Just curious about this one really. What I’ve experienced if Shadow Lords so far is very text and menu heavy. How is this going to work for @SightlessKombat
Not to speak for Sightless, but he’s posted on this before. Basically seems like you’d expect: the mode’s totally off-limits for him in its current form.
Yeah, that’s what I thought too.
It does make me wonder how hard it would be to include some basic text to speech functionality like most PC’s have. Just so it will auto read the text of whatever is currently selected.
But, yeah. Not to speak for another user. Just made me curious.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say “totally”, but I see why you chose the expression. What basically happens is that I have to get sighted assistance to get anything meaninful done (making my own choices during pre/post-mission scenarios, making sure I have guardians/consumables etc equipped and what level they are etc as well as things like character status and who I can still use). This is a massive problem and, not that I’m complaining, but I really don’t see why I got access to this mode early, compared to something like Gargos as a character (which might/probably would’ve been better to look at, at least I could’ve learnt how the character fights etc). That and I haven’t really got anyone local who can help me complete the mode without experiencing high levels of frustration).
basically, your right. The mode is off-limits in its current form without any kind of accessibility support, which would be difficult to implement into the current system anyway, given what I understand. This means no mimic skins to show off to those I fight in exhibition, no Astral Plane to play on and make videos with and even more frustrating than the other points (for a reason that kind of doesn’t really make sense to me), no more achievements from the mode.
Even if there was a way to help your friends play through the mode live as part of a party or similar that’d be better than nothing. I really likethe ideas behind the mode and wish that I could play through it just as easily as anyone else (something that I believe could be doable with the right accessibility options, maybe as part of Project Scorpio if not as an update to the current console firmware.
Apologies for the rant, it’s just frustrated me since I heard about the mode and got early access. I’m not ungreatful for the opportunity to test it, since it’s confirmed a bunch of theories I had. I managed to complete the first 3 or so days on my own just by clicking buttons and hoping, but I’d rather not risk my KI Gold/Astral Gems on a click if I can help it, but make the choices and fight the battles that allow me to defeat Gargos with all the correct information at my fingertips.
Thanks for asking a good and reasonable question
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Thing is, Narrator for Xbox One exists and could, I believe in future, achieve exactly that. I’m not entirely sure why this isn’t possible yet but I believe it’s down to processor limitations or something, from what I remember.
Skullgirls did a similar thing via (originally) a clipboard reading hack,which was then converted to work with a screen reader abstraction library called Tolk, whose page is here. Little to no setup is actually needed to get the screen reader to work with the game. If this could be integrated into Killer Instinct (which would be difficult with the UWP framework most likely, but not impossible), not much would need to be done other than passing the text to the library which will then handle the output.
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Cool. Thanks for responding. As you can tell I have taken an interest in the way you have to work with gaming. So it was good to get your take on the situation.
So, I guess the next obvious question is. Are you in and trialling Shadow Lords?
lol, you were asked for a response, the last thing you need to do is apologize. 
@SightlessKombat Thank you for your responses. It has been really interesting to me to find out some more information regarding your situation and some of the issues you face.
If you don’t mind, can I just ask about your vision?
Just as it’s a thing that my family has it’s own specific problems with. As my mothers side of the family have a genetic pre-disposition to Retinitis Pigmentosa. Just wondering if yours was something specific like that or, for lack of a better term, standard blindness.
Thanks again for your insights and thoughts. I hope some changes in accessibility are in the pipeline.
Sorry, I would’ve replied to you sooner on this.
My condition isn’t related to genetics, if I’ve understood what you’re asking correctly. In all honesty, I don’t think it actually matters that much in terms of what causes you to have no vision or even limited vision, just that you do have that to deal with as a part of your life.
Interesting to hear your reasons for your curiosity though and I appreciate your willingness to ask how things work for me and receive my answers.
I appreciate your sympathy. I just am rather bemused as to why I got access to this mode early compared to something that I personally feel I could’ve got far more out of like a character. But if there’s a Season 4 and early access opportunities for that in any form, I’ll be one of the first in line when I hear about it.
No problem. I understand that answering things often isn’t top of the priority list (speaking as someone who is often juggling a 3 month old while doing other tasks).
I’m just glad to have been able to have a bit of a chat with you about some of this. As I mentioned, vision problems are an issue with my family (fortunately I have only to deal with short sightedness at this stage of my life) and I’ve seen the impact it has had on my Mum and the changes she has had to make in her life. So naturally when I saw the interview that the K.I. team did with you I was immediately quite interested.
I just find it to be quite an inspiring thing as I know what limited vision can do. And so to hear and see what you have managed to achieve gives me hope for the industry to start to make sure that games are accessible for everyone.
@SightlessKombat . If you want at some point, you could stream the mode and have me in party chat to help you through all the dialogue. As long as our schedules can coincide with each other that is.
I really appreciate the offer. However, streaming with a reliable enough framerate isnt easy, especially as the twitch app currently (from what I know) read with narrator to allow me to check if I’m still broadcasting etc. I’ll see if I can conduct a few tests soon and if it works, we can try and arrange something. Thanks again for the offer.
Do you by any chance have Twitter? If so, would you mind PMing it to me - might be easier to communicate outside of the forums for arranging things at short notice.
Glad to see that even those with limited vision understand how important this is.
If you want to ask me any questions related to how I play KI, feel free to PM me and add me (we can talk in a party and I can clarify questions with live demos etc)
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