Reader UI of the Week: Crafting a UI for a disabled player
by Mathew McCurley 
Mar 1st 2011 at 4:00PM
I'm a sucker for doing things differently, and this week's Reader UI is no exception. Emails usually inspire me with topics to cover, and this particular email made me think long and hard about the software and hardware that I use. Combined with the fact that I'm fairly fresh off of the Razer Naga Epic review, I've got some opinions on alternative ways of controlling WoW.
World of Warcraft and Blizzard in general have been responsive to disabled gamers' concerns in many ways, from giving fights and encounters text emotes instead of just sounds to a large amount of UI customization in scale and effect. A largely customizable user interface, in fact, is something not to be taken for granted, as it can help help with a good number of motor disabilities, visual impairments, and issues dealing with the loss of a limb. In addition to the UI itself, World of Warcraft and the MMO genre have spawned a huge market for peripherals that help disabled gamers achieve a level of interaction that might never have been possible at the start of the genre.
The email that inspired this column:
Thank you very much for the email, Jon. Building a user interface for someone with disabilities is an incredibly important topic to cover. There are three main issues that we can discuss as far as the user interface is concerned and what it can help with in making a disabled gamers' experience more fulfilling. With such a customizable user interface and the added potential of addons, we can try to help some people overcome a handicap or two. The three issues are software UI, addons, and hardware.Mat,
Had an unusual situation with a guildie last night that I thought you might be able to help out with. I was trying to help a guildie with PvP and I learned that she has a physical disability (cerebral paulsey affecting her left side) that forces her into an unconventional keyset (she uses the arrow keys to move and can only hit shift and ctrl modifiers) with limited movement.
Anyway, I suggested that she grab the addon Clique to help with her situation and upgrade to at least a 5 button mouse if not a straight gaming mouse, but was otherwise totally stuck for how to help her. It got me thinking though, are there other addons or modifications that might enhance her interaction with the game world in spite of the limitations she is faced with?
Jon
Default user interface options
The standard included user interface has a few options for disabled gamers to make use of. First and foremost is the UI Scale option under the video configuration menu. UI Scale allows the player to scale up or down the entirety of the user interface with one option. You can make the user interface absolutely tiny or as big as the screen if need be. Using UI Scale to help a player with some type of visual impairment or affliction could make the game easier to see.
Spell alerts are another great option presented in the default interface options. Checking this box tells WoW to put text spell warnings in the middle of the screen when a creature or boss is going to use a big special ability of some kind. These warnings were not always announced by the game, but for accessibility purposes, Blizzard added in this option to make it easier for players to see incoming danger and damage, making raid encounters rely less on addons. To find this option, select the Interface menu option, and find the checkbox under "Combat."
Click-to-move is an excellent option for gamers with limited mobility, as the game allows for single-click character movement. Click where you want your character to go, and he'll go.
Everyone knows that green item quality is common, blue is uncommon, and purple is epic. Most people can easily see that a red mob is hostile and a green mob is friendly. What happens when you're colorblind, however? These colors might now mean anything. Blizzard has included a colorblind option in the default UI, giving players a tooltip text readout for mob status (hostile, neutral, friendly) and item quality. Now you'll be able to see item quality and mob status even without the ability to discern the colors.
These are just three of the options in the default UI that can potentially help with certain ailments or disabilities. As WoW continues, new options and accesibility features are being added. Most recently, people afflicted by epileptic seizures were having issues with the crackling lightning effects that accompany many new elemental death animations in Cataclysm, and Blizzard has already proposed a fix that will be coming in a new patch.
Addons add to accessibility
The customizable nature of the WoW interface allows addon developers and authors to add functionality to everything in WoW, including new accessibility options. Many different addons that you might not think were accessibility addons could very well become one for you.
Dominos and Bartender, the two leading action bar mods, are able to change and customize ability layouts on your screen. The default "long bar" approach might make it difficult for someone with limited hand mobility to move the mouse across the bar to reach new abilities. Instead, you could use an action bar addon to change the action bars into blocks of 4x3 abilities, lowering the distance between abilities.
Deadly Boss Mods or Bigwigs can help a disabled gamer with larger boss and ability warnings in dungeons and raids. Player and unit frame mods like Shadowed Unit Frames or Pitbull turn health bars with graphics into simple bars that might take out some of the clutter and allow for customizable colors as opposed to the default red.
For players with limited mobility or limited use of one limb, much like the reader from the original email that sparked all of this, addons designed to enhance what mouse clicks can accomplish are particularly important. My addons for clickers Addon Spotlight is a great place to start, especially with an addon called Clique, allowing a player to bind skills and abilities to mouse clicks. Combined with a mouse with a decent amount of buttons, you could get most, if not all, of the functionality needed to play on just your mouse.
Hardware helps
There are tons of hardware manufacturers out there making great peripherals for WoW and the MMO genre in general that could greatly help with accessibility for players with disabilities. Hardware is more expensive than free addons, but the right hardware could help a disabled gamer overcome even the most dire physical limitations.
For gamers with limited mobility in one hand, I would strongly consider checking out the Razer Naga or Naga Epic, which I recently reviewed. Essentially, the Razer Naga's array of mouse buttons replace the top number row of keys or the numpad on the keyboard, making WoW controllable with just the mouse. One-handed control is a great option to have, especially when pairing the mouse with addons that also increase accessibility.
One of the more creative and absolutely brilliant ideas that I've heard people use for modifier keys and push-to-talk Mumble or Ventrilo is using a USB foot pedal. Doing a quick search on Amazon for USB foot pedal will present many options outright. I've never used one personally, but using a foot pedal as a push-to-talk button or as a modifier key could replace a lot of what a second hand would be responsible for in an MMO, transfering that functionality to the foot instead of the hand.
Adapting to individual needs
I was born with bilateral strabismus and, like many men, I am colorblind. I deal with very mild afflictions and couldn't possibly comprehend how difficult it is for someone with much more severe disabilities to play WoW, much less any MMO. Hopefully we as a community can put together our collective knowledge and imagination to help those who can use it. These suggestions are just some of the ways WoW's interface, addons, and hardware peripherals can help out a gamer with visual impairments, limited mobility or other disabilities.
I know there is no specific reader UI this week (there are plenty in the queue to write about, I assure you), so this week, go back and check out some of our past spotlights and get some ideas. We'll return next week with a more traditional column.
Interested in getting the most out of your user interface? Come back once a week for more examples of reader UIs. For more details on individual addons, check out Addon Spotlight, or visit Addons 101 for help getting started.
Filed under: Add-Ons, Reader UI of the Week
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Jonisjalopy Mar 1st 2011 4:09PM
Being color blind, I have a hard time with zones like Swamp of Sorrows and Stranglethorn. I was very happy when Blizzard added the "color blind mode" to items so I don't have to go by ilevel just to know if something is "blue" or "purple".
My only problem now is spell effects. They added so many pretties in the xpac that the overlapping gives me a headache trying to distinguish what's going to kill me or not :D
WTB monochromatic spell option, pst :)
The Dewd Mar 1st 2011 4:24PM
One of our main healers in our guild is 100% colorblind. While we will joke about the fact that, to him, everything is black, white, or grey (light black and dark white as well), that makes some things difficult for him. Hand of Gul'dan scares more players without visual impairment and they have to learn not to run out of it. Our healer literally couldn't finish Heroic Vortex Pinnacle because the floor, the background, the winds, and the tornadoes on the second boss all blended into the exact same shade of grey blur for him. Fortunately, that is no longer the case so it would seem that someone did complain and Blizzard tweaked things enough for folks like him to survive it.
It's a shame that colorblind mode, in the default UI, doesn't fix that but I can't imagine the amount of graphics assets that Blizzard's design team would have to go through to make sure that everything had discrete shades and hues.
Jonisjalopy Mar 1st 2011 4:41PM
Thank God i'm not 100%, but I'm told I might be later in life :(
The Skywall instances have been a pretty big pain, and I feel for your healer on the switching winds boss. This and a few of the bosses in Throne of the Tides really gives me issues. Also, some of the bosses have taken to using smokescreens like the guy in Stocks or Heroic Deadmines which make it not fun to try and pick up targets and tank.
I have learned that there is almost NO way for Blizzard to fix everything in the game so people with this issue can see it as well as those without it. That's the problem with being "handicapped"...we, by definition, are the minority.
Amanda A. Mar 8th 2011 1:12PM
I know I'm late to the party, but you may wish to look into an addon called GTFO. It buzzes when you're standing in the fire (or anything else that's bad) and stops once you're out of danger. It's great.
Stardusted Mar 1st 2011 4:14PM
As a WoW player with multiple sclerosis, this article was a very pleasant surprise to find on WoW Insider. I think the article did a good job at covering various issues that come from various disabilities, motor and otherwise.
I still think it is important to note that there is no standard definition for being disabled. Even within more narrow definitions like motor disability, there is a wide degree of variance.
For example, I actually find it much more difficult to use a gaming mouse over a standard two-button mouse. My hands suffer from shakes and spasms, which would always cause me to click buttons inadvertently, leading me to end up disabling the majority of the extra buttons on a gaming mouse.
I do express my sincere thanks for writing this article, when everyone plays a game behind an avatar, it is easy for people to forget the challenges some have to overcome to even be able to play a computer game.
Royal Mar 1st 2011 4:37PM
I have issues with my motor control as well and have the problem of inadvertly pressing buttons when not intending.
However I spent a lot of time testing various mice designs in shops before findiing one that find my specific need. I don't inadvertly hit the mouse wheel so I got one that acts on mouse press, tilt right, titlt left, scroll up and scroll down. For healing this allowed myself more keybinds that I had more control over.
My other design feature I was looking for was a side buttom for the thumb that was aligned for a thumb roll up and down instead of front to back. The thumb front to back roll motion for my thumb on the side of the mouse ends up with both buttons being pressed.
Gaming mice are very popular and have a lot of features and designs that will help a lot of people with varying abilities. However, don't box yourself into the gaming mice aisle or websites.
My perfect mouse design was in the back of Best buy near the laptop accessories and I have yet found a mouse with both these design features. I hope my mouse never breaks!
So keep looking and trying to find what works best as there are a lot of options out there.
Bouncing Gnome Mar 1st 2011 6:30PM
"I still think it is important to note that there is no standard definition for being disabled."
I agree entirely with this statement and urge people to have a good think about what it really means.
I for one don't have a disability, but I do have Dyslexia. Now many people think that Dyslexia is only about a persons ability to read and write, but actually it's quite a strange and subtle one. It is essentially an "error" in the wiring of the brain which makes Dyslexics think and process information in a different way to usual.
You may have heard descriptions of how a dyslexic person sees a page of words, with all of the letters floating about the place and the spaces between the letters flashing like blinking lights... well now imagine what it's like when you're trying to drive and the cars on the road seem to be moving side to side and floating slightly off the road.
I want to stress that not every person with Dyslexia has this issue. Different people with the condition will have very different experiences! But in my own case I'll never be able to drive simply because it's too darn dangerous. And of course translated into WoW it means missing a lot of mobs, and losing where things are. But is this really a disability? No. At most it's a mild annoyance. People with true disability's have a lot more to cope with, and in many varied different ways. If you can imagine it, it's out there!
As a final random aside, the UK Equality Act 2010 defines disability as follows:
"A person has a disability for the purposes of the Act if he or she has a physical or mental impairment and the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities"
Food for thought!
whitebrow Mar 1st 2011 4:26PM
streaming my ui right now, justin.tv/shiromar
Buran Mar 1st 2011 4:39PM
This article doesn't say much about those who, like me, are hard of hearing or entirely deaf. What about us?
I was born with congenital rubella syndrome, which left me deaf in my left ear and moderately to profoundly deaf in my right. Although I was mainstreamed and underwent extensive speech therapy to enable me to live a largely normal life, and I do wear a hearing aid in my "good" ear, I still do need to take advantage of assistance where it's available.
Mostly, this takes the form of asking people to slow down and enunciate so I can understand them more easily, and the use of visual aids where possible. For television/movies, this means closed captioning (TV) or subtitles (Blu-Ray), no going to theaters as I don't like how their "disability discrimination" helps anyone with a wheelchair/crutches any time at any theater, yet leaves me high and dry with a limited selection of showings and titles for movies. I also use closed captioning/subtitles in games -- fortunately, that's becoming more and more common.
WoW is very accessible to the deaf/HoH player, with almost all in-game dialogue printed on the screen in speech bubbles and/or in the chat box. Most cutscenes are subtitled (but not all, sadly; I remember the DK intro movie being an exception, along with a few others. Blizz needs to fix that quickly). And quest text is all written-only, so you don't need to hear to understand the plotline behind the simple "go forth and kill X of Y" and so on.
Addons that are a huge help to me are things like Deadly Boss Mods, since I can elect to have a visual warning on the screen front and center where I'll see it, and I can set the alert tone to something that I can feel if I worry I might miss the on-screen warning. (DBM authors, please, please, please give us the ability to customize the alert sounds more than we can now!) This way I don't have to try to listen for a sound cue in a boss fight that I might not notice when I'm paying attention to what others are saying on vent; I hear/talk well enough to participate in that, but I have to turn background noise down a lot to do so, so I'm not going to necessarily notice, say, Sindy yelling about our pathetic magic betraying us -- but I'm going to see that alert that popped in the middle of the screen.
NPCScan is another addon that does a good job of presenting visual cues -- it makes a noise, yes, but it also can flash the screen in a way that grabs attention even if you can't hear at all, and it displays a big box that has to be clicked away and also puts a marker on the mob you're looking for.
One thing I would like to see more of is directional indicators for where you're being attacked from, if WoW has surround sound. (Does it? I can't hear in stereo so sounds are just "there" for me with no sense of location). That would make it easier to locate the threat. Still, that's not as important as it is for first-person shooters since you just have to generally face the target and not actually aim at it.
What addons have others found that I might want to look at? Are there any other sort of events in-game that I could add visual alerts for that DBM/NPCScan aren't handling?
And finally... can we please, please, please have /flirt and /silly emotes added to speech balloons and/or the chat window? I'm constantly having to ask either others in the room or others in-game what the phrase was because I can't understand them.
SoulMasterKaze Mar 1st 2011 5:50PM
Yay, another deaf player! Whilst games like Assassin's Creed are virtually unplayable due to the lack of descriptive closed captioning, the fact that virtually everything's in written text is fantastic.
Another deaf player and I play 2v2, and each have a pile of stuff on our desks to throw at each other to get their attention to quickly sign something. Things didn't go so well when I accidentally threw my mouse at her, though.
Lyrd Mar 1st 2011 8:16PM
@Soul, use flash lights. Wave it over the other persons monitor area. no projectiles involved.
Jonisjalopy Mar 1st 2011 9:21PM
"@Soul, use flash lights. Wave it over the other persons monitor area. no projectiles involved."
I was going to suggest this. We use to use this trick when I took Sign Language in High School and needed people's attention.
Laser pointers work too, and are fun to annoy the cat with!
winterhawk Mar 1st 2011 5:13PM
Another bit of hardware that might help disabled players is the Peregrine glove (http://theperegrine.com/). It's a bit pricey, but it allows you to map quite a few keystrokes or macros to various parts of the glove (different areas of each finger and the palm, I think) so you just touch the appropriate zone with your thumb and that fires off the keystroke.
I actually bought one of these back when they came out because it got good reviews and I thought it would be cool. I haven't tried it out yet (I get along fine with my keyboard and gaming mouse) but it seems like it might be helpful for somebody who only has mobility in one hand.
Jeremy Bennett Mar 1st 2011 5:17PM
I suffer from Cerebral Palsey (albeit on my right side vs left) and I fully understand where you're guildee is coming from here. I use bartender and a G15 gaming mouse (first generation) So that everything that I need to do is entirely based on my left hand side. It has worked out fairly well. I also use my Maltron keyboard (www.maltron.com) which requires extensive modification of my keybinds in order to work.
Sauron99 Mar 1st 2011 5:34PM
I wrote a voice recognition program to assist myself and others with playing games that have RSI or other impairments. The program translates your voice into keyboard/mouse commands. You can get free the program at 5hyphen.com (http://5hyphen.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=709)
Bouncing Gnome Mar 1st 2011 7:00PM
This looks like is could be very usefull. I'm not very good at these sorts of things though. How do you install it please?
Rishkaa Mar 1st 2011 5:41PM
I too have Cerebral Palsy, though it affects both my hands (my index fingers are the only ones that have any use, and sometimes my right thumb.) I can type fairly fast but doing so requires all of my attention, since I have to look at the keyboard. My left hand would generally press W, 1 and 2, while my right hand is used for the mouse (wheel with 2 side buttons.)
For the longest time I would just press 1 with castsequence macros, but the advent of priority rotations and reactive procs such as Overpower and RS made that difficult. I wound up having to make large 3x3 grids in the center of the screen, as the article suggests, to click. Even that had its problems as I hold down right mouse and W to move, meaning that I couldn't click my abilities and move. My reaction time is so bad that I usually wind up standing in fire.
The attitude of pugs these days and the importance of movement led to more than a few breakdowns over my usefulness compared to other players. I finally consulted the resident macro and UI wizard on one of the servers I play on. He helped me bind everything to my mouse in combination with castsequence macros, including using the wheel for abilities. I didn't want to at first, since it meant giving up my camera zoom, but it has made a world of difference. I can DPS simly by rolling my wheel back and forth now. It does have its kinks, but it's much better than where I was (and for healing, Healium is a miracle.)
I never comment on articles, but this one motivated me to dig up my password. Thanks for the great article, WI :)
Pyromelter Mar 1st 2011 6:15PM
I like using the mousewheel for main abilities.
For zooming, having a ctrl or shift modifier works.
As far as being disabled, I like what mat said - if you have a fully functioning hand, going with a 15 button mouse is a good way to go.
For the hearing impaired out there, that has been somewhat of an ongoing and increasing concern as raid awareness and coordination has significantly increased in warcraft. I don't know of any guilds that are specifically for the hearing impaired, but if I were unable to hear, that's what I would seek out. And if there are none, I've seen enough people out there that would be interested in a hearing-impaired type guild that I'm sure someone could make one and fill the roster easily.
Dyermaker Mar 1st 2011 6:26PM
This is a pretty good topic for a few people who don't often bring these issues up.
I am a disabled player as well. From birth I have three fingers on my primary hand and a single finger on my secondary. I have had some great success playing WoW, even holding the top Alliance Paladin DPS on Brutallus in the world for a while. After returning from a year away from WoW, I picked up playing and started to wonder if I had leave WoW permanently. Playing console games pretty much ended for me since I cannot control two joysticks and press buttons simultaneously. With all the extra abilities for Paladins this time around I was really struggling to do anything more than mouse clicking abilities. I had to really consider my layout or just give up playing.
At first it might seem that the disabilities are very different, however, I think you'll find some of my experiences helpful. One of the hardest parts of having a single finger pushing buttons is a lack of keyboard awareness that can take place. To compensate, I try to clump abilities into zones. I can move between the ~ and 6 key pretty easily, and run my finger up and down that line to track. I try to keep my primary abilities in that zone. WASD movement works out well for me, since I can keep my finger in place and just slide it to the direction I am looking to go. You might benefit from this technique since keeping a finger in a single spot can often compensate for the mobility issues.
I wanted to take advantage of macros. These days there's nothing for paladins like the 9-6-9 macros that used to exist for tanking, but there are some efficiencies that are available. With a single finger, shift/ctrl/alt combinations are out of the question. Decide which abilities can be stacked with logic. For example, I modified my Templar's Verdict to cast Zealotry. Since Zealotry would only go off if I had three Holy Power, I was able to combine these abilities into one and have a minimal DPS loss. (Note: I have since moved Zealotry to my wings macro since it is a DPS boost) The only downside was the annoying error message, but there's settings to disable that too.
Then there were hot button abilities that I needed to have accessible, and I could rarely afford to miss them. I used the G keys on my G15 keyboard to macro these abilities. Sometimes mapping multiple keys to the same ability. If you're not 100% certain you're going to hit the key when it counts, and you can afford to do so, multiple keys in the area give you the best chance. With time, muscle memory will help. This will hold true even for people with disabilities that cause motor issues. You might not hit the exact key you intended all the time, but you can get close enough to count. A good example, I have all of my AoE abilities next to each other. Granted, I might not hit them in the perfect order every time, but I know I am using them when I want to.
And lastly, don't be afraid to change things up! Try new things. Watch yourself, perhaps even record yourself playing and figure out what is working and what is not. Then, figure out why. One of the hardest things I had to overcome before I was a progression raider was to get away from the arrow key movement. It was very comfortable and reliable and I really struggled at first to move to WASD and mouse. But it was necessary and when I was able to rely on my single digit to press buttons I was really able to step up my game.
Artificial Mar 1st 2011 6:38PM
If they really wanted to help, they'd fix tab targeting. But there's a number of things they seem to want to insist you use the mouse for, or suffer the penalty.