Board games often rely on visual information such as the location of the game pieces and textual information on cards. Due to this reliance on visual feedback, blind players are at a disadvantage because they cannot read the cards or see the location of the game pieces and may be unable to play a game without sighted help. We present Game Changer, an augmented workspace that provides both audio descriptions and tactile additions to make the state of the board game accessible to blind and visually impaired players. In this paper, we describe the design of Game Changer and present findings from a user study in which 7 blind participants used Game Changer to play against a sighted partner. Most players stated the game was more accessible with the additions from Game Changer and felt that Game Changer could be used to augment other games.
Game Changer is a system that provides both audio descriptions and tactile additions to make the state of the board game accessible to blind and visually impaired players.
{"src": "scitldr-AIC_train", "paper_id": "5IP2w6397"}