Yukio cat Nozawa

Presented at [GMO Pepabo & Marimokikaku] Practical Accessibility Walkthrough with Screen Readers — SUZURI by GMO Pepabo Edition

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Marimokikaku is a limited liability company specializing in accessibility-related topics.

This time, a joint event was held by GMO Pepabo and Marimokikaku, featuring a public accessibility review of Suzuri, a service developed by GMO Pepabo.

I participated as an accessibility expert and as someone who uses these technologies firsthand, conducting the live review and joining the discussion with attendees.

I had done some prep work on Suzuri’s search and other features before the event, but there were far more screen-reader-tricky spots than I expected — things like the “add to cart” screen and the order screen. We had a great time exploring them together with everyone in attendance. (That’s genuinely meant as a compliment!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

I would like to express my gratitude to magi, who invited me by name, and to everyone else involved.

Invisible Gaming Lab Game Experience Event September 2025

Sun, 21 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

IGL (Invisible Gaming Lab) has been hosting monthly game experience events since 2024. We borrow the venue from Body Care Kitchen Luxen in Sangenjaya.

This time, we played:

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim is a game that has been out for quite some time, but it’s famous among blind gamers as a title that can be completely beaten without looking at the screen.

For this game, we have also published a demonstration video on IGL’s YouTube channel, so please check it out.

Snack Photo Corner - It’s Been a While

It’s been a while since we’ve posted photos of snacks. This time, we have strawberry shortcake.

Next Event

Although it hasn’t been officially announced yet at the time of writing this article, the next event is actually on October 26th. It will be a board game session.

Invisible Gaming Lab Game Experience Session August 2025 Report

Sun, 24 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

IGL (Invisible Gaming Lab) has been hosting monthly game experience sessions since 2024. The venue is Body Care Kitchen Luxen in Sangenjaya.

This time, we played three games:

About Yu-Gi-Oh! Royal Deck Accessible Edition

Since the other games have been introduced before, please refer to past articles for details.

This time, I’ll introduce the Yu-Gi-Oh! Royal Deck Accessible Edition, which is making its debut.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Royal Deck consists of seven types of structure decks constructed by the University of Tokyo Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Circle. The Yu-Gi-Oh! Royal Deck Accessible Edition is created by adding Braille and tagged stickers to these deck cards, allowing dueling even when cards cannot be seen.

This accessible edition deck was conceived, designed, and created by IGL members in collaboration with blind duelists and collaborators.

Currently, it is not for sale and can only be played at IGL game experience sessions.

You can watch an explanatory video here.

Round stickers with tag functionality are attached to the bottom left of the accessible edition cards. Monster cards have three stickers, while spell/trap cards have two stickers. By touching the stickers with a dedicated pen, you can get card information through speech.

For monster cards:

Leftmost sticker: Monster name, type, attribute, level
Center sticker: Attack points, defense points
Rightmost sticker: Monster effect or flavor text

For spell/trap cards:

Left sticker: Type (spell or trap) + card name, and information for quick-play, continue, field spells and counter traps
Right sticker: Effect

The dedicated pen has a socket for wired earphones. Therefore, even if you listen to the voice during a duel, hand information won’t leak to your opponent.

The top of the card has the card type (monster, spell, trap) + card name written in Braille. This allows players who can read Braille and have memorized parameters and effects to skip the pen-touching process.

Since you can actually touch the cards while dueling, you can shout famous anime lines like “It’s my turn, draw!” or “Burst Stream of Destruction!”

Image Gallery

First, the usual games.

Next Session

The next session will be held on September 21st.

Invisible Gaming Lab Game Experience Event - July 2025

Sun, 27 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

IGL (Invisible Gaming Lab) has been hosting monthly game experience events since 2024. We borrow the venue from Body Care Kitchen Luxen located in Sangenjaya.

This time, we played with:

1-2-SWITCH
Pokemon battles using Pokéscreader for SV

This was the first time a Pokemon battle reading application appeared at our experience event.

This application was developed by mochi, a gaming friend of an IGL member. Using this application, it recognizes the battle screen of Pokemon Scarlet & Violet and reads out necessary information via TTS.

When playing competitive battles like Pokemon ranked matches without sight, there are several inconveniences: it’s difficult to know the opponent’s party in advance, when selecting your own Pokemon, you can’t double-check and must trust your own operations, and the time limit becomes a bottleneck when operating carefully.

While many of these issues might not be problems for serious Pokemon players, there are unfair situations at a basic level, such as difficulty checking type effectiveness in real-time, trouble understanding effects from opponents’ abilities and items, and difficulty keeping track of each other’s moves.

Using the application, necessary battle information is read aloud in real-time, expanding strategic possibilities. In addition to automatic reading, you can also use keyboard shortcuts to individually check desired information.

For details, please refer to the page above. I think this is a revolutionary tool for people playing Pokemon SV while completely blind. IGL will continue planning experience corners using this tool.

Received Employee Recognition Award

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Since this is internal company matter, I can’t discuss the details, but I was recognized for releasing a highly complex feature in a short timeframe and completing it without incident, including external integrations. The complexity of the challenges I tackle increases daily, but I intend to keep pushing forward as far as I can go.

Audio Game Center Selected for Excellence Award at CEDEC AWARDS 2025

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I wasn’t able to find the official English explanation for the award. Here is the translation of the original website.

CEDEC AWARDS focuses on technologies that have made remarkable contributions to the advancement of computer entertainment development, books and web articles of similar quality related to game development, and information dissemination that has made high contributions to the industry. By honoring and recognizing the achievements of developers in terms of technology and information dissemination, we aim to promote and enlighten development technologies and foster industry development.

Quote / translation source: CEDEC AWARDS - CEDEC2025

Nomination List

The Audio Game Center, which was launched in 2017 as a DDD Project activity by volunteer members including myself, has continued events at Tokyo Game Show, Ginza Sony Park, CCBT and other venues for 9 years. Our activity record has been evaluated, and we were able to receive this wonderful award alongside major game manufacturers.

In the game industry, sound is often added last. It’s something that’s expected to be there, but would feel lacking if absent. That seems to be the common position it holds.

The original inspiration for Audio Game Center was “Sound is actually interesting, isn’t it? We’d like to play with it more.” Through various discussions, we came up with the idea that “it would be interesting to create a game center with only sound and no screens,” and thus the “Audio Game Center” was born.

Recently, while treasuring our original concept, we continue to explore the possibilities and fun of sound by mixing in new aspects of community building and collaborative creation. Individual members design venues and works with their own particular focus points in addition to the basic concept.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the judges who selected us for nomination and the DDD Project members who help create the project together. Thank you, and we will continue our activities!

Invisible Gaming Lab 15th Game Experience Session Held

Sat, 28 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

IGL (Invisible Gaming Lab) has been hosting monthly game experience sessions since 2024. We rent the venue at Body Care Kitchen Luxen in Sangenjaya.

This time, we had a double feature:

This marked the debut of the board game Lucky Numbers.

Lucky Numbers is apparently a quite famous board game, but the regular version comes as just thick cardboard pieces. When you purchase the “Deluxe & Access” version linked above, you get a fully accessible version with raised numbers and braille stickers.

The basic rules are very simple:

Shuffle all the clovers face down.
Each player takes their game board and prepares it empty.
All players take 4 clovers face down and place them diagonally from top-left to bottom-right. The initial placement spots look different in color. Setup complete.
Each player either takes a clover from the face-down deck or takes one clover from the face-up discard pile.
Then they either swap it with one piece on their board, place it on their board without swapping, or send it directly to the discard pile face up.
There are rules for how clovers can be arranged on the board, and rule-violating placements are not allowed.
Continue taking turns like this, and the first person to fill their entire 4x4 game board with clovers wins.

The clover placement rules are as follows:

Numbers must increase from top to bottom
Numbers must increase from left to right

That’s it! This might even be useful for children learning number sequences.

This time’s snack was ice cream prepared for us. But I forgot to take a photo, so there isn’t one.

The reason these session announcements are sporadic is because I only write about them when I can participate as an organizer. Sometimes schedules conflict and I can’t attend…

Invisible Gaming Lab 10th Game Experience Session Held

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

IGL (Invisible Gaming Lab) has been hosting monthly game experience sessions since 2024. We rent the venue at Body Care Kitchen Luxen in Sangenjaya.

This time, we had a triple feature:

Vulture’s Prey made its new appearance. By the way, while the original version is just cards, you can purchase a version with braille from the Japan Braille Library website.

Besides these, we’ve acquired other new accessible board games, so we’d like to introduce them at future experience sessions.

This time’s snack was salted mont blanc. The crispy layer underneath has a nice salty flavor that’s delicious.

Invisible Gaming Lab 8th Game Experience Session Held

Sat, 26 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

IGL (Invisible Gaming Lab) has been hosting monthly game experience sessions since this year. We rent the venue at Body Care Kitchen Luxen in Sangenjaya.

This time, we had a double feature:

This time, due to fewer participants and scheduling constraints on the organizers’ side, we held a shortened version.

By the way, sessions were also held in August and September, but since I couldn’t attend, they’re not written about on this site.

Four Senses is like a 3D four-in-a-row game. Details are available on the official site.

“You Are the Ghost” is a table-talk style game similar to werewolf. However, the discussion revolves around sounds as the theme. Various scary sounds are prepared, and everyone talks about these scary sounds, but only one person, the “ghost,” cannot hear the sounds. But since you can’t let on that you’re the ghost, the concept is to mimic and deceive others by pretending you heard the sounds and acting accordingly.

In my previous post, I said I would include photos of snacks, but I already forgot, so there are no photos. Sorry about that.

The next session in November is scheduled for November 24th, but I won’t be participating due to other commitments!

Gave "Life With NVDA" Lecture at Sight World

Sun, 28 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Every November, the Comprehensive Event for Visually Impaired People - Sight World is held.

Sight World consists of two main areas: a booth where experts from various fields give lectures, and an exhibition booth area by participating companies. This time, we ACT Laboratory had the opportunity to speak as part of the NVDA Japanese team’s “Life With NVDA” lecture.

During the lecture, we introduced ACT Laboratory’s activities using the development of “add-ons”, which are NVDA extensions, as our theme. Also, since many ACT Laboratory members work as technical specialists at IT companies, we briefly introduced what our daily work looks like.

You can listen to the event recording here