How blind players succeed at sports video games they’ve never seen

As you watch this video, close your eyes and imagine continuing to play the game.

SAN FRANCISCO—Blind people might not seem like a natural audience for most video games since they can’t experience the “video” part that’s a definitional part of the experience. At a fascinating Game Developers Conference Presentation this week, though, EA Sports Accessibility Lead Karen Stevens talked about how she discovered a significant, existing base of blind players in its games and how the company is moving to serve it.

The process began when Stevens received an email from a blind gamer complaining that changes to the kick-power meter in Madden NFL were making the latest version of the game impossible for them to play. Reaching out to other blind gamers through the forums on audiogames.net, Stevens found plenty of players figuring out their way through UFC, NHL, and even Need for Speed games without being able to see the menus or action on-screen.

“We already had an audience; they were just struggling,” Stevens said. “We were ignoring part of our audience.”

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from Gaming & Culture – Ars Technica http://ift.tt/2HVzBho