Spare a thought for the blind

RMcG

Spare a thought for the blind.

I made a ‘bad’ joke about wearing sunglasses and blind people in a post today and it made me think of a question I have asked myself on a number of occasions. How would you feel if you suddenly went blind?

Would I be in tears because I would never be able to see the sun come up or go down or go up and down again? Would I be devastated never to see my families faces again or to never be able to watch movies, or even worse to never see Liverpool win the champions League again??? (At this point Man U supporters say “you wont need to lose your sight never to see Liverpool win he champions league again, mate”)…
Anyway my immediate answer was this…..”**** I wouldn’t be able to play poker anymore”…….and that would be a serious issue!

When I was young my aunties, uncles, grannies and granddads used to gather at our house every St Stephen’s night for drinks and poker. My granny thought me to play poker on one of these nights when I was seven, and I used to sit by her side and get all her winnings at the end of the night. Last crimbo at the ripe old age of 29 I spent the night sitting by my granny’s side again….but this time I spent it whispering my grannies cards into her ear as about four years ago she went completely blind. It must be devastating to have your sight all your life and then suddenly lose it but she still has a twisted sense of humour, like myself, and at one stage of the night I got up and said…..’gran im off to the loo, keep an eye on my drink, ok?’…to which she smartly replied ‘ah son, I could do that with me bleedin’ eyes closed’.

So my point is……..?????? Poker is the most amazing past time or job in the world in my opinion. There are many reasons for this. None more than if its your job you can excel at it for your whole life, with no retirement age and no real peak time, if you’re a good poker player now then you more than likely will be for the rest of your life…..likewise with playing poker for a hobbie, you have it for life and can be great at it for life……but what happens to you if you lose your sight, you cant realistically play poker anymore, I don’t think it would go down too well if I brought my gran to the Fitzwilliam and whispered her hole cards to her every hand….mind you she would feel right at home in the Fitz with her dark glasses… :cool:

The answer lies in internet poker. Its perfect, I play poker on the Net every day from between five , to anything up to, sixteen hours a day. If I lost my sight I wouldn’t be able to play anymore BUT there is no reason why in the future internet-poker software programmers cant make their software Visually Impaired Friendly. I am convinced that it would work and to be honest with some very uncomplicated changes, then my gran, for one, and hundreds of thousands of people who enjoyed playing poker all their lives could again enjoy playing in the comfort of their own homes and without any aid from anyone else.

And its obvious, its all about introducing better audio into the programmes. It would be easy to introduce a feature where the dealer basically does a running commentary on the whole game. Calling out your hole cards and position, position of raisers etc. etc. A ticking noise for the clock to help with timing tells, I know that most sites actually have this……and from a social point of view a feature which, I believe, has been experimented with on one poker site, is where players have the option to use a headset and chat with the other players at the table. Now we can all well imagine the problems of verbal abuse this would present but everything can be handled and if controlled properly could be a brilliant tool not only for Visually Impaired players but for all players, I would certainly use it today.

Anyway to conclude Poker Software developers, get your ass in gear and spare a thought for the blind, big and small, and let us all play poker forever and ever Amen.

Rob

DocO

RMcG wrote:

Spare a thought for the blind.

How would you feel if you suddenly went blind?
spare a thought for the blind, big and small, and let us all play poker forever and ever Amen.

Rob

Very Deep Man . . . you been chatting to Andy B. about Buddhism?

Lafortezza

RMcG wrote:

If I lost my sight I wouldn’t be able to play anymore BUT there is no reason why in the future internet-poker software programmers cant make their software Visually Impaired Friendly.
And its obvious, its all about introducing better audio into the programmes. It would be easy to introduce a feature where the dealer basically does a running commentary on the whole game.

Anyway to conclude Poker Software developers, get your ass in gear and spare a thought for the blind, big and small, and let us all play poker forever and ever Amen.

Rob

Interesting post but I doubt online poker for the visually impaired would work to any great extent. You'd get people saying that their PC's speakers were rigged.

I remember playing penny poker with my granny when I was small, she'd clean me out and then buy me sweets. She obviously took a rake as the amount of sweets I'd get was significantly less than the money I lost to her.

RMcG

It took me the best part of a ****ing hour to write this and i come in from the pub and i see almost 50 viewings but only two replies....was it 50 blind people that viewed it??????? (Talking to self)....now Rob thats not a very nice comment seeing as you were so concerned about blind people playing poker earlier on....come on guys FEEDBACK FEEDBACK.....or maybe if i just copied and pasted one of my hands here, that seems to really get the interest going......oh actually did i mention, my AK got cracked today by Q9 suited..........okay the blinds were 100 200....and my hair was on fire.....and ..........FFS.....

califano

in fairness id say you were probably multi-tabling whilst typing between hands . yeah the voice commentary would be the best way to go. i think if the blind can play golf and they do i seen it on the tv then i think they can have software adapted tp play poker.

believe me people enjoy the articles but just dont feel the need to reply. its like in work i get a phone call "look you'd be doing me a big favour if you emailed me the logo's you'd be saving my life" so i email the logos and nothing fu*king nothing in reply on recieving them. they got their logos and thats them satisfied. everytime i do someone a favour through email i never get a response. first response of thanks i get im sending them a hamper.
i wrote a thread in another section of this site. put my bleedin heart into it, loads read it but did i get one reply oh no. so i erased the text in indignation because apparently you cant delete threads you post anymore. so a couple of days later i look back at my blank thread and theres replies there saying "dont know what happened to the main text in the thread but i completely agree" etc etc.

your annoyance of lack of response reminds me of a larry david piece from sitcom 'curb your enthusiasm' as he's trying to get help/advice from passers by about replacing a flat tyre. so everyones walking by ignoring him. he is piqued with this attitude from the passers by so he just puts his palms out and says "ok im coming flat out and asking for help"........"ok $10 dollars for a verbal response, ill give anyone $10 for a verbal response".

Wallko

my apology for not replyin!
my problem is i get bored half way through long posts, i have a very short attention span dont you know, read most of yours, so must have been better than most!

Hectorjelly

Im not sure what type of response you were expecting, its not like anyone is likely to disagree with your sentiments.

However Im not sure it would be practical - I dont think that there is time to convey all of the relevant info needed each hand in a time span that would be acceptable to all of the players. Even just a simple chip count for the table is going to take 20 seconds. The eye can take in a enormous amount of information at a glance. (I know from playing 6 and 7 stts at a time what a quick glance can tell you.) But the ear cannot. I dont think you could expect a site to cater for both the visually impaired and regular players, the difference in speeds would be too great. So then your limited to just blind people, and I really doubt there is even close to enough demand to warrent the initial investment/research.

RMcG

I suppose youre right there hector on the ol' reply buzz. The more i read over it the more i feel its an article, rather than a discussion topic warranting response, but I do however believe that its worth considering......and i shall continue to do my best to entertain the troops...cheers mate.

Zaph0d

Well there's at least one company making poker software for the blind
http://allinplay.com/checkitout.html

RMcG

I cannot flippin believe it, fantastic, amazing, im just over the moon now.....im actually speachless. Going to download their software now to give it a try...cheers man great link.......Sparing a thought for the blind...Big Up AllinPlay Onlie Poker.......nice one Zaph0d

DeVore

I lost the sight in my left eye suddenly about 8 years ago. Completely gone and the doctors in the Eye and Ear hospital fought to save the other eye. I can tell you it was one of the scariest times of my life. I worked as a GUI designer at the time and couldnt have told you what I would do if I went blind, so I know very well what that feels like Rob. Thankfully the docs protected my right eye and even got me most of the sight back in my left though to this day I have impaired vision in it and none in certain spots. (you might notice I cock my head to the right sometimes).

I've also developed software for the vision impaired (completely unconnected with the above events, though ironically I was developing one when it happened!). Its not as hard as you think. Consider that most sites distribute a "client" which is a compiled program that visually renders the data it is sent. (And here I pause for a moment to comfort LaFortezza who has always thought the cards were rolled up and shot down his telephone line).

There is no particular reason why the data could not be represented in an audible manner. Yes, I take Hectors point that multi-tabling might be difficult but a single table would not be all that hard to do. It might be hard for us to imagine but remember that blind people make their way in the world of computers as it is, with many obstacles to overcome, I wouldnt write them off so easily!
Also I bet the operators would let you have the specs of the data, especially if they thought they were going to get a bunch more customers! So anyone could write this software...

Finally, there was a guy playing in the WSOP with his FEET. I kid you not, he was checking his cards, betting chips and mucking with his right foot. I wanted to ask him if he could do chip tricks too! I wouldnt have put it past him. One of the things I like about poker is that anyone can (and does!) play.

DeV.

RMcG

Wow never knew that Devore, really great post..cheers. No better person than yourself to pretty much sew the topic up, yes youre dead right, poker is for anybody and everyody and forever, its truly the sport of kings, although if the tax man gets wind that we want it to be called a sport, he just might start taxing our asses.....so were gamblers, dirty gamblers all the way......hehe. Rob.

bmc

Braille cards are available in Special Days, or at least they used to be...

smurph

Very good article RMcG. I would have been surprised if there wasn't some kind of software out there already, and im glad there is. Just begs the question, and ive done it aswell, when you are playing a game online and someone is taking an age to decide to play or fold, I get extremely impatient, usually typeZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ to get them to hurry the f**k up. This only happens on Party Poker. They take forever to decide what to do. My Aunt who has been playing cards all her life has failing eyesight. We got the big cards for her and a "Big F**k of lamp that hangs over her shoulder and gives her a nice red face, aswell as illuminates the cards. You feel sorry for her, then she does a massive bluff, takes in the money, shows her cards and takes yet another big sup of the large brandy and 7Up. She's brillant. I find that playing Internet poker makes you very impatient, intolerent and sometimes rude. You see people typing loads of horrible stuff to other players, and you know damn well if they were face to face, none of this would be going on. Anyway sorry bout going completely off the topic. Very good piece RMcG and Devore.

ocallagh

Great post, As a software developer, accessibility has become a huge concern over the last few years. Legislation in the UK and USA now makes it illegal for government bodies and private organisations to have inaccessible websites. It is a form of discrimination and I guarantee it is only a matter of time before gaming software has to comply. In addition to the law, they are losing out on a lot of customers! I disagree that there is too much information to take in. The only info you need to remember are stack sizes, button position, blind sizes. No reason the software couldn't inform you of these at the start of each hand?

The following article is an interesting read Robert.

http://www.ncbi.ie/technology/cfit.php

JuliusFranco

just read thread now, good post

nothing really to add other than it's good to see there's still good in the world

RMcG

Hey Niall, cheers for the link very interesting article. Especially the three reasons why accessibility is important, and I think a key point for everyone is that the number of people affected IS larger than we all think. And I would definitely think that this also the case with people that wish they could still play poker and cant due to visual impairmant.

I was a software developer in my day too, developing Educational Games and reading programmes for schools in the states, using flash. We used to put a huge emphasis on audio in our programmes and from my experience I cant see why poker software developers couldnt make their games more user friendly for people with disabilities, and as you say, and after reading the article, i do agree...it is pretty much only a matter of time before it does happen.........

jd

RMcG wrote:

and from my experience I cant see why poker software developers couldnt make their games more user friendly for people with disabilities,

Possibly because sometimes the action is quicker than can be described audibly?
TBH, I dunno..
jd

MadsL

Interesting, I was playing in a live game the other day and a guy was having trouble reading the board, so the player to his left described the flop, turn and river to him. Apparantly he had trouble with distance vision, but could read the cards close to him. If they developed a card reader (like a hole cam) that translated to braille/audio earpiece, then there would be no problem for the blind if the dealer announced the board and the actions correctly.