TriadCity Talking Client for Blind or Vision Impaired Players

Author: Mark Phillips
Published: 21 Oct 2014 - Updated: 21 Mar 2022

Contents: Synopsis - Introduction - Main - Related Publications

Synopsis: Blind or visually impaired players needed as alpha testers for SmartMonsters new TriadCity game.

SmartMonsters is seeking blind or visually impaired Mac users as alpha testers, offering game spiffs such as player houses, premium items, and Reward Points in return.

Introduction

SmartMonsters is alpha testing a new UI paradigm for its acclaimed textual virtual world TriadCity.

Main Content

Intended for blind or visually impaired players, information presented by the new UI is 100% spoken, with no menus, mouse clicks, scrolling text or other visual impediments to navigate.

Said Mark Phillips, SmartMonsters' Chief Technology Officer:

"Graphical virtual worlds such as Second Life or World of Warcraft are enormously popular, with tens of thousands playing at any moment. But, blind and visually impaired people have never truly been first class citizens of these worlds, which really are all about the cartoons. Because it's text, sighted and sightless players have the same experience in TriadCity. We're committed to making that experience as accessible as possible. Our new spoken interface makes it extremely easy for blind and visually impaired users to interact with the TriadCity world."

The new interface is a single text field which players type into. That's all! The game world speaks its descriptions of places, people and events. No screen reader is required.

SmartMonsters is seeking blind or visually impaired Mac users as alpha testers, offering game spiffs such as player houses, premium items, and Reward Points in return. Please note, the technology is currently Mac-only.

TriadCity is an acclaimed virtual world made of words. It's blind-friendly, has more women players than men, and is cited by The Cambridge Companion to Postmodernism as a new form of literature.

Attribution/Source(s): This quality-reviewed publication was selected for publishing by the editors of Disabled World (DW) due to its relevance to the disability community. Originally authored by Mark Phillips and published on 21 Oct 2014, this content may have been edited for style, clarity, or brevity.