I am a blind gamer, and I have been playing D&D and Pathfinder for the past two years. As I can't play video games effectively, I have found pen and paper RPGs to be a the absolute best way for me to game. Unfortunately, finding accessible ways to play has been a challenge. For D&D I currently use the Fight Club 5E app, which is partially accessible on my iPhone. My struggle has been that the developer has ignored my messages pointing out the very simple adjustments that would make it a completely accessible option. I have been tinkering with the D&D Beyond site for a few days and I have found it to be mostly accessible on a computer, but the mobile interface is not. I am able to view everything with my assistive technology but there are many elements where I can't activate something. For example, the background step of the character creator is unusable for me on a smart phone. When it comes down to it, I am extremely excited for the mobile app, but it would be absolutely amazing if it could be designed to be completely accessible from the ground up. I personally am not a developer so I don't know the specifics of how to do this, but I know that at least Apple has released several accessibility developer tools that show app developers how to make this happen. I hope this is something that is already being considered, but I would appreciate any support my fellow users could add to this forum thread. I know that these changes probably wouldn't directly benefit you, but they wouldn't have any negative impacts either.
This is so incredibly important. The Beyond team should be taking a holistic approach to making sure everyone can access their platform. Accessibility is so straightforward if you take the smallest effort to learn a little about it. It should be there from the ground up. I hope they realize that us blind folks want to give them our money also, we just need to know we can actually use all of their material.
Hey, so I obviously can't speak for DNDBeyond directly, but I will point out this tweet, which was brought up in another thread about the same topic. Granted that is a response from August, so they may or may not have made improvements since then, but of course let them know if you are still having difficulties. I know just after beta started I saw quite a few of these posts, but don't remember anything ever being resolved/mentioned. I'm going to keep this in mind though and try to ask it at the next developer stream (I'd also suggest asking in that forum as it might garner a response quicker). Maybe when they release the mobile app the mobile views will have better Accessibility.
As someone growing up with a learning disability ( please don't take this anyway to diminish your difficulties and frustration ) I had The opportunity to use some of the early voice to text and text to voice technology (45 years ago) and we've come a very long way in helping overcome all of our chalanges. The games we play ( from D&D to monopoly ) help us overcome our shortcomings. Developers of games,app's and programs should take there Responsibility to help to make their products as accessible as possible very seriously .My wife, parents, educators and many others have failed to understand the importance of RPG's in mine and many others development.
I am a blind gamer, and I have been playing D&D and Pathfinder for the past two years. As I can't play video games effectively, I have found pen and paper RPGs to be a the absolute best way for me to game. Unfortunately, finding accessible ways to play has been a challenge. For D&D I currently use the Fight Club 5E app, which is partially accessible on my iPhone. My struggle has been that the developer has ignored my messages pointing out the very simple adjustments that would make it a completely accessible option. I have been tinkering with the D&D Beyond site for a few days and I have found it to be mostly accessible on a computer, but the mobile interface is not. I am able to view everything with my assistive technology but there are many elements where I can't activate something. For example, the background step of the character creator is unusable for me on a smart phone. When it comes down to it, I am extremely excited for the mobile app, but it would be absolutely amazing if it could be designed to be completely accessible from the ground up. I personally am not a developer so I don't know the specifics of how to do this, but I know that at least Apple has released several accessibility developer tools that show app developers how to make this happen. I hope this is something that is already being considered, but I would appreciate any support my fellow users could add to this forum thread. I know that these changes probably wouldn't directly benefit you, but they wouldn't have any negative impacts either.
I was actually partially blind for several years (actually how I got the nickname), so this does indeed matter to me personally and I can empathize with the challenges.
The fact of the matter is we have not to this point had the appropriate level of expertise on our team or in our broader company context to really succeed in this area. We have heard the requests for improved accessibility and I know that we can make improvements.
For starters, we will target lower-hanging fruit such as getting alt tags to display for images appropriately and making sure field labels are marked as such. These are steps I can comfortably commit to in the coming months.
For the improvements needed beyond that, we will have to engage with someone that actually faces these issues directly to fill the gaps we have in knowledge of and familiarity with the challenges. Our team doesn't really know how screen readers work inside and out, for example, so we need to rely on some expertise outside the team.
I will investigate bringing in someone that cares about D&D Beyond and the game to consult and help us.
You guys know of anyone that might want to do that?
I am a blind gamer, and I have been playing D&D and Pathfinder for the past two years. As I can't play video games effectively, I have found pen and paper RPGs to be a the absolute best way for me to game. Unfortunately, finding accessible ways to play has been a challenge. For D&D I currently use the Fight Club 5E app, which is partially accessible on my iPhone. My struggle has been that the developer has ignored my messages pointing out the very simple adjustments that would make it a completely accessible option. I have been tinkering with the D&D Beyond site for a few days and I have found it to be mostly accessible on a computer, but the mobile interface is not. I am able to view everything with my assistive technology but there are many elements where I can't activate something. For example, the background step of the character creator is unusable for me on a smart phone. When it comes down to it, I am extremely excited for the mobile app, but it would be absolutely amazing if it could be designed to be completely accessible from the ground up. I personally am not a developer so I don't know the specifics of how to do this, but I know that at least Apple has released several accessibility developer tools that show app developers how to make this happen. I hope this is something that is already being considered, but I would appreciate any support my fellow users could add to this forum thread. I know that these changes probably wouldn't directly benefit you, but they wouldn't have any negative impacts either.
I was actually partially blind for several years (actually how I got the nickname), so this does indeed matter to me personally and I can empathize with the challenges.
The fact of the matter is we have not to this point had the appropriate level of expertise on our team or in our broader company context to really succeed in this area. We have heard the requests for improved accessibility and I know that we can make improvements.
For starters, we will target lower-hanging fruit such as getting alt tags to display for images appropriately and making sure field labels are marked as such. These are steps I can comfortably commit to in the coming months.
For the improvements needed beyond that, we will have to engage with someone that actually faces these issues directly to fill the gaps we have in knowledge of and familiarity with the challenges. Our team doesn't really know how screen readers work inside and out, for example, so we need to rely on some expertise outside the team.
I will investigate bringing in someone that cares about D&D Beyond and the game to consult and help us.
You guys know of anyone that might want to do that?
Hi BadEye,
I'm not sure if this will help. But I'm located in Canada and was living in the Province of Ontario where they enacted the AODA Act (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act) some time ago. Via government mandate, new website refreshes and app development for residents of the province are subject to the Act. As a result, this caused the development of expertise (both at a consulting level and at a nitty gritty development level). It's now a space that has a variety of resources available at least in Ontario (if you are willing to recruit that far away). However, consulting resources are just as readily available.
http://www.aoda.ca/guide-to-the-act/ here is a link to the act. More helpful will be the WCAG 2.0 standards (World Wide Web Consortium Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0), currently the province is aiming to meet AA standards (one step up from A standards). There are free compliance audit tools available to scan your site and give you a list of issues. You can also employ consultant services to help draw out a plan to deal with complying with WCAG 2.0 standards. A link straight to WCAG 2.0 (https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/)
The good thing is that you don't need to have in-house accessibility expertise (I know it's hard to find in general). The standards could be reviewed by the development team and applied in a pretty prescriptive manner as time (and priorities) allowed. Then you have the rest of the community to help with alpha/beta feedback in this regard (maybe even this forum).
The fact you are considerate enough to think about this is great. For many other organizations the ROI alone would make doing this type of work a non-starter.
NOTE: You will need to setup a zendesk account (which is not your DnDBeyond.com account, the team uses this 3rd party software). It's easy to do and your votes are needed!
I wish I could offer more help as it pertains to the intricacies of screen reader functions. I know at least specifically for developing iOS apps there are tools that Apple offers to check for accessibility issues and to teach developers how to make apps accessible. I'm not a developer myself or I would be prepared with links for more detail on these. I'll try and look them up later. For now, the work you already said you were going to do is very appreciated.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Hey,
So delighted to find this thread and even more delighted that it’s not being ignored. I have bought material from the site as an alternative to inaccessible hard copies of books.
I’m very pleased that, as far as I can tell, the iPhone app at least, is accessible. I foresee this being the go to rather than the mobile site, once character sheets are implemented.
I just want to add my voice to this … Gaming is so important to everyone, it’s accessible by nature, it is inclusive, it is a leveller of abilities, it improves social skills, it improves spacial understanding and cognitive ability … Plus it’s the best fun you can have with your clothes on. Whom so ever clicked (No) on the pole at the beginning of this thread, shame on you. D&D is, and should remain, a game open to anyone no matter who they are and as the forefront of dungeons and dragons toolkits, and with the demise of the more nefarious means of getting source books and accessible character sheets (possibly DnD beyond goblin lawyers having a claw in that), it should not be a question of If” DnD Beyond should be accessible, it should be a question of “When” … By the way , the answer is really soon, pretty please!!!
I’m excited for the future of this platform and would be more than happy to provide feedback on the usability of the app and site, a sub beta group if you like … Unfortunately I cannot describe how to fix issues, but I can point them out and make suggestions of why it doesn’t work and what may need to be done to rectify.
I was actually also drawn here to ask what the current state of play is for people with accessibility needs. I recommend D&DB a lot and try to make sure I'm giving advice about features of these tools I recommend that assist people as much as possible.
I do know that DDB is still working on accessibility. I was able to reach out to them over their Twitter account regarding the topic of screen readers. Please, please, give them feedback on your experiences with the site.
I recommend that you list your device, browser (if used), app (if used), and accessibility service(s)/app(s) that you use, and what is causing issues for you.
Be aware that their accessibility focus for now might be (as a guess) the D&D features and less so for the forums.
(It might be nice to have a feedback sub-forum for accessibility topics.)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
First I would like to say the response from D&D beyond about accessibility is encouraging. Many companies give lip service to accessibility then never attempt to make strides to get there. Web accessibility isn't difficult, but it can be daunting to implement for people who don't deal with it on a regular basis, and putting something in after the fact of implementation can be a long job.
Using google chrome and NVDA, the books are great, the character builder is usable on the main site, although it is a bit clunky. The character sheets are readable with the amount of effort of unscrambling text and numbers to see what number relates to what thing, but practically unusable the way they are formatted. The encounter tracker, I think it's still in alpha, but it is usable, although just keeping a file open to track is easier still. Ironically, I have been having a lot of trouble with the forum. I'm not able to type out my response in the window, I have to write it in a notepad file and paste it in. The toolbar wraps, and the edit field does not show up propperly for me. IN all though, what I really need to run my games are the books, and I'd like to be able to read my players' character sheets. That and posting on the forum more easily would be amazing.
I am a blind gamer, and I have been playing D&D and Pathfinder for the past two years. As I can't play video games effectively, I have found pen and paper RPGs to be a the absolute best way for me to game. Unfortunately, finding accessible ways to play has been a challenge. For D&D I currently use the Fight Club 5E app, which is partially accessible on my iPhone. My struggle has been that the developer has ignored my messages pointing out the very simple adjustments that would make it a completely accessible option. I have been tinkering with the D&D Beyond site for a few days and I have found it to be mostly accessible on a computer, but the mobile interface is not. I am able to view everything with my assistive technology but there are many elements where I can't activate something. For example, the background step of the character creator is unusable for me on a smart phone. When it comes down to it, I am extremely excited for the mobile app, but it would be absolutely amazing if it could be designed to be completely accessible from the ground up. I personally am not a developer so I don't know the specifics of how to do this, but I know that at least Apple has released several accessibility developer tools that show app developers how to make this happen. I hope this is something that is already being considered, but I would appreciate any support my fellow users could add to this forum thread. I know that these changes probably wouldn't directly benefit you, but they wouldn't have any negative impacts either.
I was actually partially blind for several years (actually how I got the nickname), so this does indeed matter to me personally and I can empathize with the challenges.
The fact of the matter is we have not to this point had the appropriate level of expertise on our team or in our broader company context to really succeed in this area. We have heard the requests for improved accessibility and I know that we can make improvements.
For starters, we will target lower-hanging fruit such as getting alt tags to display for images appropriately and making sure field labels are marked as such. These are steps I can comfortably commit to in the coming months.
For the improvements needed beyond that, we will have to engage with someone that actually faces these issues directly to fill the gaps we have in knowledge of and familiarity with the challenges. Our team doesn't really know how screen readers work inside and out, for example, so we need to rely on some expertise outside the team.
I will investigate bringing in someone that cares about D&D Beyond and the game to consult and help us.
You guys know of anyone that might want to do that?
I use an iPhone, that I got last month. It has I can't remember I think it's iOS 15 possibly 14 well doubt whatever that is my assistive device. I will never be able to use a computer again I'm told.
Are use an iPhone, that I got last month. It has I can't remember I think it's iOS 15 possibly 14 well doubt whatever that is my assistive device. I will never be able to use a computer again I'm told.
I was excited to try DND beyond today, but had trouble with the character creator app. On the human variant screen froze had to close out, could not figure out how to delete that character I'll go back to it later on my next character
Are use a brand new as of September 2021 iPhone. Latest OS. That is my only assistive device I'm told I'll never use a computer again.
are use a brand new as of September 2021 iPhone. Latest OS. That is my only assistive device I am told I'll never use a computer again.
Today I was excited to try DND beyond for the first time since I was visually impaired in 2019. Unfortunately on the human variance screen the iPhone stopped registering things and I had to try again on the next one I made it to the sorcerer page skipped the human variant choice. And the same thing happened. I managed to go back and to the characters I had earlier and set up into the Ability rolling and selection, unfortunately was not able to assign any of my roles to any abilities.
IfAbility rolling and selection, unfortunately was not able to assign any of my roles to any abilities.
If you're looking for someone to try this out and work with people, give me a call send me a message. I want to be able to play DND again we are an untapped market with a visually impaired I believe the United States you have 4.8 million of us down there and we have a great ability to visualize things. Very few of us play video games, there are games for people who are blind and visually impaired. And many more people are becoming blind and visually impaired so there's a higher ROI on there from your existing customer base as well as those of us who are not yet able to purchase and enjoy the products.
or in my case no longer able to.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hello all,
I am a blind gamer, and I have been playing D&D and Pathfinder for the past two years. As I can't play video games effectively, I have found pen and paper RPGs to be a the absolute best way for me to game. Unfortunately, finding accessible ways to play has been a challenge. For D&D I currently use the Fight Club 5E app, which is partially accessible on my iPhone. My struggle has been that the developer has ignored my messages pointing out the very simple adjustments that would make it a completely accessible option. I have been tinkering with the D&D Beyond site for a few days and I have found it to be mostly accessible on a computer, but the mobile interface is not. I am able to view everything with my assistive technology but there are many elements where I can't activate something. For example, the background step of the character creator is unusable for me on a smart phone. When it comes down to it, I am extremely excited for the mobile app, but it would be absolutely amazing if it could be designed to be completely accessible from the ground up. I personally am not a developer so I don't know the specifics of how to do this, but I know that at least Apple has released several accessibility developer tools that show app developers how to make this happen. I hope this is something that is already being considered, but I would appreciate any support my fellow users could add to this forum thread. I know that these changes probably wouldn't directly benefit you, but they wouldn't have any negative impacts either.
This is so incredibly important. The Beyond team should be taking a holistic approach to making sure everyone can access their platform. Accessibility is so straightforward if you take the smallest effort to learn a little about it. It should be there from the ground up. I hope they realize that us blind folks want to give them our money also, we just need to know we can actually use all of their material.
Hey, so I obviously can't speak for DNDBeyond directly, but I will point out this tweet, which was brought up in another thread about the same topic. Granted that is a response from August, so they may or may not have made improvements since then, but of course let them know if you are still having difficulties. I know just after beta started I saw quite a few of these posts, but don't remember anything ever being resolved/mentioned. I'm going to keep this in mind though and try to ask it at the next developer stream (I'd also suggest asking in that forum as it might garner a response quicker). Maybe when they release the mobile app the mobile views will have better Accessibility.
How do you get a one-armed goblin out of a tree?
Wave!
As someone growing up with a learning disability ( please don't take this anyway to diminish your difficulties and frustration ) I had The opportunity to use some of the early voice to text and text to voice technology (45 years ago) and we've come a very long way in helping overcome all of our chalanges. The games we play ( from D&D to monopoly ) help us overcome our shortcomings. Developers of games,app's and programs should take there Responsibility to help to make their products as accessible as possible very seriously .My wife, parents, educators and many others have failed to understand the importance of RPG's in mine and many others development.
Want to see Virtual Table Top like no other before it built within DnDBeyond.com? Upvote the feature request. It's 2nd highest voted so far:
https://dndbeyond.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115008597088-Virtual-Tabletop-Gameboard
NOTE: You will need to setup a zendesk account (which is not your DnDBeyond.com account, the team uses this 3rd party software). It's easy to do and your votes are needed!
I wish I could offer more help as it pertains to the intricacies of screen reader functions. I know at least specifically for developing iOS apps there are tools that Apple offers to check for accessibility issues and to teach developers how to make apps accessible. I'm not a developer myself or I would be prepared with links for more detail on these. I'll try and look them up later. For now, the work you already said you were going to do is very appreciated.
Hey,
So delighted to find this thread and even more delighted that it’s not being ignored. I have bought material from the site as an alternative to inaccessible hard copies of books.
I’m very pleased that, as far as I can tell, the iPhone app at least, is accessible. I foresee this being the go to rather than the mobile site, once character sheets are implemented.
I just want to add my voice to this … Gaming is so important to everyone, it’s accessible by nature, it is inclusive, it is a leveller of abilities, it improves social skills, it improves spacial understanding and cognitive ability … Plus it’s the best fun you can have with your clothes on. Whom so ever clicked (No) on the pole at the beginning of this thread, shame on you. D&D is, and should remain, a game open to anyone no matter who they are and as the forefront of dungeons and dragons toolkits, and with the demise of the more nefarious means of getting source books and accessible character sheets (possibly DnD beyond goblin lawyers having a claw in that), it should not be a question of If” DnD Beyond should be accessible, it should be a question of “When” … By the way , the answer is really soon, pretty please!!!
I’m excited for the future of this platform and would be more than happy to provide feedback on the usability of the app and site, a sub beta group if you like … Unfortunately I cannot describe how to fix issues, but I can point them out and make suggestions of why it doesn’t work and what may need to be done to rectify.
All the best
Ollie
Keep rolling rolling rolling rolling … Pardon?
13
What is the status on this?
I was actually also drawn here to ask what the current state of play is for people with accessibility needs. I recommend D&DB a lot and try to make sure I'm giving advice about features of these tools I recommend that assist people as much as possible.
I do know that DDB is still working on accessibility. I was able to reach out to them over their Twitter account regarding the topic of screen readers. Please, please, give them feedback on your experiences with the site.
I recommend that you list your device, browser (if used), app (if used), and accessibility service(s)/app(s) that you use, and what is causing issues for you.
Be aware that their accessibility focus for now might be (as a guess) the D&D features and less so for the forums.
(It might be nice to have a feedback sub-forum for accessibility topics.)
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
What Assistive tech do you use?
First I would like to say the response from D&D beyond about accessibility is encouraging. Many companies give lip service to accessibility then never attempt to make strides to get there. Web accessibility isn't difficult, but it can be daunting to implement for people who don't deal with it on a regular basis, and putting something in after the fact of implementation can be a long job.
Using google chrome and NVDA, the books are great, the character builder is usable on the main site, although it is a bit clunky. The character sheets are readable with the amount of effort of unscrambling text and numbers to see what number relates to what thing, but practically unusable the way they are formatted. The encounter tracker, I think it's still in alpha, but it is usable, although just keeping a file open to track is easier still.
Ironically, I have been having a lot of trouble with the forum. I'm not able to type out my response in the window, I have to write it in a notepad file and paste it in. The toolbar wraps, and the edit field does not show up propperly for me.
IN all though, what I really need to run my games are the books, and I'd like to be able to read my players' character sheets. That and posting on the forum more easily would be amazing.
I use an iPhone, that I got last month. It has I can't remember I think it's iOS 15 possibly 14 well doubt whatever that is my assistive device. I will never be able to use a computer again I'm told.
Are use an iPhone, that I got last month. It has I can't remember I think it's iOS 15 possibly 14 well doubt whatever that is my assistive device. I will never be able to use a computer again I'm told.
I was excited to try DND beyond today, but had trouble with the character creator app. On the human variant screen froze had to close out, could not figure out how to delete that character I'll go back to it later on my next character
Are use a brand new as of September 2021 iPhone. Latest OS. That is my only assistive device I'm told I'll never use a computer again.
are use a brand new as of September 2021 iPhone. Latest OS. That is my only assistive device I am told I'll never use a computer again.
Today I was excited to try DND beyond for the first time since I was visually impaired in 2019. Unfortunately on the human variance screen the iPhone stopped registering things and I had to try again on the next one I made it to the sorcerer page skipped the human variant choice. And the same thing happened. I managed to go back and to the characters I had earlier and set up into the Ability rolling and selection, unfortunately was not able to assign any of my roles to any abilities.
IfAbility rolling and selection, unfortunately was not able to assign any of my roles to any abilities.
If you're looking for someone to try this out and work with people, give me a call send me a message. I want to be able to play DND again we are an untapped market with a visually impaired I believe the United States you have 4.8 million of us down there and we have a great ability to visualize things. Very few of us play video games, there are games for people who are blind and visually impaired. And many more people are becoming blind and visually impaired so there's a higher ROI on there from your existing customer base as well as those of us who are not yet able to purchase and enjoy the products.
or in my case no longer able to.