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Imaginary Worlds

Playing Blind

Imaginary Worlds

Eric Molinsky

Arts, Science Fiction, Fiction, Society & Culture

4.82.1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 September 2021

⏱️ 31 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Video games are an inherently visual medium that traditionally haven’t been very accessible to blind people. But there are plenty of blind players who enjoy games and want to lower the barriers to entry. I talk with blind accessibility advocates Liam Erven, Brandon Cole and Aaron Baker about how sound design can guide blind players through virtual worlds. In Aaron’s case, he designs audio games for his company VGStorm. Accessibility advocate Ian Hamilton describes the challenge of making virtual worlds open to everyone. And Emilia Schatz from Naughty Dog studios discusses her collaboration with Brandon Cole in making The Last of Us Part II the most accessible AAA game of all time. This episode is sponsored by Skillshare and BetterHelp. Our ad partner is Multitude. If you’re interested in advertising on Imaginary Worlds, you can contact them here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Tab for a cause is a browser extension that lets you raise money for charity while doing

0:04.9

your thing online.

0:06.6

Whenever you open a new tab, you'll see a beautiful background photo and a small ad.

0:11.6

And part of that ad money goes towards a charity of your choice.

0:15.6

It's free and incredibly easy.

0:18.1

Transform your tabs into a force for good in just 30 seconds.

0:22.4

Find up at tabforacaws.org slash imaginary worlds.

0:30.8

You're listening to imaginary worlds.

0:32.3

I show about how we create them and why we suspend or disbelief.

0:35.8

I'm Eric Mulinsky.

0:38.0

Liam Irvin has loved video games ever since he was a kid.

0:42.5

And he was born blind.

0:44.6

I've always kind of said I feel like I accidentally started the concept of the playthrough.

0:49.8

People would come over and I would rent a game and so people would be like hey that's

0:53.5

a cool game.

0:54.5

I want to play it.

0:55.5

I was like cool you can play it but you have to describe it to me.

0:58.1

And so people would read text and play the game and describe the game and I kind of lived

1:03.4

vicariously through others.

1:06.0

But he was experimenting with playing video games.

1:09.6

When you're a kid I think you have an infinite well of time and patience.

1:15.4

And so you're willing to just sit and spend hours with something.

...

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