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Quake For the Blind
Kirby-meister writes: "An interesting article on The Boston Globe talks of a company, ZForm, which has modified Quake for the visually-impaired. The article also goes into an interesting discussion on how visual our world is becoming, possibly leaving the visually-disabled behind the technological advances."
The modifications described in the article would prove useful for NON-vision impaired players. More audio clues means more overall clues as to where things are at and what is happening in the game.
I see competitive players using Quake mods that provide this functionality in addition to normal visual and audio assistance.
Well, what about the industrial revolution? My guess is that the rise of heavy machinery and high speed transportation probably made it more difficult for the blind.
My theory (though it's hardly original) is that the digital world is on course to mimic the real world in as many ways as possible. One day, having a poor sense of smell could be a serious liability in FPS games.
I certainly have sympathy for the blind -- I'm color blind myself, and routinely get myself killed in FPS and other games where "good" things are green and "bad" things are red, but both colors have the same saturation and luminosity as bad things.
I commend those doing what they can to make the digital world more inclusive, but the fact of the matter is that, in realistic digital environments, those with sensory limitations are going to have an increasingly hard time.
Cheers
-b
The blind have always had to deal with a world that was made for the sighted. For a very long time, the blind, if they didn't have family that wanted to take care of them, were forced to beg on the streets to continue living. Before Braille, they couldn't read. Before seeing-eye dogs, they couldn't move safely many places.
If anything, new technologies allow the blind more freedom and ability than ever before. There's always hope that one day technology will advance enough that no one will have to be blind.
And, I know some of this from experience. I'm still blind in one eye, but being able to have a lens implant in the other has allowed me to do things such as drive, and read without super thick glasses.
Television channels deliver breaking news via silent tickers along the bottom of the screen. Instead of knobs to change the channel, televisions often use on-screen pop up menus, said Curtis Chong, director of technology for the National Federation of the Blind.
''Over the last five years,'' Chong said, ''we have become increasingly concerned that the rising use of digital media will leave out the blind.''
You have got to be kidding me. They are unhappy at how visual tele vision is?
Geez, what next, the "hearing imared" will complain that radio is too focused on sound?
I'm all for making things less hard for handicaped, but this is beyond ridiculous.
PS Anyone feeling the need to attack me with a barrage of politically correct nonsense à la "handy-capaple" should just punch temselves in the face right now, thanks.
You can't take the sky from me...
My wife is blind and uses the computer to facilitate a vast amount of her daily communication. In the DOS days, this was fairly simple. As someone who has been dealing with increasingly visual computer systems (windows for the blind is a pain, but unavoidable at this point) seeing _any_ new research into ways to make computing more friendly to the visually impared is a good thing. Taking on something as difficult as quake will be a Good Thing(tm) in the long run as the stuff they learn will make mane other takes worlds easier.
jello.
aka aron.
You pointed out something that needs to be pointed out - that able-bodiedness is largely temporary, that most likely all of us will suffer some sort of loss of ability at some point in our lives, and that making it easier to cope is ultimately in everyone's best interest.