------------------------------------------------------------------ Playability Podcast Episode 16: Visual Accessibility (Ryan Peach) Run time: 12 minutes, 47 seconds Episode recorded by Rebecca Strang. Playability is produced by Mike Risley. Transcript auto-generated by Temi and edited by Rebecca Strang. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Music intro: 00:00 Rebecca Strang: 00:09 Hello and welcome to Playability where we hold conversations at the crossroads of gameplay and accessibility. I'm your host, Rebecca Strang, and I'm joined today by Ryan Peach and we're going to be discussing visual accessibility. Welcome to the show, Ryan. Ryan Peach: 00:24 Hello. Rebecca Strang: 00:26 So can you give our listeners a little background on how you got into gaming and what kinds of games you enjoy playing? Ryan Peach: 00:35 I started playing, I guess you call them hobby games back in the late nineties through a friend of mine. It would have been Magic: The Gathering HeroQuest, Civilization. Then unfortunately I moved away from my friend and then, oh about a decade later, we met up again somewhere else and he got me into the hobby games through Descent: Journeys in the Dark and then when we were playing Catan, Pandemic, Twilight Imperium Third Edition, and I just never looked back. Rebecca Strang: 01:08 Awesome. Glad you were able to get back in touch with him. Ryan Peach: 01:12 Yes. Rebecca Strang: 01:13 Um, so what accessibility concerns affect you most as a person? Ryan Peach: 01:18 Well, at the start of my gaming adventure, I was partially sighted. I had about 5 to 8% vision and all that goes with that as well as some colorblindness. As I got to around 2011-2012ish. I eventually lost the rest of my eyesight but continued on this adventure. Rebecca Strang: 01:39 So what are some of the challenges you experience as a gamer? Ryan Peach: 01:44 As someone who's now playing without sight, I need more physical access to components to play games effectively. I have to ask more questions about the game state, questions that will provide you with the information I need to make informed decisions. I'm not a Braille user so I rely entirely on sighted assistance. Rebecca Strang: 02:06 Okay. Ryan Peach: 02:07 And when it comes to playing games itself, I live in a fairly rural community, so access to events is limited. I'm not able for uh, reasons to attend events on my own. Rebecca Strang: 02:23 Sure. So when you're setting up a game with someone else, can you walk us through, like, how that goes for you - setting up a game to begin to start playing it? Ryan Peach: 02:32 Okay. I would say that probably begins with me trying to find a pdf version of the rules so that I can go through and learn the game play and information about the components and the set up for myself so that when it finally comes to setting up a game for the first time, I have some idea about what sort of things I need to tell the other players about in order to have them help me with the setup. Once I know a game well enough after a number of plays that I can teach it, that there again, makes it easier for me to then tell other players about what they need to know to aid with the setup and then teach them the game itself. I often end up in a situation, more often than I might prefer sometimes, where I'm teaching one or more people a game for the first time if it's one of those games. Rebecca Strang: 03:26 Okay. And are there any mods that you've made or alternate paths that you have to consider when you're gaming? Ryan Peach: 03:33 For some of my games, I've taken the components, so it might be wooden cube or a disc, and I've replaced it with a 3-D sculpted metal or plastic game component that I would have purchased from some other source to make those resources or markers or whatever stand out from other markers for physical accessibility. Again, I would rather than using a physical rule book, I would refer to a digital rule book. When it comes to the rules themselves, I tend to prefer to modify the original rules and attend the game little as possible, so I tend to gravitate towards games that provides some sort of work around that still allows me to effectively play the game the same way. And so I've found with some mechanisms that works better than others. And so those tend to be the games that I focus more on seeking out to play or to add to my own collection. And then I build my own box inserts out of foam core without glue, because glue is just very messy for me, to make the setup and tear down smoother and to sort of smooth people in and out of the game playing experience with me when I'm out at events with other people. Rebecca Strang: 04:51 Awesome. And I know we've discussed sharing what those box inserts look like, doing a DIY interview on my To Play Is Human site as well so people can look forward to that. Ryan Peach: 05:03 Yeah, I'm a little challenged on taking pictures and video of the work that I'm doing, the progress and things like that. Rebecca Strang: 05:11 Sure. Ryan Peach: 05:12 I just don't have ready access to assistance with that and I'm thinking you'd end up with a lot of off center, poorly lit photos and video of the work were I to do it myself and where I happened to do the work. I don't, for understandable reasons, need an awful lot of light for myself to get the job done, but I'd certainly be happy to share and discuss that work however I can. Rebecca Strang: 05:40 Yeah, we'll get in touch with that to share that later. Rebecca Strang: 05:44 So you mentioned that some game mechanisms work better than others and you tend to seek those out. Can you share what some of your favorite mechanisms to interact within games are? Ryan Peach: 05:55 Well looking over my collection, it would seem that I gravitate most towards the space theme and the drafting and action selection mechanisms, whatever form those happen to take. Rebecca Strang: 06:12 Okay. And if you were making suggestions regarding accessibility to game designers or event organizers, what would those suggestions be? Ryan Peach: 06:23 For organizers and, maybe more specifically for those who are needing accessibility assistance and are participating in some sort of open gaming, as I have in the past at events, I would say if you see someone with a disability sitting by themselves, maybe just come over and check on them every once in a while to find out if they're waiting to have someone join them for a game, if they're taking a break, something like that. If they are looking to get people together for a game, if you can help them out to try and find people who are also looking for a game or games that are open that they can reach that are looking for players of games they might be interested in, that would be very helpful. And if the event uses some sort of table marker to identify whether or not players are looking for teachers or other players, please allow the person with the disability to hold onto those markers. I know some events, there aren't enough of those for every table, but that person with a disability may not be able to get up and get to the spot where extra markers are being held, so if they can hold on to them, that would be much better for them in terms of, of being able to signal that they're looking for someone to help them out. Rebecca Strang: 07:52 Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And it seems like it should be something easy to implement as well. Um, and then how about for game designers and publishers? Ryan Peach: 08:03 Um, that's a hard one. There seems to be some good intentions in terms of some of the accessibility that publishers are looking to implement in terms of contrast and color distinctiveness for components, but that doesn't always work out. I would say then that the best advice I would give is to play test your components. Get the final proofs in front of a lot of different people, the way you would get your prototypes in front of a lot of different people, and make sure that there is distinctive and as as readable from a visual perspective as identifiable from a visual perspective as you think they are, as they should be, and ensure that the manufacturer is actually going to pack those components in the final product. Rebecca Strang: 08:55 Yeah, and that's something Lauren and I and some of our other guests have also talked about. It's definitely important to play tests, but I think a lot of people forget including that diverse group of play testers when they're trying to get feedback and so a lot of the accessibility feedback that they could get is kind of being left behind because they're not getting everyone represented in their play test groups. Ryan Peach: 09:19 Well I understand the challenge, it's much easier to whip out a large number of prototypes for play testing the mechanisms and the game play than it is to have enough proofs to then pass around to enough different people that you feel will be representative of the overall audience you're trying to reach with regards to accessibility of text, accessibility of color contrasts, and other things like that. And the longer it takes to go through the process, that's time that the publisher isn't selling games to their audience. So I get that. But I feel like there's a lot of lot of things with regards to accessibility, very easy things that the publisher can do without having to get into specialized accessibility considerations that could be done before that first print run or in later print runs if they've somehow missed something or they find that it's not, it's not what it should be. Rebecca Strang: 10:24 Sure. And then is there anything else that you would like to share with our listeners that we haven't specifically covered already? Ryan Peach: 10:32 I just wanted to say it that I really enjoy this hobby. It's given me an opportunity to be sociable. The need to conceptualize a lot of things in my head at once to keep up has been good for my memory and that approach in each game where I need to figure out what I need to know in order to make meaningful decisions has been good for my problem solving abilities. Rebecca Strang: 10:58 Yeah, that's one thing I like about games, it's, they're more than just fun. There's a lot of skills that you're practicing as your playing without even realizing it. Ryan Peach: 11:07 It's also allowed me to think more strategically. I wasn't always that way and so through years and years of continually playing these games, I feel that it's helped me improve in that way as well. Rebecca Strang: 11:22 Well fantastic. That's good advice for anybody. One of the things I do at work is use games for educational purposes, so I like to point out, you know that games are great for fine motor skills and critical thinking and strategic planning and things like that. So that's definitely a very valid points. So I know you are pretty active on Twitter, so for anybody who would like to connect with you online, can you share how to do that and what your social media handles are? Ryan Peach: 11:51 Yeah, so on Twitter I can be found @RedMeepleRyan, r e d m e e p l e r y a n, and I do check my email at least once a day and that is redmapleryan@gmail.com. Rebecca Strang: 12:07 All right, great. Well I'm so glad that we were able to talk today and get you on the show to talk about this. A lot of great suggestions from you and insight into some of the things that you consider as a gamer with visual accessibility concerns. Ryan Peach: 12:20 Yeah! Rebecca Strang: 12:22 So thank you for coming on the show! Ryan Peach: 12:24 I'm happy I was able to join you! Rebecca Strang: 12:26 All right, and for everybody else, if you have questions or comments and would like to share them with us, you can email us at playabilitypod@gmail.com or find us on major social media platforms @PlayabilityPod. Thanks for listening and I hope this episode helps you play with a new perspective.