Contributed by: Cindy Wang Kohlhepp, MA
Every once in a while, I give my student a break from intersection analysis and street crossings and we have a fun lesson. In the past, our fun lessons have included cooking food, making art projects, playing with the Maps app, watching blind YouTubers, etc. This time, I decided to show my student a game app on the iPhone. Whenever I ask him what he does for fun, he always says he watches YouTube videos. Some people complain that kids these days are on their phones too much, but I think my student isn’t doing enough with his!
The app: A Blind Legend (available on iPhone and Android)
Cost: Free and NO in-app purchases
Appropriate for ages: ages 12+
O&M skill: How to have fun, doing something on your phone other than listen to YouTube videos, how to download apps, how to search for accessible apps, intro to iPhone gestures, phone orientation, strategy, etc.
Summary of the game: (taken straight from the app description) Live the adventures of Edward Blake, the famous blind knight! Guided by your daughter Louise, you must find your way and avoid the many traps that lie in store in the High Castle Kingdome, while confronting dangerous enemies.
Prep: It would be good to play the game once, so you can learn the different gestures that are used throughout the game. However, the game has a tutorial of the gestures throughout the game and it allows the player to practice them before continuing to the next step or next level.
Note: Headphones are required. I would recommend getting a headphone splitter so you can follow along and know where your student is at in the game. If he/she has trouble with any of the gestures you can help demonstrate. I made the mistake of forgetting mine, and I sat there asking “what’s going on” the entire time.
You can get headphone splitters from Amazon for about $4.95.
My student was getting so into the game! He says he can’t wait to download it and play the rest of the levels at home. After playing this game, we spent some time looking for other accessible games similar to this one. I wish I had thought of this idea sooner!
Hi from New Zealand,
Some of my students had a play with this game a couple of years ago but once they got into it a bit, complained that there was too much violence and bad language! I did email the developers but got no response – it would be interesting to see if they have moderated the language and toned down the violence. I realise we can’t shelter our students from the big bad world (and neither should we) but it is disappointing that such a game had these features anyway. My students were 12+ at the time.
It’s probably time I had another play with it myself, so thanks for the heads-up!
Cathy
Thanks for your feedback! Cindy who contributed this post shared with me that she did not go through the game from start to finish yet, but what she has played she did not hear any bad language. She did recommend using the headphone splitters when playing so that she could intervene if anything ever came up!