Deaf or Hard of Hearing
I don’t need to accommodate my Deaf players if I just let them bring their interpreter, right?
While this is almost true for some Deaf people, as we said in the vision section this is a cheap solution and there is more you can do to support these players.
More relevantly, lots more players than you will recognise will be hearing impaired. Many of them won’t even identify this way, which is why it’s worth just making sure you provide alternatives to any audio material you provide.
What’s the easiest most impactful thing I can do to improve accessability?
Fortunately this is very easy to fix. All your videos should be subtitled, but it’s great to provide a written transcript as well. This can be done within the theme of your room for example putting a letter under the radio.
This also makes things more satisfying for your players, as they don’t need to rely on remembering what happened.
What if my puzzle relies on sound but not words?
Ideally work out a way to express it without sound or skip it for players that require that. If you really can’t it’s fine as long as you’ve communicated this to players in advance on your website.
What’s the biggest barrier for Deaf people in escape rooms?
Hearing information over a radio is difficult for many players even without a hearing impairment and the biggest barrier to anyone Deaf. Having other options like TV screen, writing notes, SMS or other ways of giving players clues.
Is there such a thing as too much noise?
Yes! Increasing volume does not always make sound easier to understand. It can also make it difficult for people to process information. It’s great to offer players the chance to change the room volume in the room (even if this is by talking to the room operator)
Sudden and loud noises can be especially difficult, and should be specifically mentioned on your website and skippable.
What if someone can’t talk?
Most people for whom this applies will have their own way to communicate with you. Be flexible and non judgemental if someone communicates with you in an unorthodox way like typing on their phone.
If someone brings an interpreter remember to look at and talk directly to the player, not to the interpreter.
It can be great to have a communication board at the register to make things easier for deaf or non-verbal customers. (ie. Pictures they and you can point at instead of words.)
Do you have any videos in your game or as part of your pre-game spiel?
Put subtitles on them. You can also have transcripts available.
Is your room language heavy?
It’s okay to have language heavy flavour text, but having too many puzzles that rely heavily on language can make your room difficult to access for a variety of people.
What’s the bonus level task?
Many people for whom Auslan is their first language have poor English, if you have budget to increase accessability you can have Auslan interpretations of any written material. This is not an especially cheap process, but as with the Braille resources it’s well worth advertising to the community if you do it.
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