by Andrew Smith
Oftentimes, I am asked how a blind person can play a board game or a card game. Certainly, you can purchase some of these games such as Monopoly, Uno, Connect 4, chess, checkers, Scrabble, or a standard 52-card deck in braille from Independent Living Aids, Maxi-Aids, Future Aids, 64 Oz. Games, Amazon, and the like. Although they are already accessibly purchased in this way, many of these games tend to be quite costly due to the small market.
If you know braille, and don’t mind putting in a bit of work, you can adapt a standard, store-bought game and make it fully accessible for all to play. For games where color is important, such as chess, bump dots are a good option: simply put a bump dot on a certain color, for instance, and leave the other pieces empty. For card games, a Braille Label Maker with DYMO tape, a braille writer, or a slate and stylus could be used to create individual labels for the braille cards.
Because braille is larger than print, the labels may need to be modified slightly in order for the braille to fit entirely on the cards. For board games, Velcro on the board itself and on the bottom of each game piece will prevent the pieces from sliding around as a blind player examines the pieces. Wikki Stix are also a good option for this.
Various blindness-specific stores sell material for adapting games. MaxiAids.com and IndependentLiving.com are terrific places for purchasing Braille label makers, bump dots, Wikki Stix, and just about everything else mentioned.
To adapt games, sighted help is, of course, initially required. If you live alone, I highly recommend using apps: Be My Eyes and Seeing AI are excellent for this task. And, because they’re free, fully accessible, and available on both Android and iOS (including the BlindShell phone), they are available for the majority of blind people.
I highly encourage adapting games in this fashion. It can be less expensive, more fun, and improve your braille skills and creative thinking!