Guide to Making Board Games Accessible to the Blind

One of my more recent hobbies has been playing board games, and I'm not talking about the board games of my childhood. The games that my friends and I play take strategy, and usually require a lot of thinking. For a long time I avoided board games because after I lost the ability to read print, I felt like board games were no longer an option to me. This was my feeling until I was connected to the Corvallis Gamers Group. These wonderful people who I now call my friends really want to include me and make sure that I get a chance to play a variety of games despite my inability to see. Since I believe that board gaming is something that the blind can enjoy, I've decided to come up with a short guide on how to make games playable by those who can't see.

To start off with, I want to list some of my favorite games. Most of these games use what's called worker placement, and they often have very few cards. If they do have cards, the cards tend not to have a great deal of information on them.

• Stone Age
• Caylus
• Thebes
• Age of Empires 3
• Puerto Rico
• Agricola
• Pirates Cove
• Apples to Apples

Now that you have a list a games to check out, here are some strategies to make game play easier for those of us who can't see.

• Make sure to define what all the game pieces mean before the game starts. If the game pieces are not different enough for the person to tell, consider adding tactile markers to distinguish the pieces. If the pieces are large enough, add braille so that the person will know exactly what the pieces are.
• Add braille labels to cards: If the cards don't have a lot of info on them, you can add braille labels using a slate and stylus, a brailler, or a braille labeler. If the cards have more info then you can braille out, make a legend for the cards using braille paper, and then you only have to have a small number of braille characters on each card
• If the game utilizes dice, use braille dice, or dice that is readable by fingers..
• If the games don't have any tactile modifications yet, make sure to be patient and be willing to answer questions that the player is going to have.
• Try to stay away from games that have complicated boards with maps, or those that can not be touched without messing up game play. Most blind players will want to touch the board and fulling participate which means they will likely bump things.

I'm hoping that you've noticed that most of these changes will be easy to make. FOr me, there is no reason why the blind can't play board games because they can't read print. Obviously some games are either going to be extremely challenging or impossible, but there are plenty that with practice and modification are very playable.

What board games do you enjoy playing? What other suggestions do you have to make board games playable for the blind?