses me more than it will others, but I think it's worth mention...
I have discovered that a number of blind Skype users have taken to playing Uno in Skype conferences. The method is very simple: Each player uses his or her own Braille deck of Uno cards. The "table," virtual though it is, is organized alphabetically by first name of player, so it will be clear who follows whom. Playing always starts in alphabetical order, so a reverse makes it go in reverse alphabetical order. When it's your turn, you play from your deck onto your discard pile and announce the card. The next player plays a legal card to follow yours onto his or her own discard pile, etc. The game works just as usual in all other respects, it's just like having one huge Uno deck divided into several separate draw piles. Of course, there's absolutely no reason not to play with a mixture of blind and sighted players either, and the cost is nil plus the price of a deck of cards. I'm sure there are other games that could be made to work like this as well. We're used to things costing a mint and being a challenge, so this one just struck me as one of the simplest ways to make an accessible, international, and totally sight-independent game online. -- Doug Lee dgl at dlee.org http://www.dlee.org SSB BART Group doug.lee at ssbbartgroup.com http://www.ssbbartgroup.com "It's not easy to be crafty and winsome at the same time, and few accomplish it after the age of six." --John W. Gardner and Francesca Gardner Reese
