Blind Players Can Enjoy Racing In ‘Forza Motorsport’ With Special Assists
Visually-impaired gamers who love racing can soon try their hands at being behind the wheel, as the creator of Forza Motorsport, Turn 10 Studios, recently unveiled new accessibility features coming to the video game.
Over the last two years, the game maker has been steadily working on bringing Blind Driving Assists to players globally by working together with accessibility consultant Brandon Cole, who is blind, and other low-vision players.
Audio cues will be the main method of alerting visually-impaired drivers to what’s happening on track. For example, players will receive audible information in the form of track position, orientation, driving approach, and progress when turning around corners.
In addition, low-vision gamers can seek out more details about the drive, including the level of deceleration they should hit and even when to shift gears, if they’re choosing to drive using manual transmission.
Many of the audio cues have been designed to be instinctive to blind players, with details added, such as the steering guide panning the engine noise and tire sounds to the left or right or beeping sounds alerting drivers that they’re nearing the end of the track.
The most important part? Making sure these accessibility features actually work. Fortunately, as per Cole, he was able to win a race against computer-controlled drivers when relying on the help of the cues.
To get started, low-vision gamers can preview the audio cues in the game’s accessibility menu and get a detailed description of what the different sounds entail from a customizable screen narrator.
Players who suffer from mobility and stamina issues can access additional accessibility options via ‘One Touch Driving’—a mode that allows racers to reconfigure their controllers, such as the required button pressure, to suit their needs better.
Forza Motorsport is scheduled to be released later this year on the Xbox and PC.
