Disabled Gaming Review Series

[ianhamilton_]

Thank you. I have cerebral palsy (and also review games) and I've really only seen AbleGamers cover it in its entirety.

It's something that needs to be done, because I don't think many games go far enough to accommodate disabled gamers. Not that I play the games any different than anybody else (my CP only affects my right side), but I do like that you're doing this.

There are quite a few people doing great work along those lines. AbleGamers is the best for volume of reviews, and they sometimes take requests of what to review. Dual-ring is fantastic for detail and range of impairments covered. Then there are individuals such as Josh of DAGERS, and more specialist sites too, like applevis.

Every single extra person doing that kind of thing (yourself included, igetnoslack! Where do your reviews live?) helps enormously, not just with giving information for disabled gamers but raising awareness amongst other gamers and game developers. Don't forget to contact developers about any issues you find, sometimes they just have a lack of awareness, so if it's something that can easily be fixed in a patch then they may well do so. Even if they can't, they'll then know better for next time.

So darkscanner, I'm really pleased to see that you're doing this. Have you come across http://www.gameaccessibilityguidelines.com ? If you're going into detail about what developers can do to improve you might find some extra ideas in there.

 

[Ed James]

This is a bit off topic, but I would like your guys opinion on 2 things if you would be so kind.

I suffered from a brain hemorrhage at birth, and as a result I'm "legally blind" in one eye. My optic nerve damage means that I can only see dominantly out of one eye. I still receive images from the other eye, resulting in a sort of blurry double mono-vision (think a 3D movie with no glasses on). I have poor eye-hand co-ordination, and little to no depth perception basically relying on muscle memory on a day to day basis - which isn't too great due to my lack of co-ordination.

As this was from birth, my brain has learnt to repress the signal from my bad eye somewhat, but not completely.

Bizarrely, I have found that Having mono-vision has not impacted my gaming as much as people would think, as my vision is essentially like viewing your life constantly through a TV, but I do feel the underlying issues of my co-ordination are stopping me from getting any better at them; I often get mind blanks when under pressure and end up pressing ever button under the sun, completely forgetting what i was doing, and mouse and analogue sticks are always a bit too keen to jump at my slightest twitch, leaving me with not the best accuracy under the sun.

I live a fairly ordinary life, and the only special treatment I get is the use of PCs and extra time, but my question to you is:

Should I consider myself a disabled gamer? I don't wan't to be seen as a poser trying to blend in with the real heroes here

And

Should there be a (or more - idk if there are any) para-gaming leagues? I would feel a lot more comfortable in competitive gaming, as my meat bag of a body is often to blame for my poor performance, resulting in me just getting angry at myself.

 

[Ed James]

Also, you guys should check out Xpadder if you prefer a controller, but have to use a PC. It maps any keyboard button to your controller, so you can have the best of both worlds ^^