Online Casino Poker for the Blind
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Online Casino Poker for the Blind
9 Mar 2006
A new initiative by Massachusetts college students has paved the way for the blind to join in the online casino poker craze. Jeremie Spitzer and Paul Silva, college undergraduates and online casino poker fans, first devised a way in which their blind friend could join them playing poker online. From there, their site All in Play was born, opening doors for people previously unable to enjoy online casino poker.
While decks of cards in Braille proved useful in live poker, visually impaired fans of online casino poker were left behind during the game’s transition to the online world. But All in Play, which features screen reader software that describes in words the cards displayed on the screen, now helps the blind enjoy Five Card Draw Poker and Crazy Eights poker. The games can also be played using screen magnifiers for those online casino fans with some vision. Today All in Play has over one thousand blind or visually impaired online casino fans as members, prompting its student operators to begin work to add popular Texas Hold’Em poker to the site’s repertoire.
Online casino poker tournaments for the blind have also increased in popularity since All in Play became a household name. The American Council for the Blind has sponsored several online casino poker tournaments. Some computer training centers for the blind are also using the site to motivate new computer users and to teach navigation powered by screen reader software.
