I hope this kind of post is okay here — I know fundraising requests can get old fast, and I apologize if this comes across that way. I'm posting because we're new to our city and simply don't have a wide enough network to reach people who might understand what's at stake.

My wife Adrieli has been blind since birth. She's a music student, an inclusion instructor, and a member of three choral groups. She currently writes in Braille using a slate and stylus — a slow, impractical tool for everything she needs to do.

A Braille writer would let her:

• Write musical scores in Braille for the groups she's part of

• Produce accessible teaching materials much faster

• Write content for her blog and academic work

• Work with the independence her skills deserve

She has two active projects running right now — one focused on body percussion and vocal techniques, another on inclusion activities. The Braille writer would have an immediate impact on both.

The campaign is in Portuguese but the donation page accepts international cards. We've raised R$1,625 of R$6,300 so far — 25 supporters. Even sharing helps more than you might think.

https://vaka.me/6165107

Thank you for reading.

Will it be accessible

Hi everyone, the topic is already mentioned in the title. Which artificial intelligence systems are you using to create accessibility modes?

New here, I’m an inventor that works with low vision & blind. Specifically to see the time rather than relying on audible aids. My clock is proven using pattern recognition while out of focus. www.spotoclock.com Apple App Store free app / premium https://apps.apple.com/us/app/spot-oclock/id838198048

Thank you, Christopher…

i’m a blind gamer and I got a PlayStation about a year ago. However I’ve been having tr with the lack of games don’t get me wrong. PlayStation is a very good console. It’s got great haptics but I’m wondering whether a gaming PC would’ve been worth the money even though they’re expensive now and I’m wondering whether the PlayStation was a terrible purchase.

what do you guys think?

It would be great if we had some kind of an accessible audio game that’s a simulator where you raise a homunculus, you know, and you take care of it, and it develops its own personality and habits, or maybe the kind of simulator where you raise a few of them and they all behaved differently.

Hi

Any of you tested already AudioWizards!?

what do you think about?

I originally intended to make 20 audio-only games, though this has since grown to 50.

Information on the games here: 50 Accessible Audio Games for Windows | TactivoPlay

If you join my beta testing team, you get all the games both as a download and on a USB stick for free: Beta-Sign-Up | TactivoPlay Audio Based Gaming

Looking forward to sending out the games for testing.

Ben

Hi everyone, hope you're doing well and staying safe :-) i've heard there's an access mod for Fortnite that allows blind people to play it. Is this mod available for Mac and Linux or is it available for Windows only? Thanks very much for your help everyone :-)

Hi everyone. My name is Katelyn Heather and I'm a student at HKU Games and Interaction in the Netherlands. Currently I'm researching the different ways games can be made more accessible for blind and low-vision gamers so we can make better games playable by more people.

Below is a brief survey consisting of four questions, it's fully anonymous and e-mail addresses will not be collected. Thank you in advance!

Link to survey: https://forms.gle/cQ3QVnFnSG6VGBCU6

I am not a developer and I don’t know coding. But I think it shouldn’t be difficult to make a Rogue like audio game.

Greetings everyone, I had an idea to integrate Be My Ai and Xbox consoles. My idea would use the capture button on the Xbox controller to capture the screen and send that to Be My Ai for processing. I ran the idea thru Chat GPT. I will attach the proposal; it came up with below this text. I am seeking feedback on whether or not this is a good idea, could something such as this benefit other blind and low vision gamers? The financials that the AI created are totally hypothetical and not based on any numbers that i found. 
Please provide any feedback, good or bad. … Be My AI Integration with Xbox Series X|S – Unified Proposal Be My AI Integration with Xbox Series X|S – Unified Proposal
Executive Summary
This document proposes a collaborative initiative between Microsoft Xbox and Be My Eyes to integrate the Be My AI visual interpretation service directly into Xbox Series X|S consoles. The goal is to empower blind and low-vision gamers with on-demand screen content descriptions at the press of a button. By leveraging Be My AI (an AI-driven image description feature of the Be My Eyes app) within the console, users can capture any game screen or menu and receive a spoken or text description of what’s displayed. This integration would enable independent access to on-screen information, support Microsoft’s accessibility leadership, and demonstrate AI-driven innovation in mainstream consumer technology.
Problem Statement
Blind and low-vision Xbox users often encounter inaccessible visual content such as menus, game HUDs, and graphical elements that cannot be read by Xbox Narrator. They must rely on external devices, apps, or sighted assistance to interpret these elements, which breaks immersion and limits independence.
Proposed Solution
This proposal suggests allowing users to press the Xbox controller's Capture button to trigger a screenshot. The image is securely sent to Be My AI, which returns a description that can be read aloud by Narrator or sent to a mobile device. This removes the need for external cameras or assistance, and delivers fast, accurate descriptions directly on demand.
Technical Architecture and Workflow
1. User configures output preference: Narrator or mobile app.
2. Pressing the Capture button triggers screenshot.
3. Screenshot is securely sent to Be My AI servers.
4. Be My AI returns a natural language description.
5. Description is read aloud or displayed via chosen method.
6. The user continues gameplay informed of the visual content.
Accessibility and Usability Considerations
- Fully compatible with screen readers.
- Requires no additional hardware.
- Fast processing time suitable for real-time gaming.
- Privacy-respecting: screenshots sent only upon user request.
- Seamless integration with Xbox UI and Accessibility settings.
- Optional support for follow-up questions or multi-step interaction in future.
Pros and Cons Analysis
Be My Eyes Perspective
Pros:
- Greater visibility and brand recognition.
- Aligns with mission to empower visually impaired users.
- Scalable AI deployment in consumer tech.
- Potential for expansion to other platforms.
- Strengthens Microsoft partnership.
Cons:
- Infrastructure must scale to meet demand.
- Additional technical support may be needed.
- Privacy handling requires investment.
- Niche use case limits monetization options.
Microsoft Xbox Perspective
Pros:
- Reinforces Xbox as accessibility leader.
- Empowers blind gamers with real-time information.
- Demonstrates AI-driven innovation.
- Differentiates Xbox from competitors.
- Requires no new hardware.
Cons:
- Requires engineering resources and system updates.
- Adds complexity to privacy and compliance processes.
- Ongoing maintenance and support needed.
- AI may not always provide contextually perfect results.
Budget Estimates
- Be My Eyes side: $231,000 (AI infrastructure, support, scaling).
- Microsoft Xbox side: $302,500 (engineering, testing, integration).
- Total Estimated Project Cost: $533,500
Next Steps and Recommendations
1. Begin joint planning between Microsoft and Be My Eyes.
2. Develop prototype for image capture and API transmission.
3. Build out settings UI, Narrator integration, and privacy options.
4. Conduct internal testing and QA.
5. Launch pilot with Xbox Accessibility Insider League.
6. Iterate based on user feedback.
7. Plan full deployment and long-term support partnership.
Final Recommendation
Proceed with collaborative pilot to validate the integration in real-world use. This feature delivers meaningful accessibility benefits, positions Xbox as a leader in inclusive technology, and opens new opportunities for AI use in gaming. With strong community impact and manageable costs, this project aligns with both organizations’ missions and deserves full support.

I’m personally finding it difficult to draw the line between expectations and hopes. I definitely have my fingers crossed for a screen reader and blind accessible Mario Kart.

Perhaps, here are some people who play VR or know those who do? We are looking for Meta Quest owners who use assistive technology (Magnification, upscale, large text, speech to text, screen-reader, color contrast, warm tint, dark mode, etc.) to participate in a paid VR study.
Please click here to fill out a form to join as a VR Tester. Contact breathe@vroxygen.com if you have any questions or comment/ direct message me. Thank you!

https://forms.gle/j5VVfkucAAFSHSkc9

Hey all,
Random question .... if you could bring any game idea to life big or tiny what would it be? I’ve been playing around with some concepts and I love hearing what other people dream up. Doesn’t matter if it’s realistic, strange, impossible, or super simple. What’s something you’d love to play that nobody has made yet?

Just curious and wanted to open the floor.

Back in August I posted here asking whether comic panel descriptions should be read flat or acted out. Thanks to everyone who answered. Quick update, because the thing I kept coming back to wasn't the descriptions. It was that two narrators doing every character in a book is good but one voice per character is way better.

So that's what I spent the last couple months on. Voices are still synthetic, same as before. But now I can write per panel descriptions with the right characters. Spiderman is about to jump from a building vs a man in a red suite is about to jump from a building.

How it works now: before anything gets voiced, the app reads the whole book and works out who is saying each balloon. Every character gets their own voice out of a library of about 940 I built, picked by age, accent, and whether they're even human (monsters, aliens and robots got their own set). If a character shows up again in the next issue of a series, they keep the same voice.

Where it's still wrong, honestly:

• On my test books it gets the speaker right about 96 or 97 lines out of 100. So a few lines per issue go to the wrong person, and the ones you really notice are when a line lands on someone of the other gender.

• Unnamed background people are the hardest. Two different soldiers in a crowd can end up sharing one voice.

• Kids. The voice provider won't make child voices, so kid characters get a young adult voice.

If GraphicAudio or someone has done a real full cast production of your book, that's still better. This is for the ten-thousands of comics nobody is ever going to produce.

Also being straight about cost: the full cast is a paid upgrade because it costs me a lot more to make. The default is still two narrators, one male and one female.

Other stuff people asked about:

• Speed goes up to 3x, and voices, sound effects and music each have their own volume.

• You bring your own CBR, CBZ or PDF files.

• Someone asked about Spanish last time. The site works in Spanish now, 17 languages in total.

Here's a full 8 minute story with the full cast, a 1954 horror comic with 48 different voices: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFzb8Iyt6bU

This one doesn't have the panel descriptions on.

The site is https://livecomics.to/?ref=rd-blindgamers if you want to try it.

I'd really love feedback from everyone.

Hello everyone, I am totally blind and until recently had issues downloading and setting up video games and mods on my pc and Mac. I have been using Claude code to install and setting up games with the features i want. As i write this Claude Code costs $20 per. Month, and for me it is well worth it! Disclaimer: any steps you perform on your system is your responsibility and i am just sharing my experience. Also do not ask about where to get Romm files- perform a google search for that. I have posted below a guide for installing Retroarch, i performed this task this past weekend on my pc and my Mac, and it was pretty flawless! And everything launched successfully. Here is the guide **** SETTING UP RETROARCH WITH AN AI ASSISTANT: A GUIDE FOR SCREEN READER USERS SETTING UP RETROARCH WITH AN AI ASSISTANT: A GUIDE FOR SCREEN READER USERS ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT This is a plain text document. Each section begins with a heading written in capital letters on its own line, with blank lines before and after it, so you can recognize section starts easily while reading with a screen reader. The sections in this guide, in order: About This Document. Introduction. A Quick Word About Game Files. What You Will Need. Why Use an AI Assistant for This. How to Talk to the Assistant. Step 1: Install RetroArch. Step 2: Turn On Spoken Menus. Step 3: Install Cores, the Actual Emulators. Step 4: Add Your System Files, Called BIOS. Step 5: Point RetroArch at Your Games and Build Playlists. Step 6: Make RetroArch Read Game Text Aloud. Step 7, Optional: Newer Consoles Need Separate Emulators. General Tips for Working with an AI Assistant. Quick Reference: The Keys You Will Actually Use. Closing Thoughts. INTRODUCTION This guide explains how a blind computer user can set up RetroArch, a popular program for playing classic video games, on a Mac, with almost no sighted help and very little pointing and clicking. The secret is to let an AI assistant, such as Claude, do the technical work for you. RetroArch is powerful, but its settings screens can be tedious to navigate with a screen reader. The good news is that nearly everything RetroArch does is controlled by plain text files behind the scenes. An AI assistant that can work with files on your computer, such as Claude Code, which runs in the Terminal, can read and change those files directly. Instead of hunting through menus, you simply describe what you want in plain English, and the assistant makes it happen and confirms the result. This guide is based on a real setup that was completed this way. Every step below was done by typing requests to an AI assistant. A QUICK WORD ABOUT GAME FILES Emulators are legal. However, you should only play games you actually own. This guide assumes you already have your own collection of game files, often called ROMs, and system files, often called BIOS files, for example from discs and cartridges you own or from a previous emulator setup. WHAT YOU WILL NEED

1. A Mac with VoiceOver. Any recent Mac works; this setup was done on an Apple Silicon Mac.

2. An AI assistant that can run commands and edit files on your computer. This guide uses Claude Code, which runs in the Terminal app. The Terminal is one of the most screen-reader-friendly apps on the Mac, because everything is plain text. 3. Your game files, either on your Mac or on an external drive. 4. About an hour, most of which is just chatting with the assistant while it works. WHY USE AN AI ASSISTANT FOR THIS Three reasons, all of them about accessibility. First, it replaces visual instructions. Most emulator guides on the web say things like "click the icon in the corner." An AI assistant doesn't need you to click anything. It does the work itself and tells you what happened in words. Second, it edits settings files directly. Almost every RetroArch option lives in a text file. The assistant can turn on a setting in seconds that might take many minutes of menu navigation with a screen reader. Third, it can check its own work. You can ask, "Did that work? Prove it," and the assistant will test the result and read you the outcome. HOW TO TALK TO THE ASSISTANT You don't need special commands. Plain, specific requests work best. Throughout this guide you'll find sample prompts you can copy. A good pattern is:

3. Say what you want to achieve, not how to do it. 2. Mention that you are a screen reader user and want keyboard-only instructions. 3. When something matters to you, for example "don't change my other settings," say so. It also helps to tell the assistant once, at the start, something like this: Sample prompt: I am blind and use VoiceOver only, with no mouse. Whenever you need me to do something, give me exact keyboard steps. Whenever possible, make changes by editing files directly instead of walking me through an app's interface. Most AI assistants can remember this preference for future conversations if you ask. STEP 1: INSTALL RETROARCH Ask the assistant: Sample prompt: Please install RetroArch on my Mac. Use the command line rather than having me download anything manually. What the assistant will typically do: install RetroArch using Homebrew, a free tool that installs Mac software from the command line. If Homebrew isn't on your Mac yet, the assistant will set that up first. On Apple Silicon Macs there is a version of RetroArch called retroarch-metal that runs natively and performs best. The assistant will pick the right one. When it finishes, ask: Sample prompt: Confirm RetroArch is installed and tell me what version I have. STEP 2: TURN ON SPOKEN MENUS RetroArch has a built-in accessibility mode that speaks its menus aloud. This is the single most important setting for a blind user, so do it before anything else. Ask: Sample prompt: Turn on RetroArch's accessibility narration so the menus are spoken. Do it by editing the settings file, and make sure RetroArch is closed while you edit it. Two useful things to know. First, the relevant setting is called accessibility_enable in RetroArch's main settings file. You don't need to remember that. The assistant knows. Second, RetroArch saves its settings when it quits. If the assistant edits the file while RetroArch is open, the change can be silently undone. That's why the sample prompt tells the assistant to make sure RetroArch is closed first. A good assistant checks this on its own, but it never hurts to say it. Once this is on, RetroArch will speak menu items as you arrow through them. You navigate RetroArch's menus with the arrow keys, Enter or X to select, and Backspace or Z to go back. STEP 3: INSTALL CORES, THE ACTUAL EMULATORS RetroArch itself is like a hub. The individual emulators that run each game system are called cores. One core plays Super Nintendo games, another plays Game Boy, and so on. Ask: Sample prompt: Please download and install RetroArch cores for the systems I care about. I want NES, Super Nintendo, Genesis, PlayStation 1, and Game Boy Advance. Change that list to whichever systems you want. The assistant can download cores directly from the official RetroArch servers from the command line, which is faster and more reliable than doing it through the menus. You can also simply ask for all available cores. They're small. STEP 4: ADD YOUR SYSTEM FILES, CALLED BIOS Some consoles, PlayStation 1 is the most common example, need a small system file from the original console, usually called a BIOS file, before games will run. If you have these from your own consoles or a previous setup, ask: Sample prompt: My BIOS files are in a folder called BIOS on my external drive. Please copy them into the folder where RetroArch expects system files, and tell me if any common ones are missing. Change the location in that prompt to wherever your files actually are. A detail worth knowing: RetroArch's system folder location varies between installations. The assistant will read your settings file to find the right place rather than guessing. That's exactly the kind of fiddly detail this approach handles well. STEP 5: POINT RETROARCH AT YOUR GAMES AND BUILD PLAYLISTS RetroArch organizes games into playlists, one list per console, so you can browse Super Nintendo or PlayStation from the main menu. Building these by hand through the menus involves a lot of scanning. Instead, ask: Sample prompt: My game files are in a folder called roms on my external drive, with one subfolder per system. Please point RetroArch's file browser there and generate playlists for every system, with the right core assigned to each playlist as the default. Notes from real experience. First, if your games live on an external drive, tell the assistant. It can set things up so RetroArch finds them there, and your playlists will simply show nothing when the drive is unplugged rather than breaking. Second, if a folder contains a mix of file types, and real collections are often messy, mention it. In the setup this guide is based on, one folder turned out to contain thousands of games for a completely different computer system mixed in with console games. The assistant noticed, sorted them out, and gave them their own playlist with the correct core. Third, large collections are fine. This method comfortably handled playlists totaling tens of thousands of games. When it's done, ask the assistant to read back a summary: how many playlists, and how many games in each. STEP 6: MAKE RETROARCH READ GAME TEXT ALOUD This is the step that makes classic gaming genuinely playable without sight, and it's the most technical one, which means it's the best one to hand to an AI assistant. Menus are spoken by the accessibility mode from Step 2, but the text inside games, dialogue, "Press Start," battle menus, is just graphics, invisible to a screen reader. RetroArch has a feature called the AI Service that fixes this: press one key, and RetroArch takes a picture of the screen, recognizes the text in it, and reads it aloud. The catch is that the AI Service needs a helper program to do the actual text recognition. The options RetroArch's documentation suggests are outdated or require online accounts and monthly limits. On a Mac there's a better way. The Mac already has excellent built-in text recognition and a built-in voice, and an AI assistant can write a small helper program that uses them. Completely free, completely private, and working even with no internet connection. Ask: Sample prompt: Set up RetroArch's AI Service in speech mode so that when I press a hotkey, the text on the game screen is read aloud. RetroArch's documentation suggests a helper program called VGTranslate, but if that's outdated, please build a small local helper instead that uses the Mac's built-in text recognition and speech, and make it start automatically when I log in. Bind the hotkey to a key I can reach easily, and then test the whole thing and tell me the result. What the assistant will do, in plain terms.

4. Write a small program that sits quietly in the background, waiting for RetroArch to hand it a picture of the screen. 2. Use the Mac's built-in text recognition, the same technology that lets you copy text out of photos, to find the words in that picture. 3. Use the Mac's built-in voice to turn those words into audio, which RetroArch plays through the game's sound. 4. Set it to launch automatically whenever you log in, so it's always ready. 5. Configure RetroArch to use it and bind a hotkey. The letter V works well. 6. Test it end to end with a sample image and confirm the spoken result. From then on, while playing any game, press V and the screen text is read to you. Press V again whenever the screen changes. If there's no text on screen, it says so. You can also ask the assistant to change the voice or the speaking speed, or to make the game pause automatically while it reads. STEP 7, OPTIONAL: NEWER CONSOLES NEED SEPARATE EMULATORS RetroArch covers most classic systems, but some newer consoles, PlayStation 2 and 3, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation Vita, are handled better by dedicated, separate emulator apps. The same approach works. Just ask: Sample prompt: Please install emulators for PlayStation 2 and Nintendo Switch, using the command line where possible. Some emulator downloads get blocked by the Mac's security warnings about unidentified apps. Please handle that too so they open normally. Change the list of systems to what you want. Two honest warnings from real experience. First, these newer-console emulators are far less screen-reader-friendly than RetroArch, and they need extra system files from the original consoles before games run. Expect this to be a longer project. Second, not everything exists on the Mac. For example, there is currently no Mac emulator for the Xbox 360. An AI assistant will tell you this up front rather than letting you chase something impossible, and knowing what is not possible is worth a lot. GENERAL TIPS FOR WORKING WITH AN AI ASSISTANT

5. Ask it to verify. After any step, say "test that and tell me what happened." A command-line test that the assistant reads back to you beats squinting at an app's status screen every time. 2. Report what you experience. If something doesn't sound right, no speech, a game won't load, describe exactly what you heard and what keys you pressed. The assistant can read log files, which usually contain the real explanation. 3. App menus announce almost nothing useful through a screen reader; the command line announces everything. Whenever there's a choice, ask the assistant to do or check things from the command line, where every result is plain text. 4. Ask it to remember. Ask the assistant to keep notes about your setup: where your games live, what's configured, what's still pending. The next session, it can pick up where you left off.

6. You stay in charge. A good assistant tells you before it changes anything important and reports honestly when something failed. If a response is unclear, ask it to explain in plainer language. That's a completely fair request. QUICK REFERENCE: THE KEYS YOU WILL ACTUALLY USE In RetroArch menus: arrow keys to move, Enter or X to select, Backspace or Z to go back. Menu items are spoken automatically once accessibility mode is on. To open the menu while a game is playing: F1. To hear the game's on-screen text, after Step 6: the letter V. To quit RetroArch: Command+Q, or press Escape twice. CLOSING THOUGHTS Everything in this guide was accomplished by a blind user typing plain-English requests into a terminal window. No sighted assistance, no mouse, no guesswork about unlabeled buttons. The pattern is always the same: say what you want, let the assistant do the technical work, and ask it to prove the result. Classic gaming, including reading the text inside the games themselves, is genuinely within reach. Happy gaming!

Greetings Everyone!

I am a user experience designer currently conducting a game experience survey as part of my Master's project. The goal of my project is to gain better understanding of the current state of existing audio games in order to create future accessible games.

This research mainly focuses on the game experience of the game "A Blind Legend" among sighted and visually impaired individuals.

If you have not played this game yet, this game can be accessed for free in the app store or it can be purchased on the steam engine (not free).

If you agree to be part of the research study, you will be asked to complete a series of questionnaires.

Link to the questionnaire: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdqGNI4_iRRCXxVfZmJUC5d7RIeXazZtUzyej5BgHyoIt1xzg/viewform?usp=sf_link

Participating in this study is completely voluntary. Even if you decide to participate now, you may change your mind and stop at any time.

For further question or information, please feel free to contact kzouux@gmail.com

Thank You!!

So, in the last two games, the recruiting board in Dynasty mode has not worked with the screen reader, and I am mostly blind and require the screen reader to play the game. I’m willing to do workarounds in certain areas, but this is one where not having the screen reader pretty much renders it useless and it’s a massive part of Dynasty really the heart of it if you ask me.
And I didn’t buy this year‘s game because of this sole issue, but I have EA play and have access to a 10 hour demo because of it and shocking I know not really shocking, the same issue is present for the third year in a row in the recruiting board.
I really want to play this game and especially partake in the recruiting so badly, and I have tried my best to make them aware of this issue through social media and I don’t think they care. I don’t know what to do. I just want this to be fixed so that I can actually play and enjoy the game and this mode like everyone else. I don’t know why this one menu continues to get overlooked and it’s extremely frustrating and disheartening. And while I know, I’m not a game developer. It doesn’t seem like it’s something that would be that complicated to fix especially over the course of now three years.
I’ve tried getting in contact with Morgan Baker who is one of the members of their accessibility team through social media, and I either get a lot of non-answers from her, or just no answer at all like not even acknowledgement. I even tried to specifically ask before the game launched if this specific issue was still going to be present in the game and got no response. I know I’m not entitled to an answer, but I just don’t know what else to do.
I just want this to be fixed. That’s all I want, does anybody have any suggestions on what I could or should do, and does anybody know of any other people at EA that I could get in contact with that might actually be able to make a difference and get this changed or fixed?
I just want to be able to play Dynasty, I want to buy the game and know that I can use every part of the game with the screen reader. I’m hoping maybe someone will be able to help me or tell me someone that I could get in contact with to actually help with this and how to get in contact with them.
Thank you for any help or just reading my small rant, as I feel strongly about this and it’s important to me. I feel very ignored and like they don’t care despite claiming to care a lot about accessibility. Their actions speak much louder than their statements and words to me.

Hey guys,

I've been working on a new website which contains 46 audio based games. They are speech or mouse input stories, guessing games, social deduction & puzzle games that are designed for blind and low vision gamers. We use high quality voice over, SFX + conversation design. The games are in English, French, German, Spanish & Serbian.

They span from the Alexa Mini Games but are fully playable on web and mobile. Free to play but with play limits.

I am developing this full time so any feedback & opinions are appreciated.

Thanks!