[BlindMath] Sharing a tic-tac-toe board description over the computer to another blind individual

[Ishe Chinyoka]

Hi,

I don't know about tic-tac-toe, but as a chess player myself, I can
relate to what you are saying.

In chess, we use what is known as a Forsyth diagram to achieve that. The
forsyth diagram can be shared between blind and sighted players. It
perfectly captures the state of the board at any point in the game. For
blind players, they can have black pieces added a dot 6 for example,
while the white pieces are represented as they are in the algebraic
chess notation.

Cheers,

Ishe



John Miller via BlindMath <blindmath at nfbnet.org> writes:

> Hello,
> I believe that sharing spatial tactile or braille information is quite important for those training to work or working in STEM fields.
> One such example is sharing the results of a tic-tac-toe game.
> Besides which, it is just fun to talk about tic-tac-toe.
> Do any of you play tic-tac-toe with blind friends or children over the computer?
> How would you share the lay-out of the board and the pieces played thus far?
> Multi-line braille should offer a more natural way to review board information for tic-tac-toe, checkers, chess, and other board games but only if we tell the blindness vendors what works best for blind users.
>
> See the board results displayed in refreshable braille below.
> The pieces are indicated with "x" or "o".
> The shape of the three by three grid is made with series of vertical l's and series of horizontal dashes or "-".
> If a position on the board is empty then the grid location contains three spaces.  If it has an x piece then it contains a space followed by x followed by space and similarly for an o piece being a space followed by o followed by space.
>
> In the game played below x plays first and eventually wins. In move 1 x goes to row 3 column 1 and
> o answers with row 2 column 2.
> In move 2 x goes to row 1 column 3 and o answers with row 3 column 3.
> In move 3 x goes to row 1 column 1.
> The board is displayed up to this point in the game.
> Before making move 3 o recognizes that x will win.
> In this case x is threatening 3 in a row for both row 1 and column 1.
>
> tic-tac-toe board example best for embossing or refreshable braille:
> -------------
> l x l   l x l
> -------------
> l   l o l   l
> -------------
> l x l   l o l
> -------------
> With speech it might be easier to examine a board skipping the "l" and "-" symbols and using "b" to indicate a blank grid location.
> In this case the board looks like the following.
> tic-tac-toe speech friendly example:
> x b x
> b o b
> x b o
>
> A tic-tac-toe board including piece locations might display nicely using a table in Microsoft Word.
> You will notice that in the two examples above the braille is in 8-dot braille. For it to be in UEB or Nemeth braille code or literary braille the "x" and the "o" symbol might each require a letter sign before it making the symbol take up 2 braille cells.
> I would be glad to hear your thoughts on these topics.
> Very best,
> John
>
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