IEP Goals :  ECC Games for Visually Impaired Students

IEP Technologies

ObjectiveEd.com is our new company where we are building ECC interactive simulations for blind and low vision students, based on each child’s IEP . 
The child’s progression in mastering skills in these education-based games and interactive simulations are stored in a private secure cloud, available to the IEP team in a web-based console . 
If you are a Special Ed Director , click for additional details on using these types of games as a tool for maximizing student outcomes, relating to their 
web IEP .

Oppoly: Making it playable

In a prior post, I discussed how I took someone’s master’s thesis on Monopoly and turned it into a strategy for the computer opponents.

Initially, I created the game with a different gesture for each and every action you could do in Monopoly, and it was a complete mess.  None of the testers could remember which gesture accomplished what.  So I threw everything out and started again.
I needed a different way to give you as much information as possible without overwhelming you, and not require you to memorize dozens of gestures.
When I analyzed how I play the game, on each turn, I first explored the board to know what’s ahead of my token, then decide if and where to buy houses, spin the dice, move, and then either buy something, or pay rent and possibly mortgage property.
That means the game needs a way to explore, a way to find out property details, and a way to pick from several actions.
The first step was to let you explore the board by swiping left and right.   When exploring a property, you hear a short musical phrase to identify which color group the property is a member of, and you hear if it’s owned, mortgaged or available for purchase.
When you need more details, tap with 2 fingers.  Up comes a voice-over enabled screen that has every property detail you could hope for: it’s purchase price, rent, mortgage value, cost of each house, and so on.  This screen also has buttons for each action you may want to do with the property based on what’s allowed at that time: buy, trade mortgage, un-mortgage, buy houses, sell houses, and so on.
When you turn starts, you can buy houses on any of your properties.  To do this, swipe up with 2 fingers to bring up a list of your properties, pick a property, and buy as many houses as you want.  Then spin the dice and your token is moved.  You’ll hear where your token lands, and you can get property details with the two finger tap again, and use the buttons to buy or trade the property.
Keeping the soundscape interesting was harder, since an Oppoly game make take several hours to play.  Someone suggested that I create a feature where people can listen to their iTunes music while playing.  That’s not an easy thing to do for apps on the iPhone, but I figured out a way, and made that an option within the game.
Since it’s initial release, I’ve added about a bunch of features to match some of the variants that people play at home: winning the jackpot when you land on free parking, changing how much cash you start with, or rules about getting out of jail.
You can download Blindfold Oppoly here:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blindfold-oppoly/id1175945148?mt=8