A Note on Accessibility

We, in house, do not face many accessibility challenges, but we want to do our best to make gaming and puzzling inclusive for everybody. As such, we have included (and are continuing to add) information that may be relevant.

Meeples Like Us has been an amazing resource as we try to include this information. They have broken board game accessibility into 8 categories (and these descriptions are word-for-word theirs)

• Colour blindness (Relating to issues where colour is used as the sole channel of information for game state, and how the palette chosen works for that)

• Visual accessibility (Relating to issues of visual impairment, primarily where there is some degree of ability to differentiate visual information. Total blindness is considered in these sections, but it is not the primary focus.)

• Physical accessibility (Relating to issues of fine-grained or gross motor control. Issues here include elements of dexterity, precision, and the extent to which a game facilitates play with verbal instruction)

• Cognitive accessibility (Relating to issues of fluid intelligence and crystalised intelligence. Game complexity is an issue here, but it is not necessarily a predictor of the accessibility of the game in the end. Even very simple games may be cognitively inaccessible. Also included in this category are issues of expected literacy as well as implicit and explicit numeracy)

• Emotional accessibility (Related to issues of anger and despair, and how they might manifest through score disparities, bullying through game mechanisms, and the extent to which the game requires players to deal with stress or upset)

• Communication accessibility (Related to issues of articulation and perception of communication. Literacy is discussed here too as are the patterns of communication. In this section we work on the assumption that a group of players has some means by which they can communicate in day to day life, so we address only those elements specific to the game itself)

• Socioeconomic accessibility (Related to issues of representation, diversity, and inclusion. Also covered in this section are costs and business models including when games have collectible elements or whether they work on the assumption of expansion)

• Intersectional accessibility (Related to the accessibility issues that might arise particularly through the intersection of other categories above)

In terms of jigsaw puzzles, we focus on physical accessibility (piece size, how well pieces fit together and stick together once connected) and don't touch on visual accessibility or colour blindness at all, as we leave it up to your judgement to look at the picture provided.

In the event of a board game being colour-coded (ie. have pawns for each player that are the same shape and different colours) we are happy to swap out pieces for other pieces we have on hand that will make it more accessible at no cost. Just please let us know you'd like this done before you order.

Our goal with including this information is to be helpful and inclusive. If there is any way we have misspoken or said something hurtful, or if there's anything we have missed, please let us know.

Thanks!

Jamie Lichty (he/him), owner