[nabs-l] adapting your own board games

Thu May 31 01:59:12 UTC 2012

Ashley:
Check the NFB's Independence Market, for games.
I've found Braille cards, so I'm sure they have accessible board games, as well.
Blessings, Joshua

On 5/30/12, Ashley Bramlett <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Hi Cindy,
> I know people have adapted their own games, but was not sure how. Board
> games are complex usually, except for checkers; its just squares. Other
> games have so many pictures, lines and more cluttered on the board. I guess
>
> I figured it would be kind of time consuming for me to make every line or
> picture tactile on the board. For cards, I agree it would be a quick and
> easy process though to braille on each card.
> If needed, I'd do that. I'd put the number and the initial of the suit on it
>
> as you did. D for diamonds for instance.
>
> I have bought card decks and did not have the problem you did though with
> braille cards. Mine came in a plastic bag, but they were in order and all
> there.  I have graphic art tape and think that would work for labeling game
>
> pieces if I opt to label my own game.
>
> Thanks.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Cynthia Bennett
> Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2012 9:31 PM
> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
> Subject: [nabs-l] adapting your own board games
>
> Ashley and all:
>
> I am not familiar with specially-made adapted games for all of the
> examples you provided. I do know that you can buy brailled standard
> decks of cards, Uno cards, scrabble, and Monopoly though. I will say
> that I have been disappointed in the past though. I bought some
> standard decks of cards from a blindness store a few years ago, and
> when I received the cards, they were in zip-locked bags, not sealed,
> and a friend informed me that the 2 decks of cards didn't even look
> the same. I am not saying that this accurately represents all
> blindness stores or all games (decks of cards can more easily be
> adapted in house than many other games), but what I am saying is that
> this experience taught me that I paid too much money for something I
> could have quickly done myself. But, I was also fortunate to grow up
> with a thrifty mother who never spent money when she didn't have to,
> and she taught me a lot of cost-effective ways to make things blind
> friendly.
>
> So I know that this is a deversion from Ashley's original question,
> but I think that many students like me are poor, and I wanted to
> enlighten you on some easy things I have done to be able to include
> myself in almost every game my sighted friends play.
>
> Depending on the cost of a reader or whether you can find  someone
> nice needing service hours, a friend or a parent, you can often adapt
> games yourself for much cheaper.
>
> For connect 4, you can put a piece of tape on one of the colored
> checkers. So, it would take a sighted person 3 seconds to sort the
> checkers into 2 piles, and you could then put tape on all of the
> checkers in one pile. For the game of checkers, you would just have to
> come up with some differently textured tape to differentiate the king
> side of checkers. When you refer to Chinese Checkers, I am pretty sure
> that you are referring to the game with marbles. If so, you could
> potentially texture the marbles, or use differently shaped beads. You
> could attempt to find beads small enough to fit into the nice little
> indents on the board. For chess, you could incorporate velcro to help
> the pieces stick, but they all feel differently, so they can easily be
> differentiated without adaptation. You could just texture one part of
> each of the black or white pieces with a piece of tape.
>
> For a deck of cards, it would take a sighted person about 2 minutes to
> put the deck in order. If you buy a deck new, chances are, it will
> already be in some sort of order. But, if they are not, typically you
> would have the sighted person sort them from highest to lowest or vice
> versa, and then keep the suits in the same order. For example, the
> first 4 cards might be, the 2 of clubs, the 2 of spades, the 2 of
> harts, and the 2 of diamonds. And then you would move on to the 3's,
> but you would know the order of the suits. You can easily slide the
> cards into a perkins. I write the number of the card in nemeth (and
> the letter if necessary with no letter sign or capital) first, and
> then the first letter of the suit to follow. I do this twice on the
> card, on the top left and bottom right corners as the print is placed.
> But the great thing about adapting your own games is that if you are
> just learning braille, you can make the cards only as advanced as you
> can handle. So you could definitely use a different method than I. I
> have used a slate for card games, but sometimes it is difficult.
> Cards are often just too small for the card slate, and it is difficult
> to secure them in a 4-line slate since if you punch through the card,
> you can't slate right in the corner. I have seen and adapted several
> card games in similar manners. Some examples are Go Fish, Apples to
> Apples, Uno, and Skippo.
>
> If you want a scrabble board with clearly indented squareds, then you
> can buy the print deluxe edition. You can use dymo tape (I'm not sure
> if they have clear, but if they don't, you can buy clear contact
> paper), braille the letters and a nemeth point value, cut them, peel
> off the backing, and stick them on the print letters. It might be
> worth comparing the price of the deluxe scrabble to the adapted one,
> but remember you can find some awesome games used online for cheap, so
> it might still be cheaper.
>
> For Monopoly, you can buy index cards colored similarly to the paper
> money. I personally think that the paper money that comes with the
> game is just too flimsy for braille. you can print and braille the
> denominations. You can braille the property, chance, and community
> chest cards. If they have to be bigger and if this means they can't
> fit in their propper place on the board, who cares? You can read them
> yourself. You can adapt boards in many ways. Using puff paints and
> dymo tape is a good way to outline game piece spaces. If you are
> concerned that a board full of houses, hotels, dice, and game pieces
> will be difficult to navigate without uprooting them, then you could
> incorporate velcro. Although I personally find it easier to touch
> lightly.
>
> Using these techniques might mean that you have to build your
> collection of adaptive supplies, but the great thing is that most of
> these supplies can be found at many stores. And, I think that you will
> find that the time you spend will be rewarding. I totally support
> buying adapted games, or better yet, asking for them for gifts. But I
> think that if you learn to adapt things that are fun for you such as
> board games, when you encounter a challenge in math class, and your
> teacher doesn't know how to make things tactile, and when your science
> tutor has never met a blind person and their mind is completely blank,
> you can be proactive and bring out your little craft box and have
> supplies and instructions ready.
>
> Cindy
>
> On 5/30/12, Ashley Bramlett <bookwormahb at earthlink.net> wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Which board games are adapted for blind people and which have you played?
>>
>> I
>> hope the adapted set has print so you can play with sighted people.
>> Everyone
>> I’d play with is sighted, at least a majority of the time that is the
>> case.
>> I’ll check ILA, independent living aids, to see what they have first. I’m
>> interested in connect four, checkers, chinese checkers, and scrable.
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> Ashley
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>
>
> --
> Cynthia Bennett
> B.A. Psychology, UNC Wilmington
>
> clb5590 at gmail.com
> 828.989.5383
>
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