I’m working on a game right now that’s meant to be a small, light game to play. Part of it is based around that classic game ‘Going to Grandma’s House’ where you repeat a list then add to it.
In this case, what you’re listing are fighting sounds – a biff and a thwack and a crunch.
When I work up these documents to make these games I put in a section where I list things I know the game needs and see if I can check if these things will exclude people. In this case, I realise, this game excludes people who can’t talk, and people who can’t hear the other players talk.
Now I don’t have any connections in the Deaf community and … is there an ‘unvoiced’ community? But I’m wondering about if this is an access concern I should build around/cater to, or if people impacted this way already have their own workaround for it, and I’d look silly ‘trying to help.’ Does sign language have distinct gestures for ‘biff’ and ‘thwack’?
An idea I conceived was carving out a small space on the card for a single set of morse code digits, so players could, if they couldn’t say the cards, could rap out the beats. Is that condescending? Is that ridiculous?
I don’t know. I don’t even know who to ask.