Playing Dominion Online Totally Blind

[Elwin]

Hi there,

I realize this post could straddle a few different forums, but figured I'd start with this one since my experience is a bit unusual. I've been a fan of Dominion Online for several years, and enjoyed the chance to play it with friends, especially combined  with Discord.

I am totally blind, and use a program called a screen reader to enjoy the game. I noticed on my latest attempt to play that the game accessibility seems to have faded drastically.

Previously I struggled a bit with certain parts of the interface but was generally able to do most things with a bit of effort. Nowadays it's impossible to even do so much as read the kingdom or tell what cards are in my hand. This is due to a UI change of some kind, but I haven't played enough to definitively say when it happened.

I'm not sure how often the developers read this forum, but I'd hope they might take note and consider accessibility going forward. A big part of the problem I encounter now is that buttons lack accessible names, that is, I can't tell which control is which. I used to be able to do this just fine, more or less, and am not sure what changed.

I would very much appreciate any help with this. At the moment the game is mostly unplayable for me and my friends, most of whom are also blind.

I am happy to go into more technical detail if needed; my day job is in web accessibility, but I am less familiar with how this particular app is put together.

Thanks for your consideration. :)

[Ingix]

Hi Eldwin,

thanks for your posting. Some changes happened in the last ca. 6 month. Many relate to under the hood UI changes, and I guess this is what's causing you the problems.

I'll put this forward, I'm not sure in what time frame some improvements will come.

[crystine]

Elwin, thank you for your post, it was very thoughtful.

I'm not blind and I'm not a game developer, but for the time being maybe you could try telling other players that you are visually impaired (or that you require a bit of extra time, for whatever reason).

Some player might not like that because they want to play a really fast game, but I think a lot of other players would be understanding.

Once you find players that are understanding and willing to be a little patient, friend them and continue to play with them until the problem is solved.

[Kurtosis]

Alternately, the developer could test for accessibility issues before updating the UI.

[jkommelb]

It's also important to note that under both U.S. and EU laws, commercial websites such as this are required to be accessible, opening yourselves up to liability if you fail to provide an accessible website to those with disabilities.  I'm sure no one is particularly interested in suing you, but you should be aware of the possibility as the proprietors of a commercial website.  Additionally, there's just the ethical aspect of it; even if you weren't required to make the site accessible, it's wrong to exclude a group of people for an immutable trait such as a visual impairment from being able to use the site.  I strongly urge the developers to make this their number one priority.