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Making video games more accessible for the blind, visually impaired

A man from Columbus works with the gaming industry to make video games more accessible.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A cancer diagnosis for Brandon Cole took away his vision when he was two months old.

“I was born with a type of cancer called retinal blastoma, which is a cancer of the retina,” said Cole. “By the time it was discovered, it was too late to save my eyes. So they had to remove them.”

Cole has always been interested in toys or games that could talk or make sounds because he could still interact with them even if he was blind.

But a prank his brother pulled on him opened up a new world for him to explore.

“I started to discover that I could learn patterns,” said Cole. “I could learn sound effects, I could learn what things mean, I could learn what buttons did what. As time went on, I started messing around with different video games and trying different things and sometimes being successful and sometimes not.”

Cole is now an accessibility consultant for Aquent Games and has worked with video game developers to make gaming more accessible for the visually impaired and blind.

Through his Twitch and YouTube channels he is able to go through games he has worked on with the studio Naughty Dog, specifically on the game The Last of Us Part II.

“I do those streams and those videos, to educate people,” said Cole. “Other gamers that are sighted. Other gamers that are blind, who don't know what they can do with the game systems out there.”

Aquent Games and Naughty Dog took a chance on Cole when other executives passed on his idea to make games accessible.

“[I] just approached developers and said, ‘Hey, what would you think about making your game blind-accessible? I was laughed at. I was laughed at," said Cole.

Cole feels like he left his mark on the gaming industry. Followers of his social media pages thank him every few days for helping them and giving those who haven’t sighted a chance to play.

“I feel like I have done something that matters in the world, I feel like I have literally changed the world,” said Cole.

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