– [James] I'm like new to
VR. I'm trying this out. I'm like also legally blind. So, I have 5% of sight and I've always been terrible at tennis. – [Shuman82] You're either
bluffing me right now. – I'm literally not. Did you know blind and
visually impaired people, access technology and entertainment through a variety of
accessibility features found in smartphones, computers, video content, and even video games. I've covered many of these
features and experiences over the years. But one thing I've not kept
up with is the current state of virtual reality.
Over the years, a common
question I've gotten is can I experience VR? Like I said, oh gosh, I'm legally blind. Which means, yes, I can
see some things like light, lots of light. I'm gonna put these on. All right, cool. (hands clapping) Like any disability,
blindness is a spectrum. All 350 million people living
with a visual impairment may experience it differently. In my case, everything
in my view is blurry, shaking and overexposed
in brighter environments. I happen to be nearsighted though. Meaning if something were
to come inches from my face, I have a better chance at identifying it. And that's why I'm a bit
more optimistic here. Maybe since virtual reality headsets are so close to the eyes, could I actually see better there than I do in the real world? I'll be using the Meta Oculus Quest 2 to discover just how accessible
are virtual reality games for someone like me with
less than 10% of sight.
I'll be diving into four different titles. And after each play session, I'm going to rate them based
off my experience and ability to play as a legally blind gamer. These titles include 11
Table Tennis, Beat Saber, GOLF+ and The Thrill of the Fight. I also asked you to send me
questions on my Instagram and Twitter, what you want
me to cover in this video. So, I'm making sure all
that's answered. Cool. So, I've learned the menu a bit here. I don't know what any of this says.
I don't know what this says. I can't read. The issue here is Beat Saber, some menus, so like my Oculus menu, right? I can walk closer to it, which is great. 'Cause that allows me to be
like, okay, that says quit. That says resume Beat Saber. And I can kind of make out
these icons a little bit better. I can also pick this up and move it and serve my play space. (upbeat music) ♪ Tonight I'm so ♪ – I'm just gonna go into this. (Billie Eilish singing) Now for me, color is accessible. ♪ Wasting my breath 'cause you only ♪ – So, I can see color. ♪ I don't relate to you ♪ – So, I know that this is orange or yellow and this is like a black or gray.
♪ Treat me this ♪ I need a hit. ♪ You made me hate this city ♪ ♪ And I don't ♪ – Now, normally depth perception isn't the most accessible thing for me, 'cause I don't really
have depth perception in like the real world, but I have a little bit more
of a depth perception here. ♪ Talk about ♪ – And the 3D effect is actually
really impressive in this. ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪ I'll be rating these
titles one outta five stars based on how accessible
and enjoyable they were. One star being the least and
five stars being the best.
The one thing I can make
out is this giant D I got, that was my rank. I don't think that's very impressive, but I think it's like progress, right? I wish all the fonts in UI were as big as this fourth
anniversary of Beat Saber. Beat Saber's been around for four years and you still can't make a more accessible visually larger UI as an option? Huh. When menus again are just large
or up to my face, it's good.
And developers, I have to
kind of rely on you to do that because not all games are made equal. Beat Saber for instance,
Beat Saber is like, if you haven't heard of it,
you probably haven't heard much about VR applications in general. Beat Saber is like the premier game demo for how cool VR can be. I couldn't see the menu. The problem there was I
couldn't walk closer to the menu and I couldn't pull a menu closer in. The menu was at a static distance from where I'll always be looking. So, even if I walk closer, the menu is going further away from me. Beat Saber, it's fun, it's a great time once I can
actually get into the game and find where I'm at. Beat Saber's a ton of fun with
customization for gameplay, but it suffers from tiny unreadable menus and no text-to-speech narration option.
When you first boot up the game, you'll find that there's a
lackluster music catalog, unless you're willing
to buy more song packs. Although I'll play more, as of now, I can't rate this any higher than a two outta five. Okay, while that's installing though, I wanna show you some of
the accessibility settings. And so from the quick settings I can access the normal settings. I also have the brightness down. The brightness is adjustable. I also have night shift on too. So, the voice commands
are always another thing that you can always do to explore. You know it's kinda like
having an Echo or Siri or Google Assistant built in. There is an accessibility tab and that part did actually
kind of excite me, the fact that there's like a whole section in settings dedicated to accessibility. So, I tap on that. There's a couple things,
literally like a couple of things. So, there's vision mobility
and hearing, right? I hope this continues to expand.
Color correction, so I
think the default here is medium for text size, but
I have it set to largest. It's gonna require a restart if I do that. So, I'm gonna avoid doing it right now. I know this platform is still fairly new, but there are improvements
that can definitely be made with the accessibility options
that are currently available. I imagine being able to
just zoom in into the screen at any point, kinda like what
I could with my phone, right? Where I'm able to just zoom
in into the screen, right? Like that's so beneficial.
I can do this with my Mac. That's how I edit this video. And having things being
able to read aloud to me is also important. You know, blind folks, we
like auditory feedback. Controller, you can change the
intensity of the vibration. For me, as someone with
a visual impairment, it's just another way for
my brain to receive feedback that something is happening. And then hearing, mono, and you can change the audio balance, pretty standard. So, that is a look at sort
of the accessibility options. Limited, yes. Progress, it's a start. One of the games I wanted
to check out was ping-pong, 'cause I am bad at ping-pong. IRL tennis is out of the question for me, but maybe, just maybe virtual table tennis is where I'll paddle through. That was a bad joke. So, am I able to
experience virtual reality with my blindness? It's not a straight answer. So, let me just show you exactly. Alright. Position yourself. So, I can kind of read this
and then I can get closer. Thank you. Already beating Beat Saber at this. Please touch the floor. Oh. Cool. All right.
I'm getting this. I'm getting it. I have depth perception
in this world. (titters) That's pretty neat, right? Select a paddle type. (chuckles) I'm an amateur. Settings. Honestly, the dark might
be easier for me to see. Ball appearance, custom. Oh, huh. Oh, ooh, I like that. I like that. Look, the ball is like orange, yellow. Master volume. I'm gonna bring down
the music a little bit. 'Cause sound effects are a
little bit more important for me to hear. Let's do this. Let's go into single player, start game. Would you like to learn how to serve? No, let's just jump into it. So, what better way to practice
than fighting an easy AI. So, I have the ball. (ball clanking) (beeper buzzing) All righty. (chuckles) All right. So, I have the ball here.
Trigger button to let go. (ball clanking) (beeper buzzing) It dawned on me while I
was playing the easy CPU, there are six rounds
per match with 10 points needing to be made per round. And this was not going in
my favor, by any means. (upbeat music) (bright notes sounding) (upbeat music) I won. I scored. There's a score on, I
mean, I didn't hit it. (beeper buzzing) But the AI messed up. I don't want your sympathetic scoring. No, I need to earn it. That doesn't count. (beeper buzzing) (ball clanking) (bright notes sounding) I got a point. I got
my first actual point! Hey, wait, hold on. Let me celebrate, dude. Ah, come on. All right. (beeper buzzing) Heck yes. I think I'm ready to go online. I think I'm ready for a real opponent. Yeah. Now, you know what? I just… Would you like to learn how to serve? I mean, let's do this. We can do rank. Complete your serve five times
correctly before partici- Oh shoot. (chuckling) (ball clattering) Okay. We'll go into unrank maybe.
'Cause apparently we're
not welcomed in rank, despite me getting a point, a legit point. All right. Let's send a
challenge to these people. I know a lot of people would
just tell me to give up on this game here, but hey, maybe the AI wasn't the right teacher for me. Take me on. I'm gonna just send a
challenge to all these people until someone accepts. Come on, someone's gotta be available. I mean I've sent probably
like 20, 30 challenges by now.
I scored a point on the easy AI. But you saw how much they scored on me? I bested them. (ball clattering) Ooh, we got a challenge. Hello. – [Shuman82] What's up, buddy? – [James] Hey, how's it going? – [Shuman82] Hey. Not bad, you? – [James] Shuman82 answered
the call to ping pong balls with this blind man. I don't know if I liked
how that was worded. Nope. Good, good. I'm like new to VR. I'm trying this out. I'm like also legally blind. So, I have 5% of sight and
I've always been terrible at tennis, table tennis.
– [Shuman82] All right. – [James] And regular tennis. – [Shuman82] You're either
bluffing me right now. – And you know what? He was onto me. He had me all figured
out. He knew the bluff. I'm not blind. I don't have blindness. I'm not legally blind by medical
and government definition after all, I'm 20/20 sight. Oh my God, this hurts so bad. Why? Why did I do that? Well, I'll have you know, I just got on this for the first time, played the CPU on easy
and I scored once on them. They gave me a sympathy point. (Shuman82 laughing) And we may have gone six
rounds in and I got one point. I feel like I'm ready. – [Shuman82] I just started two, honestly. – [James] Okay. Cool. – [Shuman82] Ready? All
right, now you're serving. – Let's see. (ball clanking) (beeper buzzing) Yep. – [Shuman82] That one me. (chuckling) I guess you weren't kidding. (beeper buzzing) Yeah, you gotta hit your
side of the table first.
It's my serve. You ready? – [James] Cool. (ball clattering) – [Shuman82] Oh, you got a point. – Depth perception is new to me because the headset's so close to my eyes, I'm actually able to get like
a little bit of experience with depth perception for the first time. – [Shuman82] Wow. That's crazy. – [James] My turn. Okay. (ball clanking)
(beeper buzzing) – [Shuman82] Yeah. You
gotta hit your side first.
(ball clanking)
(upbeat music) There you go. (ball clanking) Oh. (beeper buzzing) Almost that. – Do you recommend a certain way to hit it when it comes to my side, left or right? – [Shuman82] The easiest
way is the black side. – [James] Okay. – [Shuman82] That's the easiest way, when you hit it this way, you gotta hit it a little bit harder. – [James] Gotcha. – [Shuman82] That's like a backhand and then that's a front-hand. Oh, (chuckles) you actually got that. – [James] Okay.
– [Shuman82] Good point. (beeper buzzing) (ball clanking) – Ah, okay. So, if it hits
too many times on my side? – [Shuman82] Yeah. You can
only hit one time on your side. Yep. – Ah, okay. Oh.
(beeper buzzing) (James tittering) (ball clanking)
(upbeat music) – [Shuman82] There you go. (ball clanking)
(beeper buzzing) Oh! Close. Alright. You ready?
– [James] Round two. (bright notes sounding) – [Shuman82] What the heck? (bright notes sounding) Oh, what the hell? (ball clanking)
(upbeat music) (bright notes sounding) Oh, you actually got that over. (laughing) That was a good point.
That was you.
– [James] Nice. (beeper buzzing) – [Shuman82] Ah, my serve. (ball clanking) (beeper buzzing) Yeah. Hold on, babe. (ball clattering) Good serve. (beeper buzzing) Oh!
– [James] Good hit. (James titters) (Shuman82 chuckling) – [Shuman82] I honestly didn't
think I was gonna get that. Oh, you actually got that back to me. You caught me off guard. Aah, my serve. – [James] I'm certain Shuman82 was giving me some freebie points. But after hearing that
dreaded (beeper buzzing) countless times I'll take
any (bright notes sounding) I can get. (beeper buzzing) Ah. I think that was the end of the match. – [Shuman82] Oh, alright buddy. Well, I gotta go. My girls yelling at me. – [James] No worries, thank you so much. I appreciate the game. Thanks for the tips as well. – [Shuman82] Hey man, you have a good one. – [James] I'm gonna keep practicing. Thank you.
– [Shuman82] Good luck. – Take care, have a good one. It's time to rate 11 Table Tennis.
Unfortunately for me, the
physics felt accurate. Therefore I still suck at table tennis. That aside, I like the text
size, customization settings and multiplayer features. It has a couple of
options to make the game more visually accessible, but it could benefit from offering more. I gotta rate this game
three outta five stars. That interaction alone
made me think about like, who else could I meet in VR? Like who else would be
willing to be genuine and nice and help me out because I know there are
some worlds out there that I have yet explored. Let me know in the comments, if you want me to have
more stranger interactions with people on VR and see
if they're just as genuine as this guy who gave me a
really good first impression of what people in the virtual reality Metaverse are like, because I'm kind of
worried that maybe not. GOLF+, let's do some golfing.
(logo whooshing)
(golf ball whacking) Golf wasn't enough. (bright notes sounding) I think it's loading. – [Game Narrator] Welcome to GOLF+. – [James] Hello, hi. – [Game Narrator] I bet you're
ready to play some golf? So, we're going to teach you the basics and get you out there.
– [James] Okay. Probably not a bad idea. – [Game Narrator] Press the trigger button on your controller when
you're ready to continue.
– [James] Bugging, is it bugging out? Maybe. (button beeping) Restart it. – [Game Narrator] Welcome to GOLF+. – [James] Hi. – [Game Narrator] Before taking a swing, double check your play space
to make sure there's nothing in the way. If there is something in the way, move to a clear area and
check your swing again. – [James] I think I'm good. – [Game Narrator] Hold
the A button in order to recenter yourself based
on the new area you've found. – Yep, I didn't kick anything. (upbeat music)
(bright notes sounding) – [Game Narrator] You're
ready to hit your first shot. – Ooh. Okay. So, this is where haptics
can really play a nice role. I can feel when my golf club is actually touching the ground. (golf ball thudding) – [Game Narrator] Good try, but let's see if we can
land the ball a bit closer to the hole.
– [James] Well, where's the hole? – [Game Narrator] Press
trigger to reset and try again. – [James] Oh, am I going this way? Oh, oh, okay. (bright notes sounding) (golf ball whacking) Oh. – [Game Narrator] Good try. – [James] The hole is like over here. It's like over here and where am I though? (upbeat music)
(ball whacking) How was that? Better? Look at that. Oh, we got that- – [Game Narrator] When
the ball comes to rest, you can press trigger to get to it. – [James] Okay. – [Game Narrator] Give that a try now. – [James] Cool, look! – [Game Narrator] Nice approach. – [James] Right here. – [Game Narrator] Now,
let's move on to something a bit longer.
– [James] Here's a flag. Line this up. Feel the vibration, I'm on. (ball clattering) Boom! – [Game Narrator] This next shot is about 180 yards downhill. To your left is the shot shaper. It lets you dial in
your intended shot path, including the ability
to favor a draw or fade. – [James] What does that mean? I can kinda make out this green, I do wish it was a different color or had a better outline, considering.
So, there's sort of like this path that's being shown with the light color. I wish it didn't contrast so much with the actual golf course. I mean, can I see the flag out there? See, they should just have
a giant beacon to know where the flag is or have that option. Oh wait, is that the flag? See, it'll be nice if it
was in the over world.
– [Game Narrator] On novice difficulty, you'll also see a pod line. – Ooh. Okay. So, that's actually kind of helpful. I like that. – [Game Narrator] Now, go
ahead and finish out the hole. – Helps gimme a little bit idea of my surroundings for the depth of it. (laid-back music) (golf ball whacking) Nah. Nep, nep. Well, it's realistic. So, we got through the tutorial. I'm gonna like, I mean I
gotta try a course out, right? – [Game Narrator] Welcome
to Valhalla Golf Club located in Louisville, Kentucky. This Jack Nicklaus-design course was host to the Ryder Cup and
two PGA championships. – [James] That's an Assassins
Creed reference I think. – [Game Narrator] That Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy won respectively. – So, when I hold this
button down, is it the flag? Am I out here alone? They should've- (sighs) God, normally when I do
these adaptive sports things, there's like somebody here helping me.
Okay. (ball whacking) (laid-back music) How was that? I can kind of make out
the number a little bit. Should be a little bigger though. I'm not gonna lie. Is that an eight and a five? Either that or a B and
S for some bull (beeps). (golf ball whacking) (laid-back music) (golf ball thudding) Too far, again. Right there. I'm far past the hole-in-one,
of course, right? Oh my gosh. (chuckles) I think I can do it. (bright notes sounding) Boom. (titters) I did it. Congratulations, thanks. (golf ball whacking) (laid-back music) I mean, that was solid. No, I just didn't go far enough,
but like I didn't go over. (golf ball whacking) (bright notes sounding) Yo! I got it in. From that distance? Booger, bogey, we got a bogey. I started GOLF+ with the game
getting stuck on the opening, not the best first impression. That aside, I enjoyed having the narrator guiding me through the tutorial.
The haptics are well programmed into scale for an immersive experience. The colors of the user
interface could use improvements to ensure it doesn't clash
with the environments. And better visual indicators would save me a lot of confusion. At the end of the day, it's golf. I'd rather play mini golf
with friends, but hey, it was okay.
Two out of five. So, you might be wondering
at this point, like, am I getting eye strain? I mean, I've been in this
thing for a while and, no, like I've been in this thing for hours without the eye strain
and this didn't contribute to accelerating any eye strain for me that I normally would face
with just using computers or a TV. So, there was one more
game I had to check out for this particular video. You know, there's a
theme here of like sports and good starting games, boxing. (suspenseful music) Oh, I'm already in it. (suspenseful music) Okay. It literally just puts you into the game. Hand straps on, head
onto the scale and look, oh, this guy. Okay. (upbeat music) (camera clicking) Well, that flash was a little unnecessary. So, you got settings. I used to play Wii Sports boxing.
I was pretty decent at it. I had a lot of fun with that. Oh, you punch it. Ha. Okay, I was looking for pointers. Let's just fight. This is honestly, probably all
the training I need, right? – [Referee] Keep it clean at all times. Protect yourself at all times. And what I say you must obey. Good luck to both of you. (upbeat music) – [James] Cool.
All right. So, that's quit and this is continue. Oh. Oh! Oh jeez. I was not ready to be
like in this dude's face. You know, I came in for boxing, not a horror game and I
just was not ready for me to be teleported. (boxer grunting)
(fists whacking) How'd I do? – [Referee] Ladies and gentlemen, going to the scorecards, the judges have determined
by unanimous decision, your winner is the red corner. – Hey! That's me. I mean, it's definitely a workout probably more than Wii boxing. All right.
Defeat this fighter
to allow for customization. Oh, okay. (button clattering) I hope this Oculus Quest
2 is water resistant because yeah, I not just
got sweaty with the boxing, I literally got sweaty on my VR helmet. As you may be able to see there. Now, it kind of puts me
like right up to them. – [Referee] I'm only
gonna tell you two things. (bell clanking) (boxer grunting) Protect yourself at all times. And obey what I say at all times. Let's make this a clean fight. (crowd cheering)
(gloves whacking) (James grunting) – [James] Is that clean? (crowd cheering) (gloves pounding) (crowd cheering) (bell clanking) (slow dramatic music) (James exhaling) What's up, dude? How you doing? You've been watching me.
Yeah. I'm assuming he's my coach. (bell clanking) (boxers grunting)
(gloves whacking) I don't think I'm playing very clean. I ain't gonna get invited to any kind of YouTube
boxing tournament, I think. I mean, this is pretty dirty. I don't know boxing all that well, but I'm assuming like
I can't go down there.
(gloves whacking)
(James grunting) Ooh, you got a good hit on me, all right. I mean, does he get Chaote at all? (gloves whacking)
(James breathing) (bell clanking)
(slow dramatic music) I think there's still one more round. Realistically, I think this
is where you get water, which I think I had somewhere. I'm gonna step outta here real quick. Thank you, thank you. There you go. Mind if I hand this to you, coach? (slow dramatic music) (coach and crowd clapping) (bell clanking) (James groaning) (gloves whacking)
(crowd cheering) What's up? What's up? Come on. Can you handle this? Can you handle this? Oh, the KO. You like that? Yeah? Oh, he's down. I win. (crowd cheering) I win, what are you counting for? (crowd cheering) Oh, what the? (slow dramatic music) Oh shit, okay. Okay. Okay. I got you. (gloves whacking) I took you down once,
I'll take you down again. (slow dramatic music)
(gloves whacking) Eat it. Yeah.
– [Referee] One, two, (crowd cheering) three. – That's what you're
counting down for, okay. Oh, come on. Do you need? Oh, really? You wanna keep going? Oh, okay.
(gloves whacking)
(slow dramatic music) Oh. (gloves whacking)
(slow dramatic music) (bell clanking) Oh. Was that fun? Did you have fun? (slow dramatic music)
(James laughing) All right and we kept it clean, all right. – Going to the scorecards, the judges have determined
by unanimous decision, your winner is the red corner. – Aha. That's what I thought. (crowd cheering) (James chuckling) You want some? Who's next? You like that? You like that? Ooh. Oh, I can hit him. (glove whacking) Oh, sh- Oh. (gloves whacking) Oh. I think that might be illegal. That might be illegal. I'm sorry. I better get outta here now. The Thrill of the Fight puts
you right into the action.
Menus are large with big
text and minor customization to visuals is available. The referee narration
helps to give more context to the next sequence of events, and colors are well contrasted. There's still room for more technical
accessibility improvements but for now, a solid three outta five. Virtual reality, is it
accessible for me and my vision? Yeah, at its core, I think so. Or at least it has the
potential to really be. I went into this experience
skeptical, but optimistic that I could maybe have
an accessible time in VR.
I hope that developers
and hardware manufacturers continue to improve the
accessibility of VR. If I were to lose even more sight, I hope that in the future, this platform's gonna be
even more blind-friendly. But for now, at least I can rest knowing that there are kindhearted people to meet in the Metaverse, like Shuman82. I hope you could see different
today, quite literally. I will hear you next time..