Wyrmworks Publishing The more people are playing tabletop role playing games, the healthier the industry and community, and the more resources for everyone ‚— everyone wins! So how do we make them more accessible. Welcome to Gaining Advantage. Wyrmworks Publishing Welcome to Gaining Advantage. We are using tabletop role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons to make lives better. I want to let you know about a few things if you're new to the show Wyrmworks Publishing has a number of resources that we offer available for free every week — includes our Accessible Adventure of the Week and Disabled NPC of the Week. And those are available on DMs Guild, and they launch every Monday. You can sign up for our newsletter at WyrmworksPublishing.com to get notifications of new ones plus a whole bunch of other things. Now this episode drops on Friday, and this coming Monday, if you're watching this before then, we have a new release that we're really excited about. 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And just for signing up even at the lowest level of patron support, you get free 4k maps for all of our weekly adventures. It's an instant savings for you, because we already have a bunch released and the lowest level of our Patreon is only $3 a month, and we release at least four map sets a month at $1 apiece so right there you're saving at least $1 a month on those maps, that's plus you get all of the past ones in addition to that, all lumped into that, that one cost and then as you increase your Patreon support, that opens up other things, other resources for you including our entire library of everything that we have produced and we'll produce. You also get access to our Discord server. It's a safe place to talk about Dungeons and Dragons and other tabletop role playing games, advocacy, finding other disabled, mentally ill, chronically ill and neurodivergent characters or players and non disabled allies, and it is a no ableism zone — it's a safe place to just go and talk and hang out. And so we'd love to have you join us there as part of our Patreon. And we also just want to let you know how much we appreciate the support that we get, and you know just a whole bunch of small monthly donations might not seem like much but it adds up and it makes a huge difference in what we can actually accomplish. So all that said, let's get right to our interview. Wyrmworks Publishing Nearly 50 million people in the world are blind. And when you add those with other vision impairments, the number skyrockets. That number is expected to triple in the next 30 years, and I don't know about you, but I fully expect to be playing tabletop role playing games in 30 years. And even if I'm not, which means I can't because otherwise I will be, I want as many people as possible to be able to join in on this great life-changing hobby. And so with a game is so dependent on print media and dice, how can we make the game available to more people? Today we welcome Tyler Palermo with DOTS RPG Project, where they're already working on that. Welcome, Tyler. Tyler Polermo Hey, Dale. Thank you for having me. Wyrmworks Publishing So tell us about the DOTS RPG Project, and what do people need to know about it? Tyler Polermo DOTS RPG Project is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that's been around for about four years now, but we've only become an actual registered charity up just over two years now, and we focus on bringing accessibility into tabletop. We had an emphasis early on about making it possible for people who are blind or partially sighted to be able to play the games, because the whole project started between two friends, a blind GM and a heavily impressed friend of his who wanted to do whatever he could to help him out. And it just kind of evolved from then — those people aren't quite available anymore, but we've been trying to carry their carry their mission, carry their intention forward. Wyrmworks Publishing Okay, and so what are your projects that you're working on or already done? Tyler Polermo Mm hmm. Our primary effort is to get Braille dice into the hands of anyone who wants them. It's been kind of a interesting journey to get accessible, like physical accessible materials into people's hands. Braille d6s aren't uncommon by any means — they've been made for a long time because that's the most common type of die, you can use those in classic games like casino games and the like. But there, they've never been necessarily easily available—you have to go to proprietary stores or have resources through blind associations and things like that. And there's nothing better than being able to roll a die for yourself at the table when playing a role playing game so wanted to make sure that the whole TTRPG set was available not just D6s. On top of dice, we work on digital accessibility. We're trying to make Braille rulebooks for certain games that are interested in having those printed, and really just trying to educate people on how realistic it is to have blind and partially sighted people in your games, or people with any disability because it's not a scary thing. Wyrmworks Publishing Yeah, no, absolutely. And in fact, I was just reading today that if anything that the scary thing is on the other end where people with disabilities are looking for communities that will welcome and accept them so that they can play the games. Tyler Polermo Absolutely. Wyrmworks Publishing So while the benefit for blind people is obvious, how can seeing people in the tabletop role playing game community benefit from your work? Tyler Polermo Hmm. Well it's pretty clear that our work isn't for sighted people, but I think there could be a lot of benefit for people who aren't disabled to be exposed to these things. Tyler Polermo I like to think about how accessibility provisions and accommodations in in real in the regular world help everybody, not just people with disabilities. The one that immediately comes to mind is curb cuts on like street corners. They were originally made for people with who are using wheelchairs, but anyone can benefit from that. Like, you don't have to be categorized as disabled to need to benefit from a ramp, anywhere. They're better than stairs. Yeah, I think that idea kind of branches out into all gaming, where the more you're exposed, the more you're exposed to these ideas, the easier it is you can get accommodations for yourself, disabled or abled. Again, you don't have to be disabled to benefit from these things, because everybody has needs — people with disabilities often get their needs classified as something special when everybody is a human and everybody needs things. People have glasses, and that's actually an accessibility aid if you just have an astigmatism, just have a little bit of issue seeing. It's really nothing different to a guide dog or a white cane. Wyrmworks Publishing Yeah, absolutely. I know for me, captioning on television. I am slightly hard of hearing, just enough that I like the TV louder than the rest of the family, and, and in fact even when we go to movies in the theater, it's hard for me sometimes to understand what's being said. And, and so I, I really I prefer watching it at home where I can turn the captioning on and we can turn the volume down, kids are sleeping and, you know, turn it down and the whole family benefits then. But, you know, it wasn't originally designed for parents with sleeping kids. And yet, you know it's it's beneficial in lots of ways. Tyler Polermo Yeah. I think another real tangible way it could help people who play role playing games, who are sighted is a lot of our early efforts had to do with both creating image descriptions for published materials through our own volunteers, and also encouraging other people in the community to create image descriptions for their own media, whether that be social media like alt text on Twitter posts, or in PDFs to just have that built in description on any image, a screen reader user might scroll by. They're invisible to just, to most people when you're just looking through a book, you don't see them, but they're embedded in the code, so that way anyone using technology to read a book can access these things. But in some cases, they can be used as sort of like captions underneath, they can take the place of that. And if these image descriptions are made more public, then sighted people who might feel a little bit lacking in their descriptions of a role playing game monster might be able to read how other people have described it, and I think it can really tangibly help people make their language more evocative for describing things. I have a lot of friends who think they're awful at describing environments and monsters, and they just start reading more books and reading how other people are describing them, and they're getting more comfortable with that sort of thing. Wyrmworks Publishing Yeah, absolutely. How do I describe this oh I don't know, read the alt text. Tyler Polermo It's a dragon, and it's really big. It makes a big is like a far cry from being able to describe the sheen on its scales and how big its horns are compared to its claws. I don't know what they look like, but I've heard, beautiful descriptions of them. Wyrmworks Publishing Sure, absolutely. So, how have you seen lives changed because of your work? Tyler Polermo I think independence is the biggest part — we get to see people who thought they would never be able to play games, or never be able to play without completely relying on other people at the table, whether it be on a grid format, and more of a tactical game, or trying to choose their character paths. And, of course, rolling their dice. I've known a lot of visually impaired people who want to play games, and just really felt like they could not do so. And when they could, they felt inferior or embarrassed that they had to rely on their friends at the table. And if you have friends at the table who will help you with that sort of thing, that's great, but I think it's infinitely better to be able to do those things on your own and you be able to decide when you ask for help and when you can do something for yourself. Yeah, so being able to… I really like to come back to this example: There's nothing like rolling a nat 20 at the table, and everybody getting excited. But if I cannot see my die, my standard die, and I roll it and everyone else at the table start cheering, sure I know immediately what happened, but I don't get to have that experience for myself. Everyone else had it first, as if it was their own. So being able to use Braille dice, it's, I'm rolling in front of me, I know what my die result is, I get to look excited and then everyone else figures out it's a nat 20. It's split seconds afterward, but it makes a difference. It makes it more comparable to a typical sighted table playing the game. Wyrmworks Publishing Absolutely, absolutely, because it's your experience and you want to be able to experience it firsthand and not secondhand. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Tyler Polermo Yeah, I think, kind of, as far as changing lives, I think there's been a real difference in access to community for people who are partially sighted and blind, more so than like, access community more than just tools, because we're making a lot of tools for people and trying to get them as widespread as possible, but it's one thing for a person to have one set of Braille dice, and it's another thing to know that there is a whole community of people online in forums, on Twitter, Facebook, Discord, different chat rooms that you can find other people with your same disability and more specifically blindness that you can play with. I thought I was alone when I first started getting into D&D five years ago, I did. I did my due diligence I tried really hard to find people the ways I knew how, but it really felt lonely because I couldn't find anyone else in my similar position. And now I have dozens of blind friends who all love playing role playing games, who I get to share this experience with. And of course I get to play with a lot of sighted people too, but it's, it's that feeling of belonging, where it's simply just exclusion before these things are possible. Wyrmworks Publishing Sure. Absolutely. Just to be able to have someone who, who knows your experience. Yeah. And, and, and the inclusion of being able to, you know, whether whether you're playing with, with other blind people or whatever your particular experience is, you know, or people that aren't but to be able to share the experience in in more fully. Wyrmworks Publishing So you just rescued a djinn from the hands of an efreet, and it offers you three wishes to achieve DOTS RPG's goals. What do you wish for? Tyler Polermo Oh gosh. Um, well I think it goes without saying that money would be great. We're a nonprofit and that's a really difficult place to be at when you're trying to fundraise for life changing projects. We know gaming isn't necessarily a priority for acquiring funds for these things, but it's kind of expensive for us to accomplish some of our goals like mass production of Braille dice for example, We're working pretty hard at updating our, our models, the way we make our dice, and we'd like to be able to get them everywhere, like into stores so people can just pick them up for themselves instead of having to rely on people 3D printing and donating sets, or the limited amount we can make ourselves, and send out to the community. Tyler Polermo But other than money, we'd like to put ourselves out of business. It would be great if we didn't have to do this work anymore — we all, all of us at DOTS absolutely love accessibility and love helping people, like, fulfill their dreams and tell stories and be in communities and just have fun together, but it is work, and we wish it wasn't necessary. We all just kind of stepped up because we found at the time, there was no one else doing this sort of thing. So, it's, it's filling a gap, so to speak, and we'd love it if there was no gap there to begin with. And if it could close. Wyrmworks Publishing Yeah, absolutely. I think there's so many people I know I certainly echo that with the, with the work that I'm doing. So, yeah. Tyler Polermo I think a third one could just be. It's a little silly, but like sighted people were having more awareness, maybe not sighted people in general because it's a slow, it's a gradual process for everyone we're doing our best as people and disabled people in the community to educate anyone who is genuinely curious to learn things, and who cares about other people, but it'd be nice if if publishers of materials were able to take it upon themselves to do some learning and create accessible materials so we didn't have to ask for them all the time, if it was just kind of already there. And meantime, we will continue to educate people who need it. Wyrmworks Publishing Yeah, yeah, that's, I just I see that so much the the need for just the accessibility, it's just not on people's radar. Tyler Polermo Mm hmm. We really can't fault anyone for not knowing what they haven't learned yet. It's one thing if a publisher has been reminded about something over and over again and just continues not to provide those accommodations, but we know there's plenty of people who just don't know what alt text is who don't know what tagging means who don't know, like the little nitty gritty things that we could like the jargon that we could throw out. But once they know, they can start building on those skills. Wyrmworks Publishing Yeah, absolutely. It's funny so that I just said that earlier today, to someone on Reddit. We can't know it until we've learned it. Tyler Polermo For sure. Wyrmworks Publishing So what one message would you like to give gamers who are blind or visually impaired? Tyler Polermo I think, as tough as it is, being a squeaky wheel does make a difference. When I first got on Twitter, TTRPG Twitter, years ago, I was annoying, and I'm proud of it because it helped me find the people to help me make change, the little bit of change that's happened in the last couple of years. The people who you need… the people who you want to make the change, like we just said, aren't gonna know any better, if they, if they haven't been taught already. They need someone to inform them. And it definitely shouldn't be on us as disabled individuals to be the educators to force the change, but for those who are comfortable doing so, being a person to give a nudge, on a contact form on a website, or at a convention, or just on Twitter, letting people know where they can do a little bit better. Again, being that squeaky wheel. It can be very rewarding if you're, if you have the energy to do so. So I'd encourage people to do that instead of. And that instead of. If you're more inclined to sit back and just hope things are going to get better, they will slowly, but every little effort you can give definitely ripples out into bringing more change. Wyrmworks Publishing Right. And then conversely what what message would you like to give gamers who are not blind or visually impaired. Tyler Polermo I think it's just that we're just humans too. We're just humans, we're just people. We want to play games just like you do. And I guess like there's nothing to be afraid of. Everybody has needs, and people who are blind or partially sighted, have different needs. But sighted people have them too, so when everyone's just working together, taking care of each other in any environment, especially at the table, we can just work together. It sounds kind of silly but there's, it's just very much at its core, just treat people like humans. Wyrmworks Publishing Yeah, you know, it seems simple and silly to say it, but, you know, so often it's like how many times do you hear maybe inexperienced DM or player something. "Oh well, you know, there's this thing going on in my table with this other player or something and I'm not sure what to do about it." Tyler Polermo The answer is always to just talk to them. Wyrmworks Publishing Right yeah. It's just so obvious, you know, and yet sometimes you just need someone to tell you that. Tyler Polermo I know a lot of people get nervous, like, we hear, they tale as old as time, that "I just don't know what to do. I don't know how to help. I don't want to come off as rude. I want to make sure I'm doing everything right and not offending them." And those are good instincts to have, but I guarantee that like the person who can't see is more stressed out and like doing their best to fit in, than you are like it's more scary for them than it is for you. And, again, communication can really smooth those things out, if you just aren't afraid to be a tiny bit vulnerable and just have conversations about things. Wyrmworks Publishing Yeah. And I want to piggyback off of something you said before, you know, sometimes there's a fear, you talk about disabled people speaking up for themselves, being the squeaky wheel and that, and, and sometimes as someone who's not disabled, there's this sort of fear that "Who am I to, to try to speak out?" And, you know, wanting to be an ally, but but afraid that you're gonna say the wrong thing, you know, or something like that. And, and so it's worth noting that, you know what, it's good to be an ally, and, and, and yeah, disabled people can get pretty exhausted, trying to, you know, it's the same stories over and over and over. And, or the times where you you meet with disdain and, and you don't even have the opportunity to explain or, you know, or something like that or it's or there's no point because of whatever, and and so, when, when someone is willing to, you know, to say, "I got this," or, or to step in when, when it's just not convenient for you to, to deal with it or because you're exhausted or whatever, that it's okay to do that. Tyler Polermo Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Wyrmworks Publishing So, um, so any of the projects that you're working on now? Tyler Polermo Oh gosh, our primary project right now is working on these Braille dice. We love what we've been able to do with them so far, but through DOTS's brief history, we kind of adopted an early concept from someone else that we were really trying to really highlight and build around, but we realized that, if we're going to get them into everybody's hands, like anybody who wants Braille advice can have them and relatively cheap, we need to take some different steps, so we're doing everything we can to improve the design and figure out ways we can raise money to get them mass produced and in local game stores, and we don't want any money, like we're nonprofit — we're not trying to make any earnings off of this at all. The only reason we're making an effort to get this in such a I guess unique fashion is because we really care about quality. It's one thing to have a Braille die, or a set of Braille dice. It's another thing to actually enjoy them, have them think they feel nice, have other people think they look nice. And literally just be of quality. So we want them to be…. We care about the accessibility side of things and also our team just loves dice. We want them to be pretty for anyone who enjoys them. So it's taking a little bit of effort, but it will be very rewarding once we have that, once they're starting to roll out. Wyrmworks Publishing Literally. Tyler Polermo Yeah, go ahead. Wyrmworks Publishing That's a really good point that, you know, when you talk about quality. I love that you have the 3d models available for anyone to make their own. And, you know I have a 3d printer. But, whether it's that or you know there's plenty of other dice models, you know, freely available. And yet, I have not printed any dice for myself. Because if I make them in my 3d printer, they will not be pretty. Tyler Polermo Precisely. Wyrmworks Publishing And, you know, and I'm definitely a, the more the more dice the better sort of person, but no I want pretty dice and and so, yeah, to have, you know, quality dice — it makes a difference. Tyler Polermo Yeah, we want people to have options. We don't want to withhold it from anybody, so that's why we make sure, anytime we've had a different model, we put it right up on our website. We want anybody to be able to go and access them however they can, whether that be at the game stores that friendly, local game stores that we've sent sets of dice to in the past, before the pandemic, where people could actually go and just experience them for themselves, or whether it be 3d printing, which is becoming more and more prevalent. But, again, like, it's kind of cost prohibitive or you have to know the right person, but if you're into that and you don't mind how they look or if you have the ability to print at a high quality and paint them and things like that, I know a ton of people who have printed our dice and will paint them and send them out to people, and I think that's incredible, because it takes some of the burden off of us to get them into more hands, but also people have options. Wyrmworks Publishing Yeah. Oh, absolutely. It's always that it's better than nothing. And it's but it's not, you know, you never want to have the attitude or people have the attitude, "Well, you know, you just be happy with what you have." Tyler Polermo Yes, we're not here for complacency. If we're going to be doing this, we want to make sure we're doing it right, and doing the best we can. Wyrmworks Publishing Absolutely. All right, so anything else you'd like to add. Tyler Polermo Oh, I guess just some more of our projects, we have a relatively small team, but with the volunteers that we do have, we're continuing to work on what we call our Limner Program, which is people who write image descriptions for pictures in digital versions of books that have been released by people in the community, usually larger publishers, but anyone who is trying to make their work more accessible can come to us, and if they don't have the ability to sit down and write image descriptions for themselves, we have a team that is interested in doing that for people. Our Braille books have kind of taken a backseat, but we'd love to keep exploring the possibility of getting those created. We know we can, we can't handle making them ourselves because Braille books are huge. They take up a lot of space, and it'll take a lot of, it's a long pipeline to create them, but it's definitely something we have ideas about for the future, and really just doing more education — we have a lot of individuals in our, myself and a handful of others in our team of volunteers who work on digital accessibility. Whenever anyone is interested to know if our. Sorry. If their PDFs are accessible, or if their websites are accessible. People want to know can people… can blind and visually impaired folks play our games? And sometimes the answer is just, "No, you need to do a lot more work," but sometimes our folks can sit down with them and explain like, "You just need to add a hierarchy to your file or your image descriptions aren't coming through,but everything else is fine," or maybe just some weird formatting glitches, but it's definitely one of our more frequent efforts. Wyrmworks Publishing Yeah, and there's definitely a need for that and it can be really challenging too, I've learned that—I've had some conversations with you recently, trying to figure out how to best do that with the software and things I have at my disposal, so yeah it's a challenge so it's great to, to have someone, because yeah I can finish a project and and say "Okay, well it looks pretty good and you know I opened it up in the PDF in Acrobat Reader and you know it, the alt text seems to be showing up and stuff like that but is it actually readable?I don't know. So…" Tyler Polermo I think it's important to emphasize that we're not trying to be an authority in any of this, we're just trying to help people learn. So, I will never, I will never tell anybody, "This is the right way to do it." I just want to work to inform people to help them make their own decisions. "This is what needs to be done broadly to make sure this community can use your materials but however you get there is up to you." But there are some best practices for sure. So like we take the approach more guiding people, answering their questions, filling in gaps in their knowledge base instead of telling them what's right or like fixing it for them. But that can work really well too, because the more layout people, the more publishers that learn about these things, the more sighted people who are creators that learn about programs that can produce tagged PDFs for example, they can then inform others, they can continue to teach people, and that proliferates so that way it's not just partially sighted and blind people, educating people, it can go beyond us. Wyrmworks Publishing Alright, so we'll have all your contact information in our show notes, but where's the one best place that you'd like people to start to learn more about you or contact you? Tyler Polermo Ooh, can I cheat? Wyrmworks Publishing Yep. Tyler Polermo Well, all the links are there but @DOTSRPG is the place to get anything immediately about what our program is doing, but if you want to contact me directly. I'm @Tyler_Moonsage on Twitter. I don't post often, but I'm happy to talk about anything nerdy, accessibility, and role playing games, of course. Wyrmworks Publishing Alright, Tyler, thank you so much for coming on the show, and everyone, I encourage you to go and check out the links in the show notes and learn more about it. You know, I want to, before we stop I want to add one more thing. There's a resource just when I was poking around on the DOTS RPG website that I was really excited to find and that is the directory that you have of people who do sensitivity readings and, and, and all kinds of other services that are provided. And so I encourage people if you're publishing something and you need a sensitivity reader or you want to have someone speak on a topic or a number of different things that you can go check that out and, and, and those are, when I, when I found it, I mentioned it to someone else that I knew was a sensitivity reader that was not aware of that directory, and they were really happy to, to say, "Oh, oh, I can submit my information to that too," so anybody that that is on that other end of providing those sorts of things that you can get listed there as well. Tyler Polermo Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much for highlighting that. Like, of course you'll find a lot of our emphasis in that list is to provide people with information on where they can…. It's for paid and unpaid assistance — there'll be some people who just want to help who are volunteering their time, but we want to make sure that there are options for people who can seek out options for when people want to seek out paid work like to get them more hands on, like, "Help me fix my PDF, it's broken." Some people will be able to do that for you, but not every blind person is going to be able to take a screen reader, spin on your file and help you fix it. But we definitely encourage people who are in the community, if you have interests and skill sets you want to lend to helping inform other people, whether that be sensitivity reading on disabilities, or if you're just a creator yourself, disabled, blind or visually impaired creator in the community, check out our, our directory, see if you fit one of the categories, we'll be happy to add you get you some more attention. Wyrmworks Publishing Yeah, the more we can get that information out and kind of going back to what we were talking about before about having to find the resources that are out there and stuff, so. Alright, so thanks for so much for coming on the show. Everyone check out those links in the show notes. Tyler Polermo Thank-you for having me. It was lovely. Wyrmworks Publishing Before we begin the next section, here's a Content Trigger Warning: we're going to be talking about spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury. So if that's problematic for you, thank you so much for sticking with us and being part of the solution, and hit the like and the subscribe buttons and share this with your social media powers, and we'll see you next episode. For everyone else, Welcome to Playing the Other: how to play a disabled, mentally ill, or neurodivergent character, whether a PC or an NPC, that properly represents symptoms, so as to represent those real life people in your game, and give them depth as characters, while avoiding harmful stereotypes and tropes. Today to help us with that, I'm happy to welcome Casse Redus. Welcome Casse. Casse Redus Thank you. Thanks for having me on. Wyrmworks Publishing So what would you like us to know about you as a person and as a gamer? Casse Redus Well, as a person, I guess the main thing you need to know is I'm a nerd to like the Nth degree. I love gaming or reading anything technology so this is kind of right up my alley. Right now my biggest thing is playing Elder Scrolls Online, then spend a lot of time on that. So that, that's about it. Wyrmworks Publishing Okay. So, what would you like people to know about your symptoms, how you experience them, how you adapt to them, and what is and isn't helpful for people to do with you. Casse Redus Okay. Well, as you mentioned, I have a spinal cord injury it's C1 through C2 with fusion of C1 through C5 and traumatic brain injury. This presents itself, in a number of different ways. The main one physically is, I have to use a cane and a mobile electric wheelchair, and I can't get around without it so like around my house places I'm comfortable, I don't have to use assistive devices. But the main thing that people need to know is that I am still capable even with my disabilities. A lot of the time what we run into is people not believing that you're able to do things because of disabilities. So, a lot of times what's helpful is just asking, ask if you can help. Don't just jump in and start doing it, and to play a person with a spinal cord injury is different for everybody, because a spinal cord injury doesn't present so in one particular way for each individual. For me that has been left side weakness. So anything that's coming in on the left side, whether that be physically or visually, I have trouble perceiving stuff on that side and being able to interact with things from that side. And then with the traumatic brain injury, there's the issue with temperature control, I can't really control my temperature. Once it gets to a certain level, so if I get too hot, I have to do certain things, take certain precautions like cold showers or bands or what have you. Same on the other hand with cold. So, you have to be aware of your surroundings more than a typical person would have to be. You have to look for the obstacles that may or may not be present: your environment, the temperatures, and figure out how to adapt to those. I've found that because of my disability, I've become a very adaptable individual. Just because you can't do it the way that society says is the normal way to do something doesn't mean it's impossible for you to do. You just have to figure it out and make it work for you. Wyrmworks Publishing Okay. Alright, so are there any other expressions of your symptoms, other things that that you have to deal with that, we should be aware of? Casse Redus Um, a lot of it is like fatigue. Sometimes not being able to focus because of the fatigue or because things are happening around you that are distracting. And a lot of it's just the physical, not being able to go upstairs without the help, not being able to necessarily feel safe going outside and just moving around without having someone with you because if you fall, I know with me, if I fall, I need some help getting up. So that is something you pretty much always want to have a buddy with you, the buddy system is imperative. And I guess another way to get around that would be like a service animal. I don't have one of those, but that would be a good alternative, and pain, a lot of pain management, so if you do too much or just don't do too much. There's the physical repercussions to deal with: the body aches, the joints not wanting to move right and things of that nature. Wyrmworks Publishing So if someone is including a PC or an NPC in their game with symptoms like yours. How would you like that character played and how can the other party members help? Casse Redus So I think a lot of the time with my symptoms or with disability in general, you need to play being… it needs to be adaptable, so like I had mentioned before, nothing is necessarily impossible. We just have to have the right devices or the foresight to plan differently. And with the other players, they will come into play with that. So, if it's stairs, you might have someone help you up them, or if it's something where you have to have balance to do it, someone's gonna have to brace you. So, just the other players need to be aware, they're going to have to pitch in, when called upon. So, whatever the play that may express itself. And as far as the disabilities go, play the symptoms. Some of them can be to your advantage if you really want him to be like with the, I don't know, I'm trying to think of what the best way to use them to your advantage would be, but especially the assistive devices, because that can get really creative. So those are going to be a lot of help. Any kind of animals you may incorporate. I know for me, my dogs are helpful, both with the depression and with just general mood enhancer. They also help with the fatigue, because they can be used as almost like a weighted blanket when you sleep. And so, just use your environment differently than what you would if you were what would be considered normally abled. Wyrmworks Publishing That's a really good point, and this comes up with a lot of different disabilities is, how do you use your environment differently? That, and I've seen that with, with so many with the, the research I've been doing, the people I've been talking to that, you, you look at the world differently. You you look at the things around you differently and you don't necessarily use certain things, the way that people expect to because you are adapting those things to your use. So, Casse Redus Exactly, and like here's one example I can really think of: people, and this is probably silly, but hand towels, like the towels that you get your hands on, I have to use those to put my shoes on if I'm wearing shorts. I have to hook them around my ankle and bring my foot to me. Nobody else is probably gonna think, "Hey, hand towel, and I'm gonna use that to put my shoes on." But you have to adapt to what you're needing and what works best for you. Wyrmworks Publishing I think all the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fans out there, would appreciate that. Casse Redus Yes. Wyrmworks Publishing So, and I think this also you know you emphasize it's a, it's an old roleplaying game axiom: don't split the party. Casse Redus Exactly. You gotta have a battle buddy. Wyrmworks Publishing Alright so, do you have any online projects or social media profiles that you'd like to share? Casse Redus Um, I don't do a whole lot online as for projects, and a lot of what I work on is like under NDA. So, the only social would be my Reddit, it's Worldly_Wheel8694 I believe, if anyone wanted to reach out and discuss anything that might okay and I've also got an Instagram. That's just casseredus. That's another way to reach me. And I'm open to DMs, if you want to talk about anything. As far as this. So, just hit me up. Wyrmworks Publishing Okay, great. So we want to emphasize that everyone's experience is different, and Casse has already alluded to that. So that note that what you heard today doesn't represent everyone with similar symptoms or diagnoses, this is just one example. So if you would like to come on this show, and help people understand your symptoms, whether it's something related to some Casse's or one of the other guests that we've had on here or something completely different. Then, and to help people understand your symptoms so they can have more accurate representation in their games, you can just go to WyrmworksPublishing.com and contact me there or just leave a comment below. Cassie thank you for sharing yourself with us so that we can bring reality into fantasy and thus make that fantasy world a reality. Casse Redus Well, thank you for doing this. Integrating disability and anyway and bringing advocacy to it is wonderful in my opinion, So, I really appreciate it. Wyrmworks Publishing You're still here, and we appreciate that. That means you must care about making other people's lives better. And so please consider helping us to help you and others by supporting our Patreon. Again that link is in the show notes. And if you see this being helpful, hit that like button, that wherever, wherever you're watching this or listening to it, if you're watching this on YouTube, there's that like button right below there just hit that thumbs up. If you'd like to see more, subscribe either in YouTube or in wherever you are hearing this, your favorite podcatcher app, or, or whatever you're using. If you know people that need to hear this, send them the link. And if you, like me, think that, "Wow, this is great! Everyone needs to hear about this," then pass it on through your social media feeds. And so now I'd like to close with a question: What accessibility tools do you use to open your game to more people?