By Alex Smyth

When it comes to gaming, visuals are typically king. With constant improvements being made to graphics and creating immersive worlds, it can be a challenge for players with disabilities, especially those with vision loss, to connect with the worlds these games create. 

However, a recently released game has changed that narrative. The Vale: Shadow of the Crown is an audio-based game that transports players to a medieval-fantasy world where they play as a blind princess named Alex. Not only is the premise tied to vision loss, but so too was the development of the game. Falling Squirrel Inc., the studio responsible for the game, worked with blind and partially sighted community at numerous stages of development to make a game for the community by the community. 

The fact that this concept is not widely utilized yet shows how much work there is to be done overall, but it’s important to celebrate the studio for taking this approach. The best part is, the game is not just marketed as a game for blind players, but for anyone who wants to try an audio-based fantasy game. With a wide release across multiple platforms including Steam, Xbox, and more, this game has the potential to leave an impact and become an example of a game that is made to be accessible for the community, without sacrificing the quality of the experience.

There is no longer a sense that one must make concessions to achieve a level of accessibility for the player. Much like the work done at AMI, it forces creators to become nimble and think outside of the box. The result is an immersive experience that can challenge players to pay attention to their surroundings, perfect timing in combat, and keep exploring their environments to find hidden spaces. 

Now I have to admit, while I am an avid gamer who has been playing games since I was 4, I had never played or even heard of audio only games. In researching and following the development of The Vale, I have learned more about them and became aware of this style of game. I am hopeful that the tactics and tools used in audio games will continue to grow and become popular in the mainstream game sphere as well. I feel we have started to see some elements lifted, including 3D surround audio, sound queues in combat, and dictation for on-screen text, but there is more that can be done.

So while I love playing The Vale (and not just because the protagonist and I share the same name!), I am really excited to see how this game will continue to push the options and direction of games in the future! Here’s hoping accessibility soon becomes standard on all AAA games, so that we can stop talking about it and just play the games we love! 

Watch the segment on AMI This Week on Monday, October 4, at 8 p.m. Eastern on AMI-tv.

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By Beth Deer

This story is an awesome one.

Rocky Mountain Adaptive, based in Canmore, Alberta, makes recreational mountain sports accessible to everyone by adapting equipment and techniques of the sports to suit each individual. 

I wish I’d have known about this incredible organization when I first moved to Canada. I spent a lot of time in the Canmore area, and would have loved to try out some of the programs they offer. They provide training in a wide variety of sports, such as skiing, snowboarding, kayaking, hiking and many more. Rocky Mountain Adaptive allows participants to take each step at their own pace, and this includes people who want to become advanced in a sport.

If you are in Alberta and ever take a trip up to the mountains I strongly suggest checking out Rocky Mountain Adaptive and the incredible work they do. 

Watch the segment on Rocky Mountain Adaptive on AMI This Week, Monday, September 27, at 8 p.m. Eastern on AMI-tv.

Stream the segment now!

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By Chris Vallée

Fostering Forever Friendships is a new not-for-profit organization in Ottawa that runs a day program and a summer camp for adults with exceptionalities. The team and I at the Ottawa bureau were fortunate enough to spend an afternoon with the day program. I got a first-hand perspective of what it’s like to be a participant and let me tell you, it was a FUN time.

The program focuses on fostering the independence and continued growth of adults in the disability community between the ages of 18 and 45 in a safe and inclusive environment. The camp's overall goal is to enhance daily living skills and promote independence. Campers frequently participate in activities like taking the bus, going on nature walks, cooking and baking some delicious food, getting artsy, attending local events, and so much more! 

Samantha Bellefeuille is the camp’s director, and has been working in the field for over 16 years. The idea of building a day camp for adults in the disability community started in high school.

“In business class I built a whole day program with a daycare setting. I put it aside and picked the idea back up in September of 2019,” Samantha says. “I wanted something that was like summer camp, but year-round, something that participants can come and look forward to.”

A Camp Rock-themed day filled with music, dancing and singing took place while we visited. There’s nothing better than singing your heart out to a few Disney classics.

Learn more about how Fostering Forever Friendships emphasizes the importance of independence and how you can join the day camp by watching AMI This Week on Monday, September 20, at 8 p.m. Eastern on AMI-tv.

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By Grant Hardy

When Prince Rupert resident Brendan Eshom, then seventeen, created the Sm'algyax Word of the Day app and website, he was simply trying to share the traditional language of the Ts'msyen people of the north coast. He surely had no idea his app would make the news in multiple countries—multiple times.

The first time was during a trying time for Brendan. Apple’s systems erroneously flagged his app as fraudulent and pulled it from the App Store. Thanks to the news coverage about that issue, Apple apologized to Brendan and reinstated it.

The second time the app made the news was or a much more positive reason. University student Harris Mowbray, who specializes in computational linguistics—a fancy term for when our tech analyzes, translates, or otherwise interacts with our languages—heard of Braille on Wikipedia. He came to understand the incredible opportunities Braille brings to readers who are blind, but also everyone who is left out: namely, the number of languages that haven’t been coded for Braille. Harris began studying Braille and reaching out to many communities offering his services creating Braille alphabets for their dialects.

Harris says there were challenges connecting with the diverse communities he reached out to. In some cases, folks doubted that there were blind and partially sighted people in their communities. But Brendan wasn’t one of those people. He embraced Harris’ project with open arms and the two collaborated on adapting this endangered dialect into Braille.

On AMI This Week, we tell their story. It’s a story that resulted in a complete Braille alphabet, currently available as a PDF rendering. The Sm'algyax Braille alphabet is featured on Brendan’s website.

What I’m most excited for is the future that technology will inspire, thanks to people like Brendan and Harris. Gone are the days when Braille was produced by specialized companies and it took weeks to prepare a paper Braille hard copy book, which was often multiple volumes. Today, Braille displays and embossers are readily available, and though they’re expensive, there’s often funding for students and professionals who are blind. It’s a snap to program most computers to recognize a Braille table for a new dialect. Rather than simply not being included in this important part of linguistic history or having to rely only on verbal learning, I am hopeful students, professionals, and anyone else who’s interested will have a new window to education as more Indigenous languages are adapted into Braille. In a year full of terrible news about our systematic suppression of Indigenous cultures in the past, it’s wonderful to hear some good news.
 

By Jillian Gillis 

Taking care of mental health and normalizing conversations around it is really important to me. That’s why I was so happy to have met up with Katie Keddy, the vice-president of Farm Safety NS, to talk about the We Talk We Grow initiative. If you or someone you know is involved in agriculture and doesn’t know where to turn for help with mental health issues, this story might be of interest.  

Nurturing your mental health is important for everyone, but it is often not considered when people think of farming. We Talk We Grow is a great awareness campaign that encourages people in agriculture to feel more comfortable discussing mental health concerns. They have designed a website that provides resources and supports for the farming community regarding mental health. 

I know from personal experience that having a better understanding of mental health issues and having good supports in place plays a key role in mental well-being. The more I saw people talking about mental health, the more comfortable I felt sharing my experiences and seeking the help I needed. It can be very overwhelming for someone when they think they are alone in the challenges they face, or if they aren’t familiar with the signs of mental health troubles. That’s why I was so excited to get the chance to cover this story about this wonderful project dedicated to mental health.  

Watch our interview with Katie Keddy about the We Talk We Grow campaign on AMI This Week next Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern, on AMI-tv.