Bold Poker for the Blind

Bold Poker 3.2 is available today and brings support for
VoiceOver and more

We’ve always been amazed with how well iPhone works for people with visual impairments and we’ve wanted to make Bold Poker work for as many people as possible.

Starting today, VoiceOver users can connect their headphones at the table and have their cards read out to them. There will still be rough edges as we weren’t always sure how verbose we want VoiceOver to be but we consider this to be a solid start of a larger effort in being more inclusive. We would love to hear your feedback (especially if you’re visually impaired).

Also, many thanks go to Sally Shepard (@mostgood), without whose fantastic support, these features simply wouldn’t exist.

How to Bold Poker

One thing we noticed when introducing new players to Bold Poker is that they would look at their cards with their iPhones raised from the table. (The way people typically hold their iPhones.)

We believe the better way to use the app is with your phone laying flat on your table, covering up the screen with one hand and sliding your finger down on the screen to peek at your cards. So from now on, we’ll show you a little guide on how to best look at the cards when the iPhone is being lifted from the table.

Screenshot of Orientation Hint Settings

Lastly, we also improved the welcome screen on iPhone. The host and join chips now move offscreen when you interact with your pocket card, avoiding any accidental presses. As soon as you touch and interact with your cards, you’ll see indicators that guide you through the three basic interactions: peek, fold and showdown.

We hope these improvements allow more people to try out Bold Poker and make it easier to deal with it!