I nonetheless keep in mind Uno nights with my household and the way my red-green colorblind grandfather at all times wanted assist distinguishing his playing cards. I at all times attributed it to the character of the sport and by no means actually noticed it as inaccessibility. It wasn’t till Mattel announced it might make Uno and some of its different hottest video games colorblind accessible that I noticed how much-needed this transformation was.
The American multinational toy firm says that 80% of its video games portfolio—when it comes to quantity—can be colorblind accessible by the tip of 2024. The video games receiving these updates are Uno (obtainable now), Dos, Blokus, Part 10, Skip-Bo, and Ker Plunk.
The colorblind-friendly variations of the corporate’s video games will obtain a particular badge on their packaging. Recreation items and boards will function distinctive icons and tactile clues to assist establish colours. There may also be a devoted “For Colorblind Gamers” part on the instruction guide that players can discuss with for a listing of recreation icons and what they signify.
This welcome change comes from a partnership between Mattel and ColorADD, an knowledgeable on this space and the largest participant behind Uno ColorAdd. The corporate additionally claims that it sought steerage from people with colorblindness through on-line and in-person interviews.
It’s nice to see recreation corporations lastly taking steps to extend accessibility of their merchandise, like Google’s Project Gameface, introduced throughout 2023’s Google I/O, which lets you play video games with facial gestures or PlayStation’s accessibility-focused controller. Mattel cites this study because the motivation behind this replace, which says that 1 in 12 males and 1 in 200 ladies are colorblind, totaling roughly 300 million individuals worldwide.