----- Original Message -----
      By MICHAEL STROH
    The Baltimore Sun

Like millions of kids around the country, 12-year-old Amy Herstein found
new computer games under the tree this Christmas. But these games aren't
like any you'll find at the local computer store.  That's because Amy,
who lives in Ellicott City, Md., is blind. And the bowling and Monopoly
games she now plays on her family PC are designed not for the eye, but
the ear.

While most mainstream game designers are pushing the limits of computer
graphics technology to create titles with ultra-realistic 3-D
looks, a small group of programmers is doing just the opposite for
sight-impaired computer users: developing titles with little or no
visual content.
For example, instead of aiming just to the right of a headpin she can't
see, Amy listens to a wavering tone that tells her when it's time to
release her bowling ball. If she times it exactly right, it's
a strike. If she moves too soon or too late, it's a gutter ball.

The emergence of such games signals a subtle shift in the computer's
role in the lives of people with disabilities. Advocates for the
disabled have long viewed computers as important tools for
learning or for getting a job, but some are reconsidering the importance
of computer games.
People trivialize computer games. But for people with certain
disabilities, it really is their only form of entertainment," says Randy
Marsden, president of Madentec Limited in Edmonton, Alberta,
which recently developed a technology for those who've lost the use of
their hands to play Microsoft's Links 2000" golf simulator.

The existence of games for the sightless comes as a surprise even to
most blind computer users. Hardly anyone knows these games are out
there," says Michael Feir, a blind game enthusiast who started Audyssey,
the first online magazine about computer games for the blind.

When Amy's mother, Karen Herstein, discovered the games at a recent
conference for the blind, she thought they might make Amy more
comfortable with computers and her classmates at Dunloggin Middle
School, where she is the only blind student.  She always feels different
anyway," her mother says. I thought if she could talk to other kids
about computer games, it might be
something she could have in common."

The games were created by Carl Mickla and Bill Vlasak, two blind game
designers whose company, Personal Computer Systems in Perth Amboy, N.J.,
is the only one of its kind in the United States,
although others are planned.  For years, the only games accessible to
blind computer users were
primitive text-based adventures, leftovers from the early days of
computing such as the 1970s classic Zork." In these games, players
navigate a complex underground labyrinth with short, typed commands such
as go north" or pick up ax." The computer responds with a simple
description of the player's surroundings and other characters'
actions (Troll chops off your head").

Because these adventure games use only words, they're easily digested by
the screen-reading software that most blind computer users
employ to convert text to speech.  But Mickla and Vlasak wanted more.
Both had been avid game players before losing their sight as adults.
When personal computers first appeared, Mickla _ who never had great
vision _ hooked his Apple II to
a 19-inch television set and played graphical adventure games such as
"Wizzardy" a nose-length from the screen.

When his vision deserted him in 1990, Mickla took a few programming
classes and started the company with Vlasak, who had been an interior
designer at Macy's in New York before complications from diabetes took
his sight.
At first, the games they created were simple, text-based sports
simulations such as baseball. But their games have gradually become more
sophisticated _ and faster-paced.
The big problem: How are you going to get a blind person to do
targeting?" says Mickla.
Their solution: Paint pictures with sound.
Just as a blind person can tell the difference between an environment of
grass or cement by its sound signature, Mickla and Vasak have embedded
sophisticated audio cues in their games to signify when players are
approaching a wall _ or just got nailed by a left hook.
Mickla and Vlasak try to crank out five new games a year and actively
sell a dozen titles, includingbowling, car racing and kickboxing games _
there's even an audio version of Pac-Man.
Still, the blind game business isn't easy. They're lucky to sell 50
copies of each game a month.
We're not even making coffee money," Mickla says. It's pretty hard to
market to blind people."
But advocates for the disabled say the number of potential gamers is
large. According to the latest Census Bureau figures, one in 10
Americans has a serious disability. Some disabled computer users
wonder why there aren't more games available for them. A few are
pressing mainstream game makers to add subtitles and other adaptations.

For teen-agers Henry and Andrew De Young of Export, Pa., problems are
even more frustrating. The boys were born with a degenerative
neuromuscular disorder that confines them to wheelchairs and blunts
their fine motor skills.
They can't turn a page, they can't play Legos. The computer is the one
thing they can do. It's their world," says Joan De Young, their mother.
Andrew, 13, is barely able to use a keyboard. Fourteen-year-old Henry
can't manipulate one at all. As a result, they can play only games that
use a computer mouse. Unfortunately, they find that many games don't.

They've sent e-mail to game publisher EA Sports, which makes popular PC
titles such as Madden football, to ask for mouse control in their games.
They've also pleaded their case to Lucas Arts
Entertainment, which makes the popular Star Wars and Indiana Jones
games.

But those who follow the industry say it's unlikely that mainstream
developers will spend the time or money to adapt their games for people
with disabilities.  Microsoft has built features into Windows to make
the operating system easier to use by people with disabilities, such as
subtitling.
But a company spokesman says he knows of no company that has
incorporated the feature.
The cost is probably not worth it to the companies," says Rob Smolka,
senior editor at PC Gamer magazine in San Francisco. It may not be high
up on their radar."
But some advocates for the disabled are hoping the software industry
might be forced to reconsider.

In November, the National Federation of the Blind sued America Online in
federal court, claiming the online giant had violated the Americans with
Disabilities Act because its software is incompatible with screen
readers that convert on-screen text to speech or Braille. Says Joan De
Young, with a sigh: Maybe with just a little
programming they could reach a new class of people."


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