Hi Dark and all. Yes what you are talking about is a really serious problem, one factor of course is that blind people need to be told that these games are out there and where they go is usually to one of these organizations whether you're talking about the U.K. or the U.S. or anywhere else I'm sure. Just as a for instance I'm an access technology instructor here at a local organization where I live and while I of course cannot spend a large amount of time on gaming when teaching a student I do definitely make sure to mention that these games are out there if people are interested and I will demo games for people who are interested.
Another thing that you are going to come up against with this is the demographics of blind people. Unfortunately if you want to look at it that way, the majority of blind people are what we'd consider in the older group, 60's 70's etc. Keep in mind I'm a 40-something year old gamer nerd, I'd imagine I'm probably one of the older people on this list, but I am one of the younger blind people down where I work, there are only a couple people younger than me down there. I am not sure what the exact statistics are and I have no clue what the demographics are like over there, but I am sure this is something you could find out if you are interested. The end result at least here is that blind people in their teens and 20's which is where most people get into gaming are a much smaller number than are the ones that I just mentioned. So in a nutshell you've got the ignorance of the blind population as a whole most of whom have no idea that there are games for us out there let alone that we can play quite a few mainstream games if we want to put the time and effort into it plus the fact that the majority of the blind folks at least here in the state where I live are older folks who may not have quite as much interest in gaming as we do, although some of the card/board games might interest them I suppose. I find at least where I work is if I am teaching somebody who's say around my age anyway they may have been into video games before losing their sight and so they may be interested in finding out both what they can still do with mainstream games and what is out there in terms of audio games. I'm not saying all this to be discouraging, I've done demos of the Blindsoftware games at state convensions for a local organization I am a member of and given the opportunity I will do so again despite the relatively low responses I got, I am just trying to hopefully clarify some of the other issues we may be dealing with when we try to educate other blind folks about the great amount of stuff that is out there for us. I don't know that there's much I can do to assist your efforts as I have pretty much no knowledge of organizations in the U.K. but this is definitely a topic that interests me since I've been interested in gaming pretty much since there have been home video games. Regards and game on. Tom -----Original Message----- From: gamers-boun...@audyssey.org [mailto:gamers-boun...@audyssey.org] On Behalf Of dark Sent: Tuesday, April 26, 2011 8:09 PM To: Gamers@audyssey.org Subject: [Audyssey] The importance of patronage Hi. As people might know, I've been doing a lot of work on the audiogames.net database and something rather odd struck me. I'm finally adding in descriptions for the azabat games (not the least because the developer did send me the demo cd about a year ago and I stil haven't updated them). Azabat is the only developer of audiogames sold through the rnib. This is of course because the Azabat's aim, of providing nice old blind people with easy games to play at exaubitant prices (can you tell I'm not impressed!), goes along very much with the rnib, an organization who quite literally don't notice visually impared people under the age of 60 or so exist, mostly because younger people are less likely to give them donations in their will, ---- I'm serious! at a so called "information day" the rnib spent about two hours just talking about will donations to them, --- and most of the rest of the time saying how great they were providing "dayly living skills" services" the amount of times myself, or another member of my family (most recently my dad in a survay), has given them what for over this, whether it's about what books they record (sinse their main producer of accessible books in this country given that the government does bugger all), or about what services they provide, they really! don't like the idea that people younger than about 60, or who have interest outside knitting and braille crosswords exist (I'm serious, there are several amagazines devoted to knitting patterns alone, but nothing whatsoever on roleplay). And if you tell them this they ignore you (the survey lady slammed the phone down on my dad after he'd said this). Anyway, getting the wranting train under control,my point is azabat, dispite producing games which are no better (and in many case not as good), as others around even in the same catagory like the recently released pontes backgammon (lacking graphics but having online play), and all of the spoonbill and blind adrenaline type stuff, yet have a huge record in this country simply! because they have had publicity through the Royally nasty inhibition of the blind, aka the rnib (oooh, I made a funny!). This doesn't seem correct, but I am now wondering what can be done about it. The business of sending myself to site village, the uk tech show didn't really advance much unfortunately mostly due to booking costs and such, but possibly a more reasonable organization such as Guide dogs (who do a lot more than train dogs, ---- I've been skeeing, touring egypt, cycling and goodness knows what with their holiday crew in the past) would be open to discussion, especially sinse they do deal with blind people who aren't the sterriotypical poor old useless individuals the rnib think they are. I've already introduced a friend of mine who does voluntry tech support at a charity for helping disabled computer users in her local area to audiogames.net and pcs games so she can show people some of the fun things their computers will do. When i red The only computer games sold by the rnib" It made me actually pretty mad, so it's time to do something about it. Any suggestions for people to contact? ---- I'm not familiar with us or european organizations, but is there a stink we can kick up? Action for blind people here (another of the smaller but nicer groups), did a pole a while ago, maybe it'd be worth seeing if they will do something else? Imho this situation needs rectifying, and people need to know there are more and better developers out there than just Azabat, and games to appeal to all sorts of tastes. Beware the grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
