I figured camera angles would help, as they would indicate where the goal is, and change the way audio is used. Not sure which would have the best audio outcome, as my ability to hear is an issue.

I have yet to try nhl 18 yet. A bit cash strapped at the moment. I really want to though. Hockey is my favorite sport by far. I remember having a much easier time with NHL 08 for ps2. You could slow everything down and the play by play was very on point. NHL 18's from what I've heard is good, but there's still a lot of dead air where passes are being made and you're not always sure who has the puck. The biggest problem I had in NHL 17 was trying to move through the pages of settings to slow everything down. I don't always have sighted help available, so I need to get someone in to help me configure it. If I end up doing that I'll report back. even better, if I have some sort of unexpected financial windfall I will pick up 18 and try that too.

I can agree with this, though I think it would only be available on xbox, and I would be concerned  about the console's ability to do both, narrator, and the game without performances issue. But yes, as a game as complicated and deep as EA makes their sports games, spoken menus is almost going to be needed.

Though I agree that spoken menus are important, we need to start small and work our way up. Accessibility is going to come in small steps at first. If a game has gameplay features that will improve the experience, I will still buy it. It just means I have to get some assistance setting it up. Which isn't preferred, but again. Remember this is new territory for EA and a lot of other companies.

I know screen reading is important, but I don't necessarily know all other obstacles in games - so info beyond screen reading is very helpful. I can't promise screen reading any time soon, but if there's interest, I might be able to make a text guide for NHL after
madden's is complete. Accessibility is a journey; it's going to take time to reach goals.

Hi.
I agree that screenreading is important. But have an accessible gameplay is much more important. Could you imagine a game with talking menus where the game itself was inaccessible? Text guides is not the perfect solution, but having an accessible gameplay with text guides which explains the menus is something new and totally amazing which we never have seen before. This is a huge step forward in the right direction.

How can you say they're accessible though, you have no idea who you're controlling, you have no idea where you are on the rink, you have no idea when you pass where its going to go, or if the pass will end up hitting someone on your team, you have no idea where the other team's defenders are so as to skate around them, and you have no idea where the line is so you don't go off sides. Apart from that, you aren't going to know where the goal is, where your location relative to the goal is, so how you gonna aim your shots.

Those are the questions I'd say would make good starters for making the game more accessible. Which by the way, is a laudable goal and I'm pumped you guys are into making that happen. Information is what we need, the players. I don't realy know how to convey it in a form we can use, like rumbles and stuff that aren't the already existing rumbles for stuff, but that can convey information, maybe a sound scape thing like you hear two pings, first is your position, second is the goal. My point is how can you implement this stuff when you ust most buttons and most button combos on the controller. You guys have a large agenda to pull this off, and no its not going to come about instantly, I know that, its still cool, and any step towards that is a step in the right direction imo.

I'm currently deep-diving in NHL, and will be meeting with the team in a couple of weeks.

There are already assists for things like aiming, which should help. There are also ways to set the camera so you can generally know if you are moving towards or away the goal.

For those who've played/listened to the game before, how well were you able to tell what character you were controlling, or if you had control of the puck?  Would having the puck have exaggerated volume when it hits anything, including a stick, along with surround sound be enough? I'm aware you won't know for sure unless it actually exists - try to guess.

What else would you suggest for game play?

@ea_accessible well, yeah sounds of the puck hitting things being increased might help, especially for example if you could add some sound or something to know where the puck is moving. Let's say for example that you take a slap shot from the blue line and miss the net, it would be nice to know if the puck is going along the board from left to right or right to left, etc to know where to go to get it back or forecheck. By listening to some videos on youtube it's pretty obvious that knowing when you have control of the puck in NHL 18 is not always easy, since the commentator is not always mentioning which player carries the puck. So it would be nice to have the commentator mention the name of the player who grabs the puck more often if that's even possible. Having ways to know your position on the ice would also be nice. Personally I think playing defense is practically impossible, since there is no way to know where the puck is as well as knowing where the defensive player
you're controlling is, so you pretty much have to trust your AI partners. One important thing that might be pretty easy to implement: during faceoffs a vibration feedback right before the referee drops the puck would be nice and allow us to have a legitimate chance to win the draw. I'm definitely not expecting for all of these ideas to be implemented, but I do think they're worth mentioning. Again, I personally want to thank you for wanting to work on NHL games. The fact that EA is willing to make some of their games accessible is a huge step forward for the community.