Chess and Computers for
Vision Impaired Players
Introduction
There are several applications
and websites for playing chess against computers or humans. Unfortunately,
not all of these are fully accessible to screen reader users. On this page, you will find
information about applications that some of our members have found usable.
If you know of any apps or sites
that you have found to be accessible or if you just need some
advise, please contact us.
Shredder Chess for iPhone or
iPad
This is a very affordable app
which has been made accessible with Voice Over on the iPhone or iPad. A
piece can be moved by locating its current square and then double tapping to
select it. Then repeat the process for the destination square. When the 'Enable
one-tap-input' option is selected from the settings tab, double tapping on a
square will immediately move a piece to that square without the need to select
the piece first if that piece is the only one that can legally move there.
Similarly, if only one destination square is available to a piece, double
tapping on the piece's current square will instantly make the move. This may
speed things up somewhat but does make accidental moves more likely. Fortunately
there is a button on the screen to undo moves. The playing strength can be
adjusted and has an approximate ELO rating of 2600 on its highest setting. It is also possible to
analyse the current position to find the best move.
The app can be purchased through
the app store and you can find more information at shredderchess.com.
Chess-wise
This is another app that has
been made accessible with Voice Over on the iPhone. You can play against the
engine, play on-line through the Free Inter Chess Server, and access a large
database of games.
It can be downloaded from the app store and you can learn more at chess-wise.com.
Fritz
Fritz has been one of the most
popular chess applications for years and older versions of the software are
quite accessible once some settings have been changed. We cannot comment at
this time on the accessibility of the current version however be warned that
the more recent releases were not suitable for visually impaired people.
Winboard
Winboard 4.5.2 has been specifically
designed for visually-impaired people using either JAWS or NVDA on Windows. You
can play against an engine, analyse games or play people on-line. It also has
the unusual feature of allowing a wide range of chess variants. For more
information or to download the software visit https://sourceforge.net/projects/winboard45forja.
Playing on-line
The popular online chess site
"lichess" (short for Libre Chess) has an
accessibility mode which makes playing games online possible for players with a
vision impairment. Although not all parts of the site are accessible, playing
games is easy with a screen-reader and some of our members have had a great
deal of success with the platform.
Read more about lichess
here.
The Internet Chess Club lets
people play against each other through software installed on their own devices.
Visually impaired people can access this software by installing an additional
plug-in called "Blitz-in speak-move". It can be found at https://www.chessclub.com/help/plugins.
Learn more about the Internet Chess Club.