If you’re among the one in eight people in the United States (13 percent, or 30 million) aged 12 years or older who has hearing loss in both ears, based on standard hearing examinations (according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders), you know that hearing loss can affect many aspects of your life. It can even impact your gaming experience. In this post, we review how you can make the most of video games with hearing loss.
Haptic Feedback
Many modern video game controllers and headsets are designed with a feature called haptic feedback, also known as touch feedback. This feature provides real-time physical feedback as you play your game; vibrations of various degrees of intensity simulate real-life experiences, from raindrops to explosions. This helps you react to what’s going on in the game without having to hear it.
Visual Cues
With almost all video games, visuals are more important than audio. In fact, many video games have awareness indicators, visual alerts that something is happening, like if an obstacle or another player is coming your way. Some video games are text-centered and have a very minimal audio component. They’re like interactive reading exercises. Talk to an employee at Game Over in South Lamar Boulevard Suite B to see if they have games like this.
Subtitles and Captioning
A popular accessibility feature offered by many video games is subtitles of NPC dialogue and live captioning of other players’ speech. There is a website that provides reviews for various games that talk about their accessibility, including how well they are subtitled.
Volume Control
A lot of video games offer dynamic sound controls, so you can turn up the volume on speech and turn down the volume on background noise. This way, you can hear what you need to hear better. Don’t let hearing loss impact your gaming. For more information about improving your video game experience with hearing loss or to schedule an appointment with a hearing expert, call Austin Auditory Specialists today.