280 Blind Cards

A deck of playing cards designed for blind people.

Although solutions exist already to allow people who are blind to play cards, it didn’t feel like slapping braille on top of the card was a very thoughtful solution. This deck allows blind people to use a deck of cards as efficiently as a standard deck can be used by the sighted.

Each card in the deck has subtle carved out notches on its edges. Notches on the short edge of the card determine J, Q, K, A and notches along the long edges indicate its suit and tell if it’s a 2-10 value card.

The cards are designed with these three main information quadrants to allow quick access to important information. As the cards are held, you can feel the notches with your thumb, index finger, and middle finger.

Notches are only present on top (index finger) if it’s a face card, and instead on the side if its a value card (thumb). This allows someone to determine immediately whether its a face or value card. The notches are always present against the middle finger, to designate suit.

The notches may be inset into the front of the card instead of directly on the edges. Potentially as carved circles along the edges, but that aren’t punched all the way through the card. This allows the cards to remain unknown from the back to sighted people, and helps deter accidentally feeling the card when a blind player is picking up, moving, or shuffling cards that are meant to be unknown to them.

This design would require heavy testing with blind volunteers, but could theoretically be used by blind or sighted alike.

[ Today I Was Playing: Persona 4: Dancing All Night and Teslagrad ]

#card-game, #physical-game