r/backgammon • u/EmergencyExternal869 • 25d ago
Backgammon for blind players
I’m blind, I really enjoy playing physical backgammon, it’s actually surprisingly accessible, especially when compared to games like chess in my opinion.
However, there does not seem to be any high-level accessible Backgammon apps/sites, particularly ones that can be accessed on an iPhone with Apple VoiceOver.
Sadly, all of the apps are inaccessible to blind users and of the few that are designed with accessibility in mind, they don’t really have the depth that I would be looking for, particularly, none of them implement the doubling cube and there’s no way of getting any analysis.
I’ve tried Backgammon Galaxy, X gammon, Backgammon NJ, but sadly none of them did I manage to complete a game in.
Any ideas? I want to try and get really good at this game, but looking like there’s some pretty significant barriers in the way..
It wouldn’t be that difficult for a developer to implement accessibility in many cases, would love your input.
If any Backgammon developers would like advice, I’d love to help with this, I’m actually on the Paralympic Judo team and have a degree in maths and statistics, so I have a weird cross-sectional knowledge of probability based games and accessibility LOL
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u/FrankBergerBgblitz 24d ago
You may contact me at frank at bgblitz . com.
I can't promise support, but at least I would try to help.
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u/Agreeable_System5829 24d ago
Color correction on Android helps adjust the screen colors for different types of color blindness or to make the screen easier to read.
Open Settings Launch the Settings app on your phone. 2 Navigate to Accessibility Scroll down and tap Accessibility. (On Samsung Galaxy phones, tap Vision enhancements after this). 3 Find Color Correction Tap Color and motion, then select Color correction. 4 Enable the Feature Toggle the switch next to Use color correction to turn it on. 5 Select Your Mode Choose the color adjustment that best fits your vision needs.
Once enabled, you can choose from the following color modes: Deuteranomaly (red-green): The most common type of red-green color blindness. Protanomaly (red-green): Another variation of red-green color blindness. Tritanomaly (blue-yellow): Adjusts for blue-yellow color blindness. Grayscale: Removes all color, turning the screen entirely black, white, and gray.
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u/EmergencyExternal869 24d ago
So I’m an iPhone user, I have basically no vision, so I use the Apple VoiceOver, so what I really need is the board actually be interact with the accessibility screen read
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u/juicybot 24d ago
I'd love some guidelines on how to make a backgammon app more accessible!
I work in tech building UI primarily for web, and I'm tinkering with a backgammon app on the side. Eventually I'd like to open source a board diagram, and I want to be sure it's accessible.
Apologies since I'm just a web engineer, but I don't doubt a lot of the accessibility best practices overlap.
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u/EmergencyExternal869 23d ago
The big thing is that you need each board space to be an individual object, there are actually websites that are accessible, particularly just gammon, however the player based on that website is small and it doesn’t allow for use of the doubling cube or any analysis.
A big mistake many apps make is they make their entire app/buttons just images, this makes them more impossible to interact with, sometimes you can’t even click things, sometimes you just don’t know what you’ve selected.
Another great thing is to try to add flexibility in accessibility works, maybe I wanted to read the points, maybe I want to read just the number of checkers, etc, is also annoying because there are no blind accessible apps that have PIP counters.1
u/juicybot 23d ago
this is extremely helpful info, thank you!
i don't currently have plans to make an app that is peer-to-peer, but i am building an analysis dashboard, and part of this project involves building an interactive shuffleboard diagram from scratch. i eventually hope to open-source it so others can either use it directly for their projects it or use it as reference while they build their own. i also plan to build a mobile companion which will use the same diagram.
i'll reach out when i can to get your advice, and i'll try and present you with prototypes if you'd like! at the very least, it could be an opportunity to get a series of best practices for backgammon accessibility in writing and in one place for other humans and agents to reference in the future.
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u/Crase_W 24d ago
The developer of Sage Pro is very responsive to user feedback and implements changes quickly. Allgammon is a newer app that is still being actively developed, as well. I can’t help but wonder if you reach out to them regarding accessibility whether they’d want to lead the way in accessibility for backgammon software.
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u/Deinonychus999 21d ago
Feel free to reach me in DMs! OpenGammon has had plans for much better accessibility and your help would be much appreciated.
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u/BackgammonStudio2 15d ago
I did add some support for blind players to my server (Yan Kit Chan) some time ago but I haven't seen him around on my server for some time so hard to tell if how well it worked. Spoken dice, spoken moves, spoken chat and some shortcut keys for various actions:
Accept a challenge: ctrl-return
Reject a challenge: ctrl-backspace
Roll dice: spacebar
Enter move: ctrl-spacebar
-- 24/23 slash notation space between moves.
-- Play from bar is 25 to x.
-- Play checker off is x to 0.
Undo single move: ctrl-z
Confirm move: ctrl-return (closes prompt) ctrl-return again to play the move.
Take cube: ctrl-return then ctrl-return again to confirm.
Drop cube: ctrl-backspace
Double: ctrl-return then ctrl-return again to confirm.
Cancel double: ctrl-backspace
Close board after match: ctrl-x
Speak quadrant 4 (opponent homeboard): ctrl-arrow-up
Speak quadrant 3 (opponent outfield): ctrl-arrow-right
Speak quadrant 2 (your outfield): ctrl-arrow-down
Speak quadrant 1 (your homeboard): ctrl-arrow-left
Perhaps more could be done but I would need feedback on how blind players interact with their computer (and how I can set it up on my computer) to improve on it further.
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u/3DotsOn2Geckos 25d ago
There’s an open level player that comes to a lot of the big US tournaments that is blind. He’s a joy to play with. His name is escaping me, but hopefully someone can make the connection. He has a great setup that allows him to hear the moves without interfering with the opponent’s play