IEP Technologies : Expanded Core Curriculum Games for Visually Impaired Students
IEP Technologies
ObjectiveEd.com is our new company where we are building ECC games for blind and low vision students, based on each student’s IEP .
The student’s progress in learning skills in these ECC-based games will be stored in a private secure cloud, visible to the IEP team in a web-based dashboard .
If you are a TVI , press for additional details on learning about these types of games as a tool for maximizing student outcomes, relating to their
504 Education Plan .
Opposing Team
Shooting at baskets is fun, and coach will usually give you a good workout, but basketball without your opponent trying to block the game isn’t that realistic.
I wanted a way to tell you where the opponents are located without requiring headphones or earbuds. Many people have told me that they prefer not to use headphones while playing the games. I only require headphones when a precise orientation is needed, such as Blindfold Racer, Blindfold Breakout or Blindfold Hopper.
I explored a new method of giving information: pointing the phone to detect something. When you point the phone left, right or straight ahead, and it makes a sound if there is an opponent in that direction. If he is one step away, you hear 3 sneaker squeaks. If the he is two steps away, you hear one sneaker squeak.
In Blindfold Basketball, when an opponent is only one step away, he’ll block your shot.
That method worked out well, but people wanted this information also as they moved. Each time you take a step in any direction as well, you’ll hear the sneaker squeaks if there are players to your immediate right, left or straight ahead. The game also tells you who is in that position; I use names of well-known basketball players.
Now that you know where the opponents are, it was time to build several games based on them trying to block you. In the easiest game in this series, 10 opponents are positioned on the court, and none of them move. In the next game, 10 opponents are positioned on the court, but they change to other positions as you move from level to level.
I created a harder level where opponents randomly move slowly on the court. Each time you move, several of the opponents will move one step; sometimes towards you, sometimes away from you.
The hardest level uses smart opponents. In the first version I built, all of the opponents would move one step towards you; their goal was to always be one step away from you. When you play that, it’s like the opponents are building a defensive wall around your position, so your shot will always be blocked. That made the game impossible to win.
I tried moving only the nearest two players closer to you each time, but it was also too difficult. Within 5 turns, two players had you blocked in. I tried moving only the nearest player, and that was almost playable. However, once your opponent got close, he would follow your every move, and within 8 steps, you were completely blocked.
What finally made the game fair is to have one one opponent get close, but never more than two steps away. They won’t intentionally block you, but if you dribble one step closer to them, you shot is blocked.