A Blind Farmer Arrives in Pelican Town
February 20, 2022 10:25 AM Subscribe
Recently, modding games to make them accessible for the blind has become somewhat recognized. From Hades to Hearthstone, the number of successful projects seems to be growing. Now, Stardew Valley is being brought into the fold, thanks to an enterprising modder with passion and skill.
Previously on Mefi, among many others. It's also worth noting that this mod has added an API, which other mods have used, to improve the accessibility still further.
Previously on Mefi, among many others. It's also worth noting that this mod has added an API, which other mods have used, to improve the accessibility still further.
I'm amazed when people manage to present highly visual games for the blind in a playable way. The first time I remember people doing this was for NetHack.
posted by JHarris at 12:20 PM on February 20, 2022
posted by JHarris at 12:20 PM on February 20, 2022
FIghting games remain one of the genres with the best accessibility. Skullgirls, however problematic it may be WRT its artwork, is the gold standard when it comes to accessibility for blind and visually impaired players.
Most fighting games are at least moddable for blind players, but Skullgirls has it all built right into the game. No modding required.
I'm kind of amazed that games like Stardew Valley can be modded to be accessable.
I had an acquaintence online who was trying to see about Sid Meyer's Alpha Centauri becoming accessable, but it never worked out for him. And so far none of the more recent Civ type games have either.
One big issue is the incredible expense of tactile output devices.
Even a device that can display just 40 characters of braille text runs around $1500. Which seems totally absurd when you consider the sort of visual display you can get fo. $1500.
But, mechanical stuff costs more than purely electronic stuff, and that 40 character display requires 320 selonoids pushing little rounded plastic rods up or pulling them down to form the braille characters for the user to feel.
A multiple height display with even 100x100 resolution would cost vastly more if they did exist, and so far they don't. There's companies that occasionally talk about making such a device, but so far almost none have ever gone to market and the few that have either cost tens of thousands or were so terrible they were useless.
Which leaves blind players mostly relying on audio.
posted by sotonohito at 8:13 AM on February 21, 2022 [1 favorite]
Most fighting games are at least moddable for blind players, but Skullgirls has it all built right into the game. No modding required.
I'm kind of amazed that games like Stardew Valley can be modded to be accessable.
I had an acquaintence online who was trying to see about Sid Meyer's Alpha Centauri becoming accessable, but it never worked out for him. And so far none of the more recent Civ type games have either.
One big issue is the incredible expense of tactile output devices.
Even a device that can display just 40 characters of braille text runs around $1500. Which seems totally absurd when you consider the sort of visual display you can get fo. $1500.
But, mechanical stuff costs more than purely electronic stuff, and that 40 character display requires 320 selonoids pushing little rounded plastic rods up or pulling them down to form the braille characters for the user to feel.
A multiple height display with even 100x100 resolution would cost vastly more if they did exist, and so far they don't. There's companies that occasionally talk about making such a device, but so far almost none have ever gone to market and the few that have either cost tens of thousands or were so terrible they were useless.
Which leaves blind players mostly relying on audio.
posted by sotonohito at 8:13 AM on February 21, 2022 [1 favorite]
Braille output is definitely an issue, but sadly even that isn't likely to solve all that many access problems, since only a small percentage of visually-impaired folks read it.
I'd love to find a way to play Alpha Centauri, myself, but it's hard to mod for a variety of reasons, and obviously has no built-in accessibility support on its own. Hack-ish solutions like OCR can help, but obviously bespoke tools like the mods linked in this thread are preferable where possible.
posted by Alensin at 8:39 AM on February 21, 2022 [2 favorites]
I'd love to find a way to play Alpha Centauri, myself, but it's hard to mod for a variety of reasons, and obviously has no built-in accessibility support on its own. Hack-ish solutions like OCR can help, but obviously bespoke tools like the mods linked in this thread are preferable where possible.
posted by Alensin at 8:39 AM on February 21, 2022 [2 favorites]
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