Wii for the blind?

[dystopias]

Hello everyone!

My wife is legally blind, which means she has very low vision. She walks with a cane, and has to use a magnifier to read. She generally doesn't play video games (make that never plays video games) for obvious reasons. But the other day she asked about wii fit as she does like to excerisce. So my question is:

is Wii fit (or any other wii games) accessable to someone like her? Can you image playing the game if you had very low vision?

We don't have a Wii and I've never seen the game in person, so any insight you owners have on this would be appreciated.

Thanks!

-Mitchell

 

[rukus]

ive done the blind thing after extensive bleeding and damage to the eyes (it improved over a long time), and i had to stand a foot from the screen to see anything. can she stand 6 ft from the screen and see what is going on? the wiifit requires enough vision to be able to track balls and other movements across the screen. it may be too difficult with low vision,

 

[GaryT85]

i think it would be quite hard to grasp the 'game' aspect... in terms of knowing what is going on and what you are doing, you would need to see what was on screen...

the actions themselves wouldnt be an issue, just knowing what to do/when to do it/why etc would need to be interpretted from the screen action.

so initially i'll say its a no.

though you saying you havent seen the wii in action - maybe youtube could come in handy to look up a few vids, might help you get a better picture of what goes on..

 

[Godwind]

The best thing you can do is ask a blind video gamer on how to play video games.

http://www.youtube.com/user/genuinescorruption

 

[dystopias]

I looked at a few videos of the wii in action and it seems like some of the content might be suitable.

The yoga for instance -

but as far as the game parts of it go, i can forsee some problems, she can see a little, but i don't know if she would be able to see well enough to track balls flying at her, or hola hoops being thrown at her etc (there's a general rule, in fact, not to throw **** at the blind chick).

I'm not sure how she would react to other games like bowling or what-not - i can see the potential of the wii to improve her poor hand eye coordination.

 

[rukus]

etc (there's a general rule, in fact, not to throw **** at the blind chick).

ha. true.

 

[gidget]

the games are very 'center of gravity' -- she may tend to lean to the TV for visuals?

with low vision she may not be able to see the small legends in the corners of the coordination games or she may not see the difference of a soccerball vs a panda head in one game.

half the games do not have tiny things to look at so it could be worth it.

but there is a side of wii fit not discussed much: yoga.
yoga may provide 50% of the features of wiifit, some yoga requires using the floor (placement of the TV).

so if she could play half the games and half the yoga, then she would be using as much of the wiifit package as the rest of us.

hope this helps.

 

[Bowser29]

I think it would be very hard to do. I hope nintendo does eventually make some games that are more friendly toward such disabilities.

 

[Happy]

The best thing to do would be to let her try it out. I'm not really sure about Wii Fit as I've never played it myself. She may be able to do it with your assistance, you could help tell her what to do.

Again I'm not really sure of the game itself and the extent of your wife's vision so the best advice I can give is to let her try it

 

[Fox]

@Happy: Well that's certainly the expensive option. lol
I think she'd be good at the wiifit yoga, like Gidget said, but that alone isnt enough to merit a $250 [strike]pile-o-crap[/strike] game system.

 

[gidget]

$250?

wiifit costs us $99. are you including the cost of the wii?

 

[Fox]

Just the Wii. WiiFit being 100 bux is a rip too.

 

[dystopias]

cost

yeah, it is a little more money than i can afford to drop for a "tryout". I'm trying to find someone I know who has it.

 

[WiiHealthy]

I can definitely recommend that your wife tries out the Wii Fit. As some other members have stated, the yoga and strength exercises would work really well for her.

Also, some of the balance games such as the tightrope game can be played if you assist her. For this game, she would essentially need to work on her balance and centre of gravity as she 'walks' along the rope with the use of the balance board. You would just need to direct her.

 

[Airz]

not unless they start makeing brail wii assecories