Originally published at: 3D-printed Braille dice | Boing Boing
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It’s cool that someone made this, but are dice really the right solution for the visually impaired and table top gaming? Wouldn’t a better idea be to have your phone randomly generate a number between 1 and X and the state the result? With dice you have to “throw” them and grab them to read the numbers…
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Because there is something tactile and connected about physical dice. Even playing online, many of us are still rolling our dice on the table. An app can’t replicate the sound and feel of a polyhedron.
Also, some rolls are made in secret. An audible roll would spoil that.
And find them when they inevitably roll off the table.
There are already a lot of different softwares that handle dice rolls and stats for table top gaming. Simply having that read out with text to speech is probably a good solution for some.
But there are serious accessibility problems with regards to computers, particularly anything touch screen. Just give opening and operating an app on your phone with your eyes closed a shot. You’ll get a sense of why “just use your phone” isn’t a great solution for anyone visually impaired enough to regularly use braille.
A physical device with physical buttons that reads out dice rolls would be better. But functionally useless for some one who is both visually and hearing impaired.
That physical dice is gonna be the most practical solution for a lot of people. Even if foe most people there’s a better one.
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I applaud any effort to improve accessibility of anything, and agree that computers are not the best solution for everything (and that’s coming from a software developer).
I wonder about the choice of K-T for 11-20 though. Might that make calculating those rolls a bit awkward and slow?
Why not just repeat the numbers 1-10 again with some slight difference on the face to indicate the intent?
Dice never run out of batteries 
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Here’s a helpful tip. If you are a blind person don’t forget where you put them.
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