Topic by jtorrente 2012-06-07 14:34:46

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Hi there,

I'd like to introduce Blind Faith Games, a student project we are launching this week.

The goal of the project is to produce a toolset that facilitates the development of accessible games for blind people for Android smartphones and tablets. Three games have been developed using this toolset, which have already been published and are available for download from Google Play. You can find convenient links to download the games at the project's website: http://en.blind-faith-games.e-ucm.es

So, what I'm asking here is a little help from the community so we can improve these games. We need feedback!! How did you find the overall accessibility of the games? How do you think we could make them more accessible? How would you improve the quality/interest of the games? Feedback from blind gamers and experts on accessibility is specially welcome, we cannot push the accessibility of these games forward without you!

There's a short evaluation questionnaire on the project's website (see link above) that we encourage you to fulfil after playing the games for a while. We promise it will take only 10 minutes of your time. It is also available from the applications main menu and there is an offline version in Word format that you can return by e-mail to jtorrente a t fdi.ucm.es.

If you don't want to use the evaluation form, just leave your feedback here, by e-mail (jtorrente a t fdi.ucm.es), on Google Play... just use the mechanism that is better for you.

Thanks to all of you for helping us in improving the accessibility of our games!

- Javier

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Reply by aaron 2012-06-07 21:07:24

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Hello,
There is just one problem. Android has no where near as much focus in the blind community as iOS. Most blind folks I know use IOS, and the ones who tried android switched back to apple from what I can tell.

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Reply by Niklas 2012-06-07 22:34:26

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I'm trying android at the moment and the newest version 4, ice cream sandwich is working great for blind users so far. If I have an google account I'll try. So far, I can recomment android. It's worth a try and I have an Iphone, so can compare it. Some things I like more than in IOS and I'm thinking about an android smartphone as my next one, since I have a tablet yet.

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Reply by Dark 2012-06-08 02:54:16

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I'll be glad to write up some news on front of site tomorrow so that you can hopefully find blind android gamers to test your games, and I'd also be glad to add them to our db, ----- even though that will be quite difficult as I don't have an Android phone myself.

that being said, unfortunately Aaron is right, most blind users if they are buying a mobile phone go for Ios.

it's sadly something of a self fulfilling prophecy actually. Sinse Ios has a screen reader built into the Os by default, there are far more accessible applications and games for it, so more blind users buy it, so there is more access focus etc.

indeed, one of the major reasons why I myself would considder an Iphone is the huge range of gamebooks produced for the device, a genre of games i'm a big fan of.

I could be wrong, but doesn't android also require a third party screen reader as well?

in fairness so do pcs, but where pcs the third party software is usually worth it because there is so much else for windows, for phones, there are actually more! accessible applications and games for Ios than android, making it extra hastle and possibly expense, for less bennifit.

this isn't to say don't develope for Android, sinse there are some Vi users who like the system a lot, only that I am a little concerned about the response if you just! develope for android.

Indeed, you might considder developing multiplatform versions in the future, particularly for Ios and pc sinse those are really the biggest user bases for players of accessible games, though if this isn't possible fair enough, and as I said there will likely always be a few people who will go with android, albeit not half as many as for Ios in the mobile markit, the same way there are now far more blind pc users than mac or lynux users, though there are still people who use both alternatives.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

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Reply by Niklas 2012-06-08 03:24:10

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Hi Dark,
No, since version 4, android doesn't need a third party screen reader. Talkback is included and a part of the system, the same goes for touch and explore. Kickback and soundback are also parts of android and all of these are developed by google itself. Of course, third party screen readers exist, so you have the choice what you prefer. But since version 4, android has greatly improved in accessibility and provides it's own solutions.
Sorry for off topic but I think that had to be explained.

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Reply by SLJ 2012-06-08 10:34:34

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Hi.
It's really great to see more accessible games for Android. I hope to get a cheep accessible Android phone in the future, but I'm using an iPhone and only want an Android to test things and generelly to play around with. I've tried Talk back on an Android 4 phone, and find it very difficult to use because there are more icons than on the iPhone, and you have to be very careful on not tabbing the wrong place while activating an icon.
The accessibility of Android 4 is really pushing forward, but I'll say the iPhone is still the most accessible and usable touch phone. Many people might find the explore feature very difficult to use because it have no swipe gestures like Voiceover on the iPhone, which means you can easily miss important icons on the screen.

Best regards SLJ.
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Reply by jtorrente 2012-06-08 12:03:27

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Hi guys,

Thanks a lot for your comments! I really appreciate both the tone and the content.

We were aware of iOS being the smartphone environment that blind users like most, but it seems that Google has acquired a strong commitment to push accessibility forward in Android, it was worth give it a try. Moreover, shouldn't all environments be as accessible as possible? That was also another reason in favor of Android, since we couldn't really find accessible games for this platform we thought there was more room for improvement here than in the iOS world. By publishing more accessible games on Google Play we would also be raising awareness, wouldn't we? We are including a "black screen mode" in these games so sighted users can play around with it and experience what are the barriers and problems a blind user faces on Android.

Dark: Thanks a lot, it would be great if you could post a brief news entry so perhaps we could get some feedback, we'd really appreciate that!

Once again, thanks for your comments guys!

- Javier

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Reply by Niklas 2012-06-08 13:50:31

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I am happy to see more games for android. Keep up the good work.

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Reply by Dark 2012-06-08 14:44:28

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Hi.

I'll see about putting some news together. I must confess, while I'm pleased google are including access features, I'm not exactly sure A, whether these will catch up with the Iphone, and B, even thouh developing accessible games for the platform to promote access is an extremely worthy aime, how well this will work.

in the past, one of the main problems audio games of any sort have had on any platform is that as soon as there is any vague suggestion that the games are "for blind people" sighted users almost universally walk in the other direction.

This is more to do with social perceptions of blindness than anything technological, but it does present quite a serious problem when tryin to promote access on one specific platform in order to interest more people in the matter, when that platform has slightly less of a user base to begin with.

Good luck either way, though I do admit myself, even despite what Niclas has said, i'll be getting an Iphone not an android one, precisely because! there is a greater proportion of accessible applications and games on the platform, and I don't really have the cash or time to support two phones, so Ios will be my first choice.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

Dark's Website

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Reply by SLJ 2012-06-11 09:07:26

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Jtorrente I just have a quick question:
Would an app like your games change based on how the different phones are changed? Lets take HTC as an example. They choose to change all the main features in the oprating system like how to make a call, unlock the phone, the market, home screen etc etc, which totally breaks the usability of Talkback and maybe other screenreaders. Would things like that change the usability of apps in generel and your game? I don't know much about android yet, and I hope my question makes sence. smile

Best regards SLJ.
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Reply by zeel33 2012-06-11 20:54:52

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If I may clear some miss informed people here about accessibility regarding apps.  1. I am a current blind android user with a full touch screen phone from HTC that has a trackpad. 2.  What htc does to the stock apps and functions does not effect third party apps like "blind faiths games".  3.  As a blind user of android who is still on Gingerbred, I am able to do anything except complex word processing on my phone.  4.   icecream sandwidge does allow you to activate the phone by yourself using the triangle gester on the screan.  5.  Alot of carier's stores do not mind activating the  talkback  screenreader for you, they just need to know where to  find the accessible feature in android.  Wants talkback is on, eyes-free keyboard is installed your good to go for android.  So in short, if the group blind faith needs an android user who is blind email me at [email protected].  Iphone is a great platform for blind users but so is android.

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Reply by the_ruler_of_dark_forces 2012-06-12 16:20:08

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I agree with zeel33. I have used Android, Gingerbread to be more precise, for about half  a year and plan to install the 4.0 update on my phone this weekend. The accessibility of Android is getting better and better and I can easily use email, calendar, facebook, twitter, Internet radios and many more things associated with smartphones. Calling and text messaging as well, of course. smile The only problem is the accessible games, there really aren't many of them, so it makes me really happy that the things are moving in this direction as well. So this way I can enjoy the games for the blind in addition to the oldschool gaming console emulators such as nes, sega genesis, snes, atari 2600. BTW they work really well on Android.
So if you are about to purchase a new phone, I strongly recommend to consider Android as a quite a good alternative. smile

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Reply by SLJ 2012-06-13 09:27:49

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Hi.
Wel, it's great to see some Android users comment here.
So you're telling me that I can go out and buy a HTC phone running Android, and just use it without any issues? Would all build-in apps work with Talkback when I've installed the Eyes-free keyboard?
I've heard lots of issues on running Talkback on HTC phones, and I've even tried myself which didn't ran very wel. Lots of texts which wasn't read because HTC has changed the apps from stuck Android, and even issues on unlocking the phone and accepting incomming phone calls.
So I got a bit surprised on hearing that the HTC phones does run that well with Talk back! I don't know what all other people are doing wrong, and Mike Arego also confirms in his Android podcasts on blind Cool tech that the HTC phones doesn't run well with screenreaders.
In other words, I'm very interested to hear more about it.

Best regards SLJ.
Feel free to contact me privately if you have something in mind. If you do so, then please send me a mail instead of using the private message on the forum, since I don't check those very often.
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Reply by jtorrente 2012-06-18 20:29:00

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Hi guys

It's good to see discussion is moving forward.

1) Regarding accessibility in the Android platform, I guess Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) really meant an inflection point.

My understanding is that before ics Android did not include a lot of native accessibility features, meaning that it was necessary to get additional applications like TalkBack, KickBack, etc. Since ics accessibility it's in Android's core so no additional apps are needed.

So, SLJ: I guess it is possible to have some incompatibility issues with some phones in Android <4.0 if the carrier or the manufacturer alters Google's official software (which is common practice), which may have been your problem in the past. But since Android 4.0 that's more unlikely to happen because accessibility features are built into the OS.

2) Thanks a lot to all of you for your interest in Blind Faith Games. Zeel33: it would be awesome if you could give a try to the games and give us some feedback to check if they are accessible and if the games are entertaining. I'll write to the e-mail address provided anyway.

- Javier

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Reply by devinprater 2012-06-24 16:17:30

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Hello. I have a samsung stratosphere, running 2.3.5. I was able to use the game with the ocean and those creatures in it, but the golf game needs a little more accessibility. I couldn't activate blind mode using the arrow keys.

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Reply by the_ruler_of_dark_forces 2012-06-24 20:41:49

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Heya!
I've tried Zarodnik, but it doesn't seam to work under 4.0 with explore by touch enabled.

But I am really happy that audiogame development for Android is moving on!

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Reply by zeel33 2012-09-20 19:33:59

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In the golf game under gingerbred it was accessible but finding the play button was a pain in the butt.  Same for all the games, please make your controls a little more focusable.  Also I do not have a gingerbred device so I could go try this under ICS "4.0" and let you all know what I find.

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Reply by arcadia 2012-09-21 04:58:44

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my parents got a good deal on a android phone and they're wanting to trade it in for a motorola phone. I hope it talks lots for me. lol i'm glad to see someone is considering android for game developement. If google keeps working on accessibility, it will be a nice cheap alternative to ios.

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Reply by pitermach 2012-09-21 10:19:58

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Hi there,
I couldn't really figure out the golf game, the tutorial could be a lot clearer.
Also the mine sweeper game could be a lot more playable if there was an option to indicate your position, IE< A1, etc.
Either way I'm glad Android's getting some attention in this regard.

<Insert passage from "The Book Of Chrome" here>

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Reply by zeel33 2013-04-30 21:41:09

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I have a Jelly bean "4.1" phone and I can tell you your creature and golf game do not work.  I am running jelly bean 4.1.1 on a samsung galaxy S3.  Hope this helps.  I can see the buttons by swiping but their not focusable by explore by touch or swiping introduced in 4.1.

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Reply by shuteye 2013-05-09 05:14:13

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Hello, as an android user I too must weigh in. First, IOS may be the leader in blind usage for now, but I don't think its going to stay that way. Talkback is getting better, literally by the day. Its developers are on the EyesFree android mailing list and are addressing user feedback all the time and very quickly. I am happy to hear that someone is making accessible games for Android, but as a previous poster said, TalkBack does interfere. Might I suggest inserting code that will suspend TalkBack when you enter the game, then make the game itself self-voicing? This has been done easily on IOS for games like NightJar or 6th sense.

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Reply by big d 2013-05-18 06:41:28

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Hi,
As far as suspending talkback goes, you can do that yourself. If you do a one-finger down/right motion, you'll get an eyesfree menu type thing. At the top left is pause feeback. Once you've answered the prompt, talkback and explore by touch will be disabled until the next device lock.

HTH,
KJ4UFX
PS: Cool games btw! One problem though, my phone has softkeys at the bottom, instead of actual buttons. These are easy to accidentally hit, and take up part of the screen the game wants me to use (this especially affects Golf).

"Actually, they're just super-advanced holograms created for the sole purpose of enriching a children's cardgame."

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