That’s the experience of 21-year-old Jalen Berg, a visually impaired player from Langley, BC Berg grew up with cone-rod dystrophy, an inherited eye disorder that affects the light-sensitive cells of the retina and causes people to lose their vision over time. He is legally blind but can still see some things. His particular condition is on the spectrum of color blindness, he explained, making it difficult for him to see things that are similar in color or shaded. “It’s hard. I live in a world for people who can see better and farther than I can, and things are designed for those kinds of people,” he told CBC News. He describes what he sees when playing video games as “a bunch of moving colored blobs” — yet he’s figured out how to play Super Mario by learning the patterns of the games and using his hearing. WATCHES | Jalen Berg describes how he plays video games while visually impaired:
How this partially sighted BC player learned to play Super Mario
Jalen Berg is a partially sighted gamer from Langley, BC who has learned how to play video games without being able to see the screen. Berg started playing video games when he was young and says it helped him overcome some of the obstacles of gaming with vision loss – and turned a hobby into a passion. “I think ‘into’ video games is a bit of an understatement … it’s my passion at this point,” said Berg, who owns several consoles and says that although he plays various Mario games, Super Mario Sunshine is his favorite.
Repetition, memorization of patterns
Berg says it took a lot of trial and error over the years to get to where he is now. As frustrating as it has been at times, he says, repeating and memorizing patterns on his controller has helped him improve his skills. “What it ends up doing is just years and years and years of hitting the same wall over and over again,” he said. While sighted people can see the entire screen while playing, Berg says his attention shifts around the screen. This means that he usually misses things that happen on the edge. That’s why it’s important that he always plays with the sound on so he can hear and recognize familiar noises that go along with different moves in the game. “You don’t have to see the result. You just have to hear the sound to know that this event happened,” he said. “A bouncing koopa shell, that’s a pretty basic example right?” he says, referring to a rare item in the Mario games that can be used as a projectile. “It bounces, you hear the ‘boop’ sound — you don’t have to see.” Berg is legally blind, but he can still see some things. He has found a way to play Super Mario using repetition, memory and sound. (Gian Paolo Mendoza/CBC)
More affordable options are needed
Adrian Bolesnikov, who is pursuing a master’s degree in human-computer interaction at Carleton University, has studied accessibility in the gaming industry. He says Berg’s experience of adjusting the way he plays is all too common for people in the gaming community. “There aren’t necessarily a lot of shared resources for accessible game development and game modification,” Bolesnikov said. While there are some options out there for accessible gaming — for example, the game The Last of Us Part II was recently applauded for more than 60 accessibility settings, Bolesnikov says — they’re not often as well-known. He added that stories like Berg’s are important to “keep the conversation going” and allow others with similar experiences to see what is possible. “The community knows what they need and they know how to do it. So we should be able to give them the resources to show us how we can help,” Bolesnikov said. Berg makes videos on YouTube where he talks about his disability and how he adapted to gaming. He hopes to encourage more accessibility in the industry. (Gian Paolo Mendoza/CBC) Berg echoed that sentiment, saying it’s important the industry works to make gaming more accessible. He says one of the most rewarding aspects of the game for him was the community he met. In an effort to encourage more accessibility, Berg and a friend make videos on YouTube where they talk about his disability and how it’s adapted to the games. “The more people that can easily enjoy video games, I think that’s the best thing for everybody… You get more perspectives. You get more people to have fun and talk about some of your favorite things,” he said.
