Toby Accessibility Mod - DOOM for the blind [UPDATE]

[Alando1]

Hey guys, as some of you may know, back in 2017, I had received an email from a gentleman who informed me about a documentary talking about his life as a blind gamer. His name is Toby and I had the pleasure of getting to know him since. His story had inspired me to create an accessibility mod for him and others who have a visual impairment. For some time, I had been working on a wad that would allow those with a visual impairment to navigate Doom levels. Even though this mod does cover a good amount of the basics like weapons, pickups, wall bumping, and other audio queues, I feel there is much more work that is needed to perfect this project. I'm no expert in ZScript, however, I feel this scripting system may be what is necessary to make this mod more capable of aiding visually impaired players. If anyone would like to contribute to this project (scripting, ideas, suggestions, etc.), your help will be much appreciated.

Thank you.

-Alando1


I would like to give thanks to:

Toby Ott - For inspiring the project
dansg08 - For creating the "Gaming Through New Eyes" documentary
Jarewill - For the Audio Feedback Compass System, Health & Ammo Stat Checker, & Event Handler Script
Illegally Sighted - Contributor and project advisement
SightlessKombat - Contributor and project advisement
Any other visually impaired players who offered helpful suggestions and insight (from YouTube)


Below is the downloadable version of the project:

**UPDATE 5/31/21**
Toby Map Pack and Accessibility Mod V4.0 Released!

Toby Doom (Map Pack and Accessibility Mod all in one):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/a8g9bnfvh2aba ... 1.zip?dl=0


Toby Accessibility Mod Version 4.0:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j2mf2rui7wli1 ... 0.zip?dl=0


Toby Map Pack Only:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k1vjvc5r25yil ... y.zip?dl=0


Toby Map Pack Showcase:






**Toby Accessibility Mod Version 3.5** Zip file contains 2 PK3 files. Full details of each in the READ_ME.txt

https://www.dropbox.com/s/t9wxuqdam0noc ... 5.zip?dl=0




Toby Accessibility Mod Version 3.5 Video:



Drop-Off Detection System Video:



Health & Ammo Checker System Video:



Gaming Through New Eyes Documentary:

[irukanjji]

This sounds awesome, my friend Jaimie thanks you, he now can try play the doom world, like we do

[hitmanx]

Awesome work! Looks like a lot of thought and effort went into this. More accessibility for Doom is always a good thing, inspiring work you are doing dude

[Enjay]

While this isn't something of use to me (and, honestly, I hope that doesn't change) it looks like a really well thought through project that has taken, and acted on, meaningful advice and feedback for those who will find it helpful.

[Rachael]

I agree 100% with what Enjay said.

I didn't expect much, but I was pleasantly surprised by this.

[Alando1]

Hey guys, I'm back with a little update. Things are coming along well with Version 4.0. I have a video demonstrating a drop-off detection system I had been working on. Enjoy!



-Alando1

[Alando1]

Hey guys, I'm back with another update. I have a video demonstrating a new system which was added to the mod. It's a Health & Ammo Checker System. Pressing "H" on the keyboard will give the player their health status and pressing "B" on the keyboard will give the player their ammo status for the weapon they currently have selected. I'd like to give a thank you and shout-out to Jarewill for compiling the script for this system and a thank you and shout-out to IllegallySighted for suggesting the idea. I will be doing some small additional modifications to the system but otherwise, it's working very well



-Alando1

[Alando1]

Hey guys, got a project update! The Toby Accessibility Mod now has a map pack with levels designed with blind players in mind. The map pack contains 7 short levels. Also, Version 4.0 is available separately. Downloadable content is available at the top of the first page. Enjoy!

-Alando1

[peewee_RotA]

This is really cool. I think the gaming world has a lot to learn about good design from the need for accessibility in gaming. The best designed game I've ever played was based on sound and text only, and it was about trying to stop a killer ghost after being locked into a mansion. It's not really about giving someone a limited experience into an existing game. It's about finding what's good about gaming within those constraints and making it better. I used to play quake with a friend who has ataxia (involuntary muscle movements) and he had a special setup that was amazing. He got more out of the game than anyone else, honestly. Learning about that was more important for me in gaming than any other moment.

Do you need any help?

[Proydoha]

Hello, I came here from this topic https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?p=1191759#p1191759 and watched your videos.

In one of your videos you've told about some problems about cliff detection (it detects cliffs behind the walls). Sorry if I'm suggesting something that you have on your mind already but I wanted to inform you that some of the issues presented in the video can be fixed by using zscript function LineTrace that 'draws' a line between an actor and some point in front of it and is able to pull out a lot of possibly useful information about level geometry or other actors in front of the player.

I've made a quick and dirty example in case it can be useful for your project.

Detection range is relatively short to mimic your behaviour but it can be as long as needed. Or you can trace multiple lines to collect different data for you.
This can be used to detect lines that player can activate as well, in my quick example it just prints "you look at switch" instead of "you look at wall".
All information is spammed into the console.

[SanyaWaffles]

It's cool you took the incentive to do something like this to help others. I will recommend this around.

[Alando1]

@peewee_RotA - Thank you for your comment If you'd like to contribute any suggestions or to help optimize/improve the current features currently in the mod, my team and I would be more than happy

@Proydoha - Cool! Thank you I will definitely check it out.

@SanyaWaffles - Thank you

-Alando1

[Eugene Pezzlehood]

Hi! First off, well done on the mod. I never knew this existed all the time I've been playing Doom mods. I've shared this page to a small discord server I'm in with people who are interested in giving this a go. One major obstacle however are the menus.... I'm not sure the best way to handle it, but the best way I know how would be to use OCR functionality of a screen reader to get it done. Might it be possible for you to change some things in the menus?

For OCR to work, it might be best for the background to be a solid dark color like black and all the text be bright like white and yellow for example instead of dark red. Also, might it be possible to have the main menu, episode, and difficulty text changed to match that of the settings menu?? Either an update to this mod or a separate file would be fine, what ever is best if you are able to help? If you are unable to help, that's fine, but thanks in advance for ANY information you can provide!!

I'm still waiting on someone to test OCR using LionOCR which is an addon for NVDA though I may test it myself when I get the chance. Regular OCR doesn't seem to work, so it's either LionOCR or combining a couple programs I found which almost works.

[Alando1]

@Eugene Pezzlewood - Hi, Eugene. Sorry for the late response. The menu has been a key issue we have been looking into for a while. We aren't sure how we could get it to be visually impaired friendly, however, when GZDoom becomes more and more updated, there may be a chance we could have some form of menu navigation for the blind. OCR, unfortunately, has not been implemented into GZDoom. It has been brought up to Graf Zahl in another thread ( viewtopic.php?f=18&t=70276 ) but I feel this feature may not be considered. If there are enough demands and requests, perhaps it would be enough to convince him.

In regard to settings, I did put together a pre-configured version of GZDoom 4.5.0. All the player has to do is provide the DOOM2 IWAD and they're good to go. If anyone wanted to learn how to get the mod running, I recommend checking out IllegallySighted's YouTube channel where he demonstrates the Toby Accessibility Mod and mentions how to start it up.

Thank you for your kind words and thank you for sharing the mod project with other people.

-Alando1