![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2){kind=small}
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif?v=92.2){kind=small}
I have been asked this more than once, and do not have a good answer: If you have a visual impairment, are there any Warcraft add-ons that help you? Specifically, if your brain has trouble interpreting visual data properly.
On a related note, if you have a severe visual impairment, would one class be easier to play than another? I have my own opinion on that one, but I am very interested in what you all have to say.
Any feedback is greatly appreciated. :)
The following letter was sent to Blizzard (note, though it is written in first person, I am not necessarily the one who sent it. Identifying information X'd out to protect the identity of the questioner) I am only including this as to explain the situation better:
Dearest Blizzard,
I have been a player of your World of Warcraft game since April of
2005. However, due to brain damage to the visual cortex of my brain,
I have been having difficulties playing. I have trouble interpreting
visual data, and cannot see finer details (for instance, when someone
pings my map to show me where to go).
To give you an example of something that I found helpful in a
different, but similar type of, game, there was a built-in feature
that would let me hit spacebar to see the outline of anything that
could be "toggled" or have some action taken upon (chest, other
players, monsters, etc.).
I have not seen any interface add-ons mentioned in the add-ons forum
of your official site that will make things easier for visually
impaired individuals. I am, honestly, too timid to make a request
there given the nature of some post replies I have seen on the
official site's forums. This is a sensitive topic for me, and I would
prefer it be dealt with in a mature manner. Hence, why I am
contacting you directly.
I have pursued information on this matter on various unofficial
forums, but have received no information from individuals with
knowledge on any add-ons that may aid me. Though, it was suggested
that I contact you as you may have had to answer this question before.
Any information that you may be able to give me, officially or
otherwise, would be greatly appreciated. You may contact me best by
e-mail (xxxxx@gmail.com).
Thank you for your wonderful game the support that you continue to provide.
Sincerely,
XXX XXXXXX
For those who are curious, here is Blizzard's response (again, identifying information X'd out).:
Dear XXX,
For better or for worse, I'm not aware of any addons to assist the visually impaired. If you would like to request something of that nature, I highly encourage you to go to either the Custom UI/Macro forum ("http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/boa
Sincerely,
XXXXXXXX X
Blizzard Entertainment
Technical Support
Also, I would just like to make it clear that I am NOT wanting to start an argument on ethics, here. I am just waning to know about add-ons that may exist. :) (I will probably make a poat to the official forums later, but I cannot while at work which is where I am right now).
July 28 2006, 20:43:25 UTC 5 years ago
I hear you about the whole ethics thing. Some people feel that any enhancement or simplification == cheating. I bet some of these people wear glasses to better see the monitor, and think nothing of it..............
Best of luck.
July 28 2006, 21:02:29 UTC 5 years ago
July 29 2006, 14:15:19 UTC 5 years ago
I'll see what I can find, and please let us know if something develops.
As for the ethics, if someone tried to start an ethical conversation about pros/cons of addon use in this community, they're probably get removed pretty fast. =)
July 29 2006, 15:07:31 UTC 5 years ago
- Scrolling Combat Text, specifically the flags for entering and exiting combat.
- TitanAggro for TitanPanel, which will display a message at the top center of the screen when aggro is gained away from pet or from other players
- Benecast, a icon will pop up next to the health bar if a rebuff is needed
- Going into the WoW video settings and putting them all on the minimum or lowest settings. This made all environmental objects, players, text, etc., not as smooth and gave them better defined edges making them easier to distinguish.
- Playing WoW in windowed mode, at a lower resolution than the base
desktop setting, as everything is then closer together
March 20 2009, 21:16:41 UTC 3 years ago
Grr
I find it incredabley frusterating. I decided to give WOW a try the other night. I didn't have high hopes on it being accessable for me, but I wanted to see what everyone was going on about. I have ROP so if you were to where welding goggles and poke 6 pin holes in one lenze thats what I can see. Atleast thats the medical appinion. It's really hard for me to accuritley explaine what I can see to anyone, because I have nothing to compare it to. Anyways I have vision in my left eye, none in my right.After the incredabley long install process (I decided to try the demo before paying for the game) I booted up the game. My boyfriend was helping me through a lot of this because the screen reader I use Jaws didn't read any of the text on the wizard. Once the game was launched I shut my screen reader right down. If I were to keep it on I wouldn't be able to moove my char around the screen.
I will say that I was verry surprised at how nice people were inside the game. Someone was quick to let me follow them around and find quests. The chat text was verry hard for me to read though because the background was the same colour as the background of the game. I had the bf reading all that out for me, whitch was anoying for the both of us. Being able to tell one enimy from another sort of posed as a problem to. The text that appears above them is rather small.
The actual game play itself was all right. I found the graphics a little hard, but I genraley dont do well in 3d graphics. If you add a GIGANTIC world on top of that it makes things a bit confusing. I'm sure though after time I would be able to grasp the graphics and find my way around. I guess the main berrior right now is the text size, and the background being transparent.
I dont mean to ramble on but I think it's important that people know how it is for someone with a visual impairment to play these games. It's hard for one person to summerize because my needs may be differint from another persons needs. I can understand why it would be hard for someone to make something that helps with them all.
I was looking around the other day and found something called wow speech www.wowspeech.com that was supoasidley supoast to read out guild text and some other stuff, but I could never get it working. Was a bit depressing as I really liked the game play. I just wanted to state my appinion on the situation though and let you guys know about my situation with the game.
In the end I ended up deleating the demo off my computer. If I play again I'll use the bf's disks. I dont think I will for a while unless something gets figured out though because all that happened lastnight was I got incredabley frusterated, enjoyed the game, and then got depressed when I realized I wouldn't be able to play with out a sighted person reading things to me. Thats about all I have to say though. Sorry everyone for the incredably long post.