Playing PR as a blind/visually impaired user

[Spriteman]

I also watched the footage. Great stuff to see that pr can be played in many different ways and involve people. Hats off to you.

Its been a while but its this kind of stuff and community fun that keeps me coming back to pr.

[Hill]

I saw the video and dude that was really great from Bluedrake to do.
It would be really great to do scenarios with you as a VIP and that kind of stuff.
A wounded VIP that has been tortured and isn't stable so we got to let you follow our voices.
I hope you had a lot of fun and I hope you will play more of this game.
I don't know how bad your sight is but based on that you could do some other stuff like mortars, commander, logistic etc.

[B2P1]

I saw the video and dude that was really great from Bluedrake to do.
I don't know how bad your sight is but based on that you could do some other stuff like mortars, commander, logistic etc.

Or flying transport helicopters.

[Psyko]

you could play as a medic and locate people by their directional audio as they call for a medic. it's fairly simplified mechanics.
You might be able to play as commander and communicate with squads and help organize them.

I dont know how screen reading works, do you have a pad that you use your hands on to sense what is on a pixelated screen?

You picked the right game to ask for help with because this community is very helpful.
And there are a lot of mature players.
im also very happy to know how versatile the game is for everyone.

Which games did you play, and how were you able to play them? Also, a side note, when you watch tv is it an audio only experience or is there a way to transform the visual experience into a touch experience? I'm an animator and amateur film maker, and im really interested in understanding how to communicate with the disabled. (Deaf/blind/autistic) So any advice would be awesome.

[Murkey]

I found this thread to be pretty great. TBH I'm not an avid watcher of BD's channel, but I thought this was a nice story that encapsulates the community spirit of PR. In the past I've emailed story tips to the games website Kotaku, usually about the latest PR release, v1.0 and the standalone for example. They never responded or wrote anything as far as I can tell.

Hadi, BlueDrake, I hope you don't mind, but I emailed kotaku's tips email address with this feel good story and they actually responded for once. I offered to write a press release or get them in touch with you guys and the PR Devs that handle press etc. They've just said:

"Thanks for sending this my way. This is a wonderful story. I'll write something up on it for this afternoon.

All the best,

Jules" So hopefully we can pass on the news about how nice this community is.

Cheers, Murkey.

[Murkey]

Damn that was fast - Awesome Battlefield Squad Guides Blind Player Through a Warzone | Kotaku UK

Cheers, Murkey.

*edit* looks like it's on Kotaku UK, not US. But still nice to get a feel-good story out and some press for PR.

[Sgt. Mahi]

Respect for doing this. I love you guys

[Jacksonez__]

This is beautiful.

[Hadi]

Hi Guys. Thanks for all of your kind comments, I didn't expect this thread to get too many replies like this! This is a very cool community to be in, You guys rock. I've wrote a long post answering to some of your questions. Sorry If it has too many misspells and grammar/punctuation errors, English is not my native language.

Just a question towards Hadi;

I'm wondering, would it be any benefit getting a larger screen fo your PC? Or even using a wall projector?

No sadly That wouldn't work. I kind of can make some details when I'm very close to the light source; I used to have a CRT monitor which was very nice. I could get very close to the monitor and make out a bit of details, but just a little.

I guess playing on a non-desert map would work.

I'll keep this in mind, I'll give it a shot.

I was thinking, we get an event going, lots of people on TS and admin presence, so everyone plays by the rules.

Then we run some scenarios e.g. on Ramiel the African Resistance have 10 mins to set up defences and ambushes around the crashed black hawk, then you get dropped there with just a pilot kit. The ARF defend the position and hold you prisoner, (with the 'guards' on a TS channel with you). Then the US have to fight their way to you, kill the ARF and get you to safety, using local mumble). Stuff like that. We had some zombie and other scenario nights in the past, so it's possible to get people to play by custom rules for sure.

Cheers, Murkey.

That should be exciting! I'd be very up for these kind of events, I'd enjoy it, I don't know about others!

It would be neat if you were able to gun the .50 caliber machine gun of tanks, simply approach a locked tank squad, explain them your situation, and ask if you can join in, the PR community is friendly and open to these sort of things and you can experience the Teamwork(TM) in a whole new way.

Yeah, Firing a big gun is totally one of my plans that I should do it sometime. TBH, I can't really join and play with people because I can't go pass the spawn screen since there are no keyboard navigations at all in BF2. Bluedrake helped me with teamviewer/skype to get me spawned when we played that round.

I saw the video and dude that was really great from Bluedrake to do.
It would be really great to do scenarios with you as a VIP and that kind of stuff.
A wounded VIP that has been tortured and isn't stable so we got to let you follow our voices.
I hope you had a lot of fun and I hope you will play more of this game.
I don't know how bad your sight is but based on that you could do some other stuff like mortars, commander, logistic etc.

Yeah Bluedrake rules, I had lots of fun. My sight is bad, But I should give mortar a try. There's a good thing about PR, There are just many roles that you can be in this game. The VIP scenarios will be fun as heck, I can't wait till We get one going.

Or flying transport helicopters.

Heh, I should totally fly a chopper full of squad members and hear them all scream over radio when the helicopter flips over

you could play as a medic and locate people by their directional audio as they call for a medic. it's fairly simplified mechanics.
You might be able to play as commander and communicate with squads and help organize them.

I dont know how screen reading works, do you have a pad that you use your hands on to sense what is on a pixelated screen?

You picked the right game to ask for help with because this community is very helpful.
And there are a lot of mature players.
im also very happy to know how versatile the game is for everyone.

Which games did you play, and how were you able to play them? Also, a side note, when you watch tv is it an audio only experience or is there a way to transform the visual experience into a touch experience? I'm an animator and amateur film maker, and im really interested in understanding how to communicate with the disabled. (Deaf/blind/autistic) So any advice would be awesome.

Well, I would try those roles sure! . unfortunately the spawn screen does not want to cooperate with me at all, So I can't just spawn and randomly play with people.
Also, Here's the answer of your questions: Screen readers are softwares that use a Text-to-speech engine to read aloud computer-generated text. (such as windows's UI). I work with a standard keyboard, and since Windows 7, and lots of other programs have keyboard navigation, I will use tab, arrow keys and other nav keys to work with the UI. The software fails on Games and other UI that does not have a computer generated text and have no keyboard navigation. The screen reader that I use is powerful and have scripting capabilities to deal with such situations, but battlefield's spawn screen at this point disables these capabilities for some reason. Windows seven has a very basic screen reader called Narrator, You can try that If you like.
P.S I haven't played too much of video games properly. I used to play mortal kombat and injustice gods among us, Those all require you to repeatedly punch keys so I assume you know how that'd go. I also have played grand theft auto series, It's easy to blow up stuff and create chaos in that game. So far, battlefield series would be the genre that I'd play all day If I could see
and Regarding movies and series, There are no ways to have tactile feedback or any other experiences other than audio. Movies and series will be described by a narrator by some UK and US companies, and we can listen to those. Netflix's Daredevil is described, so If you have netflix I think you can listen to it. If you want to know more about this I'd be happy to send you a Private message and describe more.

Damn that was fast - Awesome Battlefield Squad Guides Blind Player Through a Warzone | Kotaku UK

Cheers, Murkey.

*edit* looks like it's on Kotaku UK, not US. But still nice to get a feel-good story out and some press for PR.

Hey Murkey, That was very cool! Honestly everyone needs to be aware of what Bluedrake has done. He deserves this.

[Bocca4]

Hadi, your story has touched me quite a lot. I'm glad that the PR forums have facilitated you in this way. Bluedrake also deserves a special mention for for spreading your story. Hopefully, the PR devs may figure out a way for you see the distinction between visual better! Good luck with your adventure in PR!

[Psyko]

that video is amazballs.

I saw a ted talk recently where a guy wore a vest and on the back were nodes that vibrated, so the vest is designed for the deaf, and becuase your brain is really good at figuring out patterns they were able to turn the patterns of sounds in the room into patterns of touch, and the experimental test subject was able to write what the guy was saying to him on a white board accuratly. but i think if you took sharp contrast image and transformed the pixelated image into vibrating nodes and wore it on your back, the blind might be able to see the screen. Its basically a bigger version of those tongue pads that make a small visual pattern to create video imaging, but instead your brain takes the input no matter what the sense is and turns it into data that it figures out with practise. I'll see if i can dig up this video.


David Eagleman: Can we create new senses for humans? | TED Talk | TED.com

[Psyko]

hadi

I listen to audio books while i work, and i listen to comedy like Opie and Anthony on youtube.

Do you have a favorite website for listening to stories and downloading audiobooks or audio films and stuff like that?

Check out the link i posted in the previous comment, it brings you to Ted talks, and it has a big white arrow in the middle of the screen to play the video.



Also I'm really surprised that no companies have made a touch pad for visuals yet, that stinks! i mean, even a simple device is better than nothing right? I have seen devices that you can press your hand into and it mushes down cylindrical pins to leave impressions, that kind of device working in reverse could be able to give touch signals to the user to simulate a monitor. i would have thought Blind people in this day and age would have had more access in technology when it came to touch. I really hope companies start investing new tech in that area. I think it's only a matter of time that something brilliant becomes available.

[Hadi]

hadi

I listen to audio books while i work, and i listen to comedy like Opie and Anthony on youtube.

Do you have a favorite website for listening to stories and downloading audiobooks or audio films and stuff like that?

Check out the link i posted in the previous comment, it brings you to Ted talks, and it has a big white arrow in the middle of the screen to play the video.



Also I'm really surprised that no companies have made a touch pad for visuals yet, that stinks! i mean, even a simple device is better than nothing right? I have seen devices that you can press your hand into and it mushes down cylindrical pins to leave impressions, that kind of device working in reverse could be able to give touch signals to the user to simulate a monitor. i would have thought Blind people in this day and age would have had more access in technology when it came to touch. I really hope companies start investing new tech in that area. I think it's only a matter of time that something brilliant becomes available.

Hey Psyko
I don't usually listen to audiobooks, I either would get a PDF version or get the book myself and scan+OCR it to make a PDF version. I'm extremely used to my screen reader's robotic speech at (very) high speeds, so I usually cannot stand audiobooks unless for passive listening. still, I think http://librivox.org/ is a very good site to get some free audiobooks read by people all across the world.
For movies, I don't go hunting for the companies who describe them. I use this site: https://www.blindmicemegamall.com/bmm/s ... tion=Login
The guy behind this site uploads all described movies for free after 6 months of their release time. They do it for ads and apparently they have contracts signed by UK/US companies who describe. If you want to check it out you gotta register

As for companies investing in technology to help disabled: I'm not surprised to see no other output methods for interacting with a screen display. mostly no company would do such a thing because there is literally zero marketting benefits. The userbase is small, so the customers, So companies will have no interest. usually there's a research started by students which is funded by a government then It dies after the research is complete. For sure companies like Apple and Google (specially Apple) have included ways for visually impaired to parcially interact with their devices (re: screen readers), but that's because their one of the biggest companies on the earth. and there are of course companies like Freedom Scientific Freedom Scientific Home Page who sell their software for $1100 per user )

I listened to that video, It's such a good concept! I agree with you, tactile perception is being underestimated! Im sure cool stuff can be done with it.
Cheers
Hadi

[Psyko]

Hadi,

Thanks for the reply, i appreciate it a lot.

[iSmall]

You guys got me right into feels ;_;

Bluedrake is there more videos comming up with Hadi?

[Murkey]

Bump - is anyone working on an event or scenario night featuring Hadi as the VIP?

BlueDrake? Anyone else? If we can get a server, set a date and find some admins I'd be happy to write up some rules and design some scenarios.

Cheers, Murkey.

[Avram]

I was just watching random YT videos about PR (trying to learn how to lead a squad) and stumbled upon Blue's video "Blackwater VIP escort" and the moment I realized Hadi is visually impaired I was like "WHOA, what a great guy this Bluedrake is for guiding this guy through the war zone". Then I came here on forums and see Hadi's thread and I'm like OMG this just happened a month ago, I thought it was very old video.

Good luck Hadi, I wish you many more matches in PR!

p.s. I'm not visually impaired but sometimes I can't see the spawn markers too for 20-30 seconds

[Hadi]

Murkey, Bluedrake just had a flight to seattle for some gaming event. I think he told me for how long he'll be away from home but I can't recall. I think he'll be up for it when he returns, I hope so!

Avram, thanks! I'm happy to see you enjoyed the video, TBH I'm surprised many people also have liked it. Bluedrake's awesome.
Also I hate spawn markers! too. It's frustrating that the main base is not selected by default at the beginning, and how there's no keyboard navigation at all.

[fatalsushi83]

Great thread, great video. Bluedrake's swearing and random hip-shooting shooting must have added to the intensity. Hope you have more good rounds in the future, Hadi.

[Shoo]

Some useful stuff you could do is carrying ammo and a shovel as a rifleman or be a medic. You could also carry bombs which you could place and blow up at voice command or you could carry other kits for your teammates to use for example HAT. I could even see you placing c4 on caches. It'd be a bit awkward to get doors blown up though if you have the shotgun. Perhaps the most useful thing you could would be driving a tank or an apc. Just follow the gunners commands, Forward, turn left, stop turning, stop (the whole tank), back up, and so on.
Honestly though I don't see you being a commander though because you can't read the map or use the UAV and approving area attacks would be very difficult as well. Only thing you can do is relay messages from squads to others but they can do that themselves.
But if you really think about it there is a surprising amount of stuff you can do. You just can't shoot, read the map or drive alone.