No Barriers to Fun!

We met our friend Giddeon at the AbleGamers Accessibility Arcade in Atlantic City, New Jersey. When he first sat down with the AbleGamers crew, Giddeon didn't want to play any games. He told us that with his disability gaming was difficult. Giddeon has a rare disease that caused the growth of his arms .. Read More
A Window to the World

Shepherd University invited the AbleGamers Foundation to come on campus and do one of our Accessibility Arcades for the students and local disabled community. The event was a roaring success with hundreds of children and adults coming out to see the technology and in some cases experience gaming the first time. Read More

About the AbleGamers Foundation

Since 2004, the AbleGamers Foundation, a 501(c)(3) public charity, has served more than 56 million members of the disabled community by advocating greater access in video games. Today, AbleGamers is a leader in the development of equipment, programs and services to those living with disabilities, hardships, and quality-of-life issues that are a result of chronic illness or trauma. It is our goal to ensure that all people, regardless of their disability, can use gaming as a tool to have enriched social experiences with friends, family, and the world at large.

Secrets of Ulduar: World of Warcraft patch 3.1

Written by Carol Williams

Published on 17 April 2009

For World of Warcraft players, the long-awaited 3.1 patch is here. Secrets of Ulduar brings many changes and exciting new content, including several new dailies and a new raid instance. Here is what the disabled gamer can expect.

The Argent Tournament provides a chance for both hardcore and casual gamers to enjoy new quests and gain reputation with their faction capital cities. The tournament starts in the northeastern corner of Icecrown, and encompasses several daily quests and the opportunity to learn various jousting maneuvers. None of the quests require anything above what is normally required of a WoW player, so if you are playing WoW now, there is nothing introduced that will change that for the negative, although some of the jousting will be a challenge for someone who struggles in player vs. player combat.

{sidebar id=2}There is also a new Northrend fishing daily, available from Marcia Chase by the Dalaran fountain. With the skill requirements removed from fishing areas, a player with any level of fishing skill can enjoy doing them.

The User Interface and Talent Specialization received some exciting changes in the patch. As AbleGamers' Steve Spohn mentioned in his earlier article, the development team has enabled a colorblind display option in the Interface>Display menu. Players can now clearly see quest levels, how much currency they have of each coin, what tradeskill patterns will allow them to level, and whether other characters are friendly, hostile, or neutral without having to depend on color vision. On a personal note, my son tried it and smiled immediately.

Also in the interface >display menu is the option to confirm your talents before you learn them. This may not be a big thing, but for someone who has problems with involuntary muscle movement, or fine motor issues, it can save costly mistakes.

The big news for people who like to switch back and forth between talent specializations is the option of purchasing dual talent specialization. Players pay 1000 gold to their class trainer, and are able to set two talents specializations, which a set of glyphs for {sidebar id=3}each specialization. I have already heard very positive comments about this option.

Of course, the flagship of the Secrets of Ulduar patch is the opening of the Ulduar raid dungeon, and the addition of a new boss to the Vault of Archavon in Wintergrasp. Ulduar was well worth the wait. It is visually striking without being overstimulating, and large enough that there is not a lot of visual clutter on the screen from mobs and spell effects. Also, as most of the enemies are giants or vehicles, they are large enough to be seen with someone who is visually impaired. The first event uses combat vehicles, which I found to be a lot of fun, and pretty easy to control. The new boss in Vault is a bit of a challenge, but only because it requires a bit of coordination.

The developers over at Blizzard have shown a lot of creativity with this new patch. They also did a great job in making content more accessible. See you in Northrend!

Carol Wiliams (CariWOW) is a member of the AbleGamers community, and the master behind the work over at World of Abilitycraft, a blog on WOW and the disabled.