Today’s video games – most of them represent a fascinating and rather complex works that can easily be compared with movies or even good books. But video games are primarily visual entertainment that requires the player to look at the screen, read the dialogues and other texts and contemplate the surrounding beauty. Can the blind from birth person to enjoy all of this? As it turned out, could. Though not entirely true, as do sighted people.
The video, which you can watch below, tells the story of 27-year-old boy named Toby Ott, who was born with a rare disease – bilateral anophthalmos or absence of both eyeballs. Such deviation occurs in about one person out of 100 000. In three years, Toby has mastered Braille and learned to read. To this day he uses one of the first models of tablets for people who are blind manufacturing company Humanware, allowing him to use the computer. In the case of the Windows operating system, it helps the Jaws, and in Mac OS is built user-friendly VoiceOver.
When Toby was 5, he first learned what video games, once in the room with arcade machines. It was then that the boy heard the sound of fighting games Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. He whatever became decided to learn to play video games, despite the fact that I will never be able to see what is happening on the screen. Parents gave my son a Sony PlayStation, and he began to sink slowly into a completely new world. Not without the help of friends, of course. After all, in order to understand the various game menu, Toby was the necessary clues. And the games voice menu is extremely rare (this was implemented, for example, Virtual Fighter).
Over time, Toby’s so good to play fighting games that began to win their friends, focusing solely on the sound. Today he plays in games such as Injustice, over a network against other players and very often comes out of the fights winner. Help him do this many audio cues and “beacons” that developers left in the game. For example, when you’re near an interactive object in the arena that can be used against an opponent, the player hears a distinctive sound. But not all games are so friendly to blind gamers. While playing Doom in Toby have to resort to using cheat codes. The only way he can switch between levels to refill your health, because to blindly find the kit quite difficult.
Toby love Japanese role-playing game. At the moment he is gradually coming to the game Final Fantasy X, step by step, exploring its locations, and defeating bosses. One of the game’s bosses took him a few weeks. But after numerous trial and error, and Toby still won him over. Again, read the on-screen dialogs, deprived of voice without help he can not, therefore, from time to time asks his friends to help with that. Video game developers rarely do something in order to make life easier for blind gamers. Although you can do a lot. For example, to integrate into the game a speech synthesizer for voice and text conversations. It’s not that hard, but it will allow you to enjoy the game to hundreds of thousands of blind people around the world. Let’s hope that the example of Toby Ott will push someone from the developers to the serious changes in this direction. By the way, there are games in which you have to be in the role of a blind man. One of these games called Beyond Eyes I had already told. In the near future will go on sale in another similar game Perception.
Is it possible to learn how to play video games, if you were born without eyes?
Sergey Grey