We've documented 21 accessibility features for Blind Spot, including Fully Voiced (Or No Speech), Large Subtitles, Large Text, Low Pressure and No Quick Reactions. Its accessibility is strongest in Reading and Getting Started but it also has features in Controls, Visual, Difficulty, Navigation and Audio to reduce unintended barriers.
This report is created with input from accessibility experts and the player community to help people find games that have the accessibility features they require. Once you have found potential games on the database, there are excellent specialist accessibility sites that offer in-depth reviews to guide your purchasing decisions.
Accessibility Notes
The difficulty is determined exclusively by the level you’re on. It starts easy and gets harder. As difficulty increases the number of targets to find and how much they move increases. You can choose to start on the easiest level and then progress, or you can start at a harder level from the beginning.
At the beginning of each level, it announces the start with vibration and indicates the number of targets to find with a series of vibration pulses. If you take your fingers off the screen the game provides vibration pulses of the number of targets.
Game Details
Release Date: 29/10/2019
Out Now: Android
Players: 1
Accessibility: 21 features
Components: 2D Side-On
Developer: Blind Spot Game (@BlindSpotGame)
Costs: Purchase cost
Controls
We've documented 3 accessibility features for Controls in Blind Spot which deal with how you control the game, different options for alternative inputs and whether you can remap these settings to suit your needs.
Touchscreen
Can play with the following. Additional gestures may be required for games played with a screenreader like VoiceOver.
Two Motions Targeted: Can play with touchscreen, two simultaneous taps, swipes or hold gestures.
Button Combinations
Specific button operation required to play
Rapid Repeated Pressing Optional: Quick, repeated button pressing (more than 2 times a second) is not required, can be skipped or switched to holding a button to trigger a repeated action.
Controller Vibration
Informative Vibration: Controller vibration indicates events or interactions in the game, echoing visual and audio cues. This can provide additional information about progress, approaching enemies or hitting a target.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Controls
If you want to play Blind Spot, but it doesn't offer the Controls accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Controls accessibility:
Difficulty
We've documented 2 accessibility features for Difficulty in Blind Spot which deal with how you can adjust the challenge of play, and whether this is locked once chosen or can be adjusted as you play.
Difficulty Options
Select Difficulty: Select the level of difficulty from a range of presets. This not only offers a way to adjust the challenge of a game but enables you to do so without dealing with individual criteria.
Adjust After Setting
Adjustable Between Levels: You can adjust the difficulty between levels/rounds. Although you have to restart your checkpoint or level, this enables you to adjust the difficulty after selecting it at the beginning of the game.
Getting Started
We've documented 5 accessibility features for Getting Started in Blind Spot which deal with what support is offered to get started with the game. This includes customising the experience when you first open the game via any onboarding processes it provides as well as tutorials and other assistance when you first start playing.
Assistance Getting Starting
These features aid your play of the game in terms of cognitive load on learning controls, dealing with pressure and coping with the environment and challenges.
Tutorials: There are helpful tutorials and instructions on how to play. Information is provided in a timely manner, with appropriate level of detail.
Reaction-Time Not Critical: Individual game actions don’t need quick reactions, or there are settings to lower the requirement for quick reactions. This means you don't need to quickly press a button in response to an on-screen prompt, target a fast-moving target or skillfully complete a scenario against the clock.
Low Pressure: Game tasks aren't time-limited or there's a low-pressure mode. This avoids the pressure of being put on the clock for overarching missions, or failing tasks because you didn't reach a destination in time.
Assistance For Progressing
These features aid your progress through the game offering different ways of maintaining your progression.
Assisted Progress With Hints: The game notices if you get stuck (or you can press a button) and provides information to help you progress. This can offer hints or tutorials popping up during play. This includes hints after you have died, where it can suggest strategies or difficulty settings to adjust or offer to skip past problematic levels.
Save Progress Anytime: The game automatically saves progress or you can save any time. This doesn’t mean you never lose progress, but it does mean you can stop whenever you want (without having to get to a save point) without losing progress.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Getting Started
If you want to play Blind Spot, but it doesn't offer the Getting Started accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Getting Started accessibility:
- Frequency Missing (7 Getting Started Features)
- The Vale: Shadow of the Crown (6 Getting Started Features)
Reading
We've documented 6 accessibility features for Reading in Blind Spot which deal with how much reading or listening comprehension is required, how well the game provides visual and audible access to the text and whether subtitles and captions are a good fit for purpose.
Reading Level
How much reading is required to play the game's main path or story and how complex the language is. The presence of voiced characters doesn't reduce this requirement, as it's recorded as a separate datapoint.
Simple Minimal Reading: Minimal reading is required. The quantity and complexity of reading are at a level that a primary/elementary student (9-year-old) could understand.
Text Visibility
Large Clear Text: All essential text is large and clear or can be adjusted to be. The general text used throughout the game in menus, instructions and other key information (excluding subtitles that are assessed separately) is at least 1/20 (46 pixels on 1080 screen) the height on landscape screens and at least 1/40 height on portrait screens. We base this on the full line-height, including the space above and below the letters.
High Contrast Text: Text colour contrasts to the background or can be adjusted to be. The text in menus, instructions and other information is presented in high contrast with a solid background.
Subtitles
Large Clear Subtitles: Subtitles are large, clear and of good contrast. They are at least 1/20 (46 pixels on 1080 screen) the height of a landscape screen and at least 1/40 height on portrait screens, or can be adjusted to be. We base this on the full line-height, including the space above and below the letters. Considered separately from the general text of the game, the subtitles are large, clear and of good contrast.
All Speech Subtitled (Or No Speech In Game): All spoken content has subtitles, or there is no speech in the game. This means there is no requirement to hear spoken dialogue or narrative to play the game.
Voice Acted
All Dialogue is Voice Acted (Or No Speech In Game): All of the game dialogue and narrative can be voiced, or there is no speech in the game. This means there is no requirement to read the dialogue and narrative text to play the game.
Navigation
We've documented 2 accessibility features for Navigation in Blind Spot which deal with how the game provides guidance and assistance to navigate its worlds. These are only for games that have traversal and exploration in 2D and 3D spaces.
Clarity
Large Clear Navigation: The in-game navigation and maps are clear to read. They offer large text and offer markers that are large and of high contrast. Where text or information is small, there are settings to zoom-in and increase visibility.
Menu Navigation
Menu Narrated: All of the game menus can be narrated for easier navigation. The game menus can therefore be navigated without reading text.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Navigation
If you want to play Blind Spot, but it doesn't offer the Navigation accessibility features you require, this similar game extends the Navigation accessibility:
- The Vale: Shadow of the Crown (4 Navigation Features)
Visual
We've documented 3 accessibility features for Visual in Blind Spot which deal with how you can adjust the visuals to suit your needs, and offer additional information if you can't hear the game.
Narration for Visual Elements
This is the audible narration of in-game text. Sometimes talk about as Text To Speech, although it may include the narration of no-textual elements. This is different to Text To Voice, which provides player-player textual communication audibly.
Menu Narrated: All of the game menus can be narrated for easier navigation. The game menus can therefore be navigated without reading text.
Colour Options
Colour Blind Friendly: Game doesn’t rely on colour or can switch to colour blind friendly mode with double coding or similar way to avoid colour dependance.
Play Without Sight
Play Without Sight: The game can be played without sight. Positional/stereo sounds and haptic feedback enable play without the need to see the screen. This is useful for blind low-vision and sightless players.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Visual
If you want to play Blind Spot, but it doesn't offer the Visual accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Visual accessibility:
- Frequency Missing (8 Visual Features)
- Blek (6 Visual Features)
- Bam Fu (5 Visual Features)
- OCO (5 Visual Features)
Audio
We've documented 1 accessibility feature for Audio in Blind Spot which deals with how you can adjust the audio of the game and whether audio cues compensate for aspects of the game that are hard to see.
Play Without Hearing
Play Without Hearing: No audio cues are necessary to play the game well.
Similar Games With More Accessibility Features for Audio
If you want to play Blind Spot, but it doesn't offer the Audio accessibility features you require, these similar games extend the Audio accessibility:
- Bam Fu (3 Audio Features)
- OCO (2 Audio Features)
- Frequency Missing (2 Audio Features)
System Accessibility Settings
In addition to the accessibility features provided in the game, you can also use system-wide accessibility settings:
Android
Android has accessibility settings including ways to navigate and interact, although not all games support this.
Read more about system accessibility settings.
Accessibility Report supported by VSC Rating Board, PlayabilityInitiative and accessibility contributors Andy Robertson