OOTP Accessibility with Screen Reader Technology

BlindGuyNW · 12-20-2025, 06:04 PM

Hello,

My name is Zack Kline, and I've been a fan of OOTP off and on for several years. I've purchased multiple versions on Steam. I am totally blind, and use a screen reader program, which can interact with the game to a certain extent, though it isn't ideal. I want to figure out ways we can improve the situation. The game is already so close to being playable, the limitations I experience are just in interacting with the program.

The core problem is that the game does not expose information to a screen reader, though the accessibility DLLs appear to be loaded. I thus am limited to using OCR, optical character recognition, which breaks down on complex screens, and does not reliably expose some information at all. The problem is one of knowing how to interact, i.e. click this button to open the actions menu, or leave the game. OOTP obviously maintains an internal model of what the GUI looks like at any time, which would make this easier to deal with.
At the same time, I can already access a lot of information because of the built-in HTMl export functionality. This reads very well in general, but breaks the connection between the game and the output. For instance, I can look at a list of candidates to hire but in order to do so I have to go back to OCR, click on the person I want, find the offer contract button which may or may not be found by the screen reader and so on. A slight wrinkle is the advent of LLMs, some of which offer the capability to interpret screenshots I supply, always subject to the potential for hallucination.

The game uses a database to track all important information. I could, in principle, create a tool to navigate through the data and make changes in the proper tables, the structure is already documented. But this isn't playing the game as intended, because obviously I miss out on the actual simulation, and it's far from ideal when the actual interaction model could be made accessible.

So basically I want to find a way to avoid depending on OCR to interact with the game. I would like to be able to navigate the UI the same as anybody else, make decisions about whom to hire, what to emphasize, and so on, without having to spend ten minutes looking for a button which would be perfectly obvious if I were able to see it.

I am an accessibility professional and more than willing to help test, provide more detailed guidance on how best to do this, or generally discuss this question. The game is already 95% there.

Thanks for reading

Bluenoser · 12-22-2025, 12:39 PM

Hi Zack - although I can't provide you with any help, I have mentioned your post to the main programmer in the Beta Forum. Not sure what, if anything, can be done for you, but I'm sure he'll take a look.

Cheers

BlindGuyNW · 12-23-2025, 11:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluenoser

Hi Zack - although I can't provide you with any help, I have mentioned your post to the main programmer in the Beta Forum. Not sure what, if anything, can be done for you, but I'm sure he'll take a look.

Cheers

Thank you. I appreciate your passing the word along. I realize it's a weird ask but feel like this app is far more suitable for it than many

Matt Arnold · 12-23-2025, 01:53 PM

Unfortunately, I think any larger changes are well beyond the scope of what is possible for us. We're a very small team, and as far as I'm aware, building any platform level support to improve is just not possible for us.

We are always happy to take suggestions, and within what we can, make any improvements. For example last year we did add an alternate skin which attempted to make elements more color-blind friendly. If there are things that would help like more keyboard controls, or something else in that vein, we are happy to try and help out what we can.

jksander · 12-23-2025, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlindGuyNW

Thank you. I appreciate your passing the word along. I realize it's a weird ask but feel like this app is far more suitable for it than many

Not weird at all! I'm legally blind and I have been a text-sim addict since the early days of OOTP

BlindGuyNW · 12-26-2025, 08:29 AM

Hi All,

I hope everyone has had a great holiday. I realize that screen reader support is a lot. Any additional keyboard support would be appreciated, by users without screen readers as well

For the time being I have personal workarounds for the issues and am able to enjoy the game, albeit not as smoothly as I could with a platform solution.

I am truly excited to dive in.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot · 12-26-2025, 08:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BlindGuyNW

Hi All,

I hope everyone has had a great holiday. I realize that screen reader support is a lot. Any additional keyboard support would be appreciated, by users without screen readers as well

For the time being I have personal workarounds for the issues and am able to enjoy the game, albeit not as smoothly as I could with a platform solution.

I am truly excited to dive in.

I'm glad to hear you've at least got some workarounds that enable you to enjoy the game.

Here's hoping either future iterations of the game or improved screen reader tool/other technologies increasingly offer you improved OOTP experiences for you! All the best.

Bobfather · 12-26-2025, 10:32 AM

Bad Joke incoming. I apologize in advance if this offends anyone. You could always just play as an umpire.

12-20-2025, 06:04 PM	#1
BlindGuyNW Bat Boy Join Date: Dec 2020 Posts: 12	OOTP Accessibility with Screen Reader Technology Hello, My name is Zack Kline, and I've been a fan of OOTP off and on for several years. I've purchased multiple versions on Steam. I am totally blind, and use a screen reader program, which can interact with the game to a certain extent, though it isn't ideal. I want to figure out ways we can improve the situation. The game is already so close to being playable, the limitations I experience are just in interacting with the program. The core problem is that the game does not expose information to a screen reader, though the accessibility DLLs appear to be loaded. I thus am limited to using OCR, optical character recognition, which breaks down on complex screens, and does not reliably expose some information at all. The problem is one of knowing how to interact, i.e. click this button to open the actions menu, or leave the game. OOTP obviously maintains an internal model of what the GUI looks like at any time, which would make this easier to deal with. At the same time, I can already access a lot of information because of the built-in HTMl export functionality. This reads very well in general, but breaks the connection between the game and the output. For instance, I can look at a list of candidates to hire but in order to do so I have to go back to OCR, click on the person I want, find the offer contract button which may or may not be found by the screen reader and so on. A slight wrinkle is the advent of LLMs, some of which offer the capability to interpret screenshots I supply, always subject to the potential for hallucination. The game uses a database to track all important information. I could, in principle, create a tool to navigate through the data and make changes in the proper tables, the structure is already documented. But this isn't playing the game as intended, because obviously I miss out on the actual simulation, and it's far from ideal when the actual interaction model could be made accessible. So basically I want to find a way to avoid depending on OCR to interact with the game. I would like to be able to navigate the UI the same as anybody else, make decisions about whom to hire, what to emphasize, and so on, without having to spend ten minutes looking for a button which would be perfectly obvious if I were able to see it. I am an accessibility professional and more than willing to help test, provide more detailed guidance on how best to do this, or generally discuss this question. The game is already 95% there. Thanks for reading

12-22-2025, 12:39 PM	#2
Bluenoser Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: In The Moment Posts: 14,224	Hi Zack - although I can't provide you with any help, I have mentioned your post to the main programmer in the Beta Forum. Not sure what, if anything, can be done for you, but I'm sure he'll take a look. Cheers Last edited by Bluenoser; 12-22-2025 at 12:41 PM.

12-26-2025, 08:29 AM	#6
BlindGuyNW Bat Boy Join Date: Dec 2020 Posts: 12	Thank you Hi All, I hope everyone has had a great holiday. I realize that screen reader support is a lot. Any additional keyboard support would be appreciated, by users without screen readers as well For the time being I have personal workarounds for the issues and am able to enjoy the game, albeit not as smoothly as I could with a platform solution. I am truly excited to dive in.

12-26-2025, 10:32 AM	#8
Bobfather All Star Starter Join Date: Jun 2016 Location: Boston Ma. Posts: 1,690	Bad Joke incoming. I apologize in advance if this offends anyone. You could always just play as an umpire. __________________ I play out every game—one pitch mode.

12-23-2025, 01:53 PM	#4
Matt Arnold OOTP Developer Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Here and there Posts: 15,869	Unfortunately, I think any larger changes are well beyond the scope of what is possible for us. We're a very small team, and as far as I'm aware, building any platform level support to improve is just not possible for us. We are always happy to take suggestions, and within what we can, make any improvements. For example last year we did add an alternate skin which attempted to make elements more color-blind friendly. If there are things that would help like more keyboard controls, or something else in that vein, we are happy to try and help out what we can.