Accessing the Hearthstone

August 6, 2021 5:11 PM

A programmer who goes by the alias of GuideDev has posted Hearthstone Access, a mod to allow blind people using screen readers to play some of the single-player content in the famous free-to-play card game.

The mod has produced a variety of reactions from members in the blind gaming community. It's worth noting that Blizzard made Battle.net screen reader accessible several months ago, but until now none of their flagship titles has been playable by the totally blind without a great deal of effort.

posted by Alensin (4 comments total)

This is very cool in terms of the access, but very weird timing vis-a-vis Blizzard being in the news lately. Previously. I guess since it's a F2P game and only the single-player content, this can be enjoyed without users needing to make an ethical decision about supporting Act/Blizz.

p.s. the "Blizzard"tag on this post is misspelled
posted by JauntyFedora at 2:02 AM on August 7, 2021

^ True, but I’m guessing this required enough work that it got started before the most recent news coverage of problems at Blizzard, and that the timing is this probably coincidental? Good to note, at any rate.
posted by eviemath at 6:15 AM on August 7, 2021

Thanks for the heads up about the typo…

As far as I know, it definitely predates all the awful revelations. I am certainly just going to stick to the free to play aspect for the foreseeable future.

Concerning the mod itself, the most remarkable thing is that it is astonishingly seamless. It adds full keyboard support and vocalizes everything happening without seeming clunky or bolted-on, as many accessibility solutions do. I have yet to encounter any major bugs to speak of. Working in QA, this is quite something.
I am slightly concerned that the powers that be may decide it is modifying the game, and prevent its use through legal means, which would be horribly offensive and frustrating. Knock on wood that doesn’t happen.
posted by Alensin at 7:11 AM on August 7, 2021 [3 favorites]

This is very cool work by GuideDev but in light of the recent news about Blizzard it's hard not to see it also as another mark against them. Over $8B in revenue and Hearthstone wasn't accessible to the blind until a hobbyist did that work for them for free? And as pointed out by Alensin, we don't even know if Blizzard will sanction its use.
posted by valrus at 9:55 AM on August 7, 2021 [5 favorites]