A Veteran Gamer’s Plea: Where’s the Large Print Option for TTRPG Rulebooks?

[Dannyalcatraz]

I shouldn't have to use my glasses and a magnifying glass to read from a book. My mom has the situation when she reads the newspaper.

 

[MNblockhead]

Two points:
DnD Beyond doesn't allow you to scale their interactive character sheet. There is a default resolution, which sure - you can do the Cmd+ or Cmd- or use your fingers to scale the page or whatever; but in this modern age with relatively easy a11y (accessibility, "a" - 11 characters - "y", aka "a11y") coding libraries, this should be easy enough to manage - IF an organization wanted to pay money OR avoid costs. Big IF, in the past.

Which brings me to second point. The US president's current administration has been very active in enforcing online a11y regulations, especially web requirements. These enforcement actions may encourage WotC to begin providing accessible web pages, even interactive form parts on their dndbyond site.

It'll be interesting to see where this conversation is at this time in 2027.

The DDB app however is an accessibility god send. Not only allowing you to blow up the text, but it is so easy to jump to specific content. It is the gold standard for accessible reading. I've comfortably read whole books on my iPhone. Even I'm my MacBook, I'll use the iOS app from the app store instead of the website. That said, I don't have any issues with zooming in on D&D Beyond's website. It reflows nicely. It is just that the app's display settings give me a little more control over the reading experience. I suppose I could get the same experience on the website with local CSS overrides. There are extensions for those that don't want to mess in developer tools in their browser. But the interface of the DDB app is just simple and does what I want.

 

[MNblockhead]

One last thing for me personally - I would take larger print and fewer images, just saying. So the book could be the same size.

Convert the PDF to DOCX ("Word"). Then in Microsoft Word do a search and replace. In search put "^g" (without the quotes) and leave the replace field blank. That should remove the graphics. Apple Pages and the free, open source LibreOffice don't offer the same functionality. If your conversion doesn't put the images inline, you can "delete objects."

The problem that I have with some TTRPG published books is that they will put "text" elements in as images. Rules call outs, stat blocks, etc. You can run OCR over the pdf before converting to DOCX, but often those sections are just garbled and you have to reformat manually. This is one reason I haven't gotten around to converting my Warhammer Fantasy books to EPUB. Too much work. In sense that work was already done to bring WFRP content into Foundry, but getting it out of Foundry, knitting the journals together in a single book, it more work than I want to deal with. And...this is the same reason most publishers are not going to make ebook friendly versions of their materials. It would simply cost too much. Demiplane may be a digital option for more accessible versions of non D&D TTRPG materials, but if you want a printable version, you are out of luck for books with complex graphical formatting.

 

[cbwjm]

I bought a tablet primarily due to my shite eyesight and wanting something more portable than my PC to read PDFs when compared to my phone (which I still use but am constantly zooming and unzooming documents).

I think large print options would be a good idea, when I have a book in front of me, I'm not quite in need of it yet, but one day I can see it happening.

 

[Koloth]

Yeah. The no device rule is typically put in place to avoid distractions, but I don't think you'll find many GMs who would refuse a player the use of a device designed to allow them to access the game. Such a person should be shunned.


That's not how the Americans with Disabilities Act works. The ADA was designed to ensure Americans had equal opportunities to access public accommodations, employment, education, etc., etc. requiring employers and others to make reasonable accommodations for their use. There is no interpretation of the ADA that would require a publisher to produce large print versions of their products.

As I mentioned in my post, wasn't sure about books. But websites are a different matter. Whether ADA proper or follow on legislation, websites are covered to some extent. When I worked for a US state agency, website accessibility was one of the things we in IT had to consider.
Article with examples of lawsuits over the matter: Top Website Accessibility Lawsuits: Major Companies Sued Over ADA Compliance

And it still wouldn't hurt to ask a publisher about large format books. By asking, at least said publishers know there is some interest. A lot of the gaming population is getting older and sometimes older retired folks have extra disposable income to spend on things like easier to use gaming products.