Gamer Beats Abe’s Exodus — Blind
February 24, 2011 NewsThere are a surprising number of video games designed specifically for blind gamers, such as Entombed (click here to read our review of Entombed), but few mainstream games are designed with the disabled gamer in mind. When a blind gamer makes the news for completing a mainstream video game like Abe’s Exodus, we must sit up, take special notice, and congratulate the game’s developer’s for making a game that, though accessibility may not have been their primary goal, is manageable by people with disabilities.
Terry Garrett of Colorado, a 23-year-old college student studying aerospace engineering — posted a video on YouTube discussing his interests in gaming, how he manages to play games with no vision, and plenty of samples of Abe’s Exodus gameplay footage. You can watch the video for yourself by following this link to YouTube: Gamer Beats Abe’s Exodus — Blind
Using only the game’s enhanced sound design and quicksave / reload functions, Terry completed the game through trial and error or, as I’d like to call it, lots and lots of patience and practice. This is a shining example of two things: the importance of sound design in video games, and the human ability to overcome obstacles no matter how challenging. I would love to hear about more of these sorts of achievements, but at the same time I would love to see them become more commonplace through superior video game engineering and consideration to people with disabilities.
Thanks to Geek.com for the heads-up.
