Video: Going beyond graphics to reach visually impaired players

The advent of touchscreen devices, with their libraries of visually-oriented games and apps, might seem to be a disaster for the visually impaired. Surprisingly, some accessibility advocates in the game industry believe the opposite is true because most modern smartphones have sophisticated technologies that specifically facilitate their use by those with vision impairments. These technologies are accessible to game developers, making it increasingly easy to accommodate those with vision impairments -- or even target them directly. At GDC 2014, a group of such developers got together with advocates for the visually impaired (including blind game player Brandon Cole) to share what they'd learned about creatively overcoming development challenges to make games that are accessible and appealing to the large population of visually impaired people eager to buy and play them. It's an excellent talk, so we've taken the liberty of embedding the free video of "Beyond Graphics: Reaching the Visually Impaired Gamer" above. You can also watch it here on the GDC Vault.

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