Cane & Able (Vision-Impaired Accessible)

I appreciate the depth of research that went into this game. A lot of the experiences were relatable, and though a few aspects of the story missed the mark, I see the point that is trying to be made here. As a blind man, I felt uncomfortable playing this game pretty much the entire way through, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It means the narrative is hitting close to home.

there’s a lot of antagonism towards sighted people in the blind community which stems from lifelong mistreatment. I share their frustrations, and while I can’t relate to being mistreated constantly and consistently, I have had my fair share of negative experiences. I think it’s worthwhile to try to build a bridge between blind people and the wider world, as we tend to share the same aspirations.

Finding a job that can transform into a career in which we derive fulfillment, finding a partner and starting a family, buying our first house, etc. are goals I feel most people can relate to, regardless of disabled status. We do share many things in common, but a sighted person isn’t likely to be thinking that when they encounter someone who is blind. The nerves show, anxiety can make itself evident, someone who is generally charismatic can come off as socially awkward.

I didn’t detect any mockery here. I feel like this is the type of approach that Disney might take on a film that has subtle adult humor that kids won’t pick up on so the entire family can watch. Blind people may feel uncomfortable, and maybe the humor doesn’t come across, but hopefully sighted people who play this pick up on how silly it is to act differently towards someone because they’re blind.

Moving on from that, I did enjoy the sound design. My screen reader happened to read the dialog text at the same time the system tts did, so it would be good to have an option to turn off the system TTS. In my case, I muted screen reader speech, but I would have honestly preferred to use it, since I have the voice set up the way I want, and it goes much faster than the system tts would allow in the settings menu.

I can’t say I enjoyed the game, but then again, I don’t think that was the point. It was gritty and uncomfortable, because it was so stereotypical, and a lot of people are likely to relate to at least one of the negative interactions depicted here.

First and foremost, I want to thank you for creating a game that blind people can play. I do appreciate that and I hope it was a worthwhile experience for you.

That said, I found this game incredibly frustrating. I'm typically the water off the duck's back type of thinker. But this particular game really got on my nerves for a variety of reasons. I'm a totally blind man, for context, and some of the experiences in this story are ones I've lived personally. Some of the experiences in this story are things I've heard some of my friends complain about. They are frustrating. There are options in this game that navigate them how I typically do. However, the way the dialogue is written, and the protagonist's inner monologue, is incredibly stereotypical and one-dimensional, and makes it feel like they view every person they interact with as lesser than them.

This brings me to my next point, all but maybe 2 sighted people in this entire story are absolute buffoons. Oh boy, the character lets you know that too. I do recognize that you try to build a bridge in some places, "You appreciate the thought, you really do," so on and so forth. However, this is quickly mitigated by the fact that the person is just sitting there thinking "Ugh, my life, I sure can't wait to get on the computer!"

I feel as though this game builds barriers between the sighted and blind communities. Sure, you could make the argument that by shedding light on the struggles of the disabled, you create unity rather than division, but I don't think that's entirely true here, if at all. You say this game is meant to show humor rather than mock, but I didn't hear a joke, and all I did was roll my eyes.

I also think the navigational descriptions are somewhat tacky, but they're pretty low on my list of things I have an issue with. I do navigate with echo-location, that's true. However, I don't think I've met a single blind person who counts steps. Minor nitpick on my part.

I think this game harmfully shows the relationship between the blind and the sighted. I appreciate the blind person being a hardworking, independent individual with their own routines and confidences. But there seems to be an ever-present flavor of "me versus them" in their line of thinking that's prevalent the entire time. Like, does this person even LIKE Gregory? In that same vein, you assume blind people have this latent super power to remember exactly where they left things and can just reach out and grab it. I can tell you that that simply isn't the case. I fumble for my phone all the time.

Overall, I just think this entire experience does more harm than good for the two communities. On one hand, it mis-represents disabled people to the sighted, and on the other, blind people don't want to play a game about being blind. It feels as though you got your lived experiences from stories on the Internet and popular media.

Again, thank you for making a game for the blind. I do hope you make more. But, in the future, either reconsider how your blind protagonists behave, or just make your protagonists sighted. Games are escapist media, after all.