I have been a Wordle nerd for quite awhile now. To be fair, I likely fall into the category of nerd on just about any level actually. But that is not the point of this post today. I have played Wordle almost daily, when the craze first hit about 4 years ago and found it a fun five minute distraction. Then, like many of those types of crazes, my interest faded and was replaced by some other game or distraction on my phone. Before too long, my retina detached in my left eye and I began down the road that eventually led me to where I am now, fully without sight.

That was all such a traumatic time, full of fear and confusion and hopelessness. It seemed that I could actually feel all of the things that I enjoyed and loved, falling away from my grasp. This included my hobbies and interests among other things. It was during the early days of this time that I rediscovered an old friend, Wordle.

I distinctly remember sitting in my retina doctor’s office waiting for a follow-up, post surgery, when I opened the New York Times Games app on my phone. I just wanted to check and see how my new VoiceOver screen reader skills might work with the game of Wordle. I remembered that they had some accessibility settings when I had played before, things like high contrast and dark modes, and I felt it was at least a possibility that it was playable even with no vision. Sure enough, as I launched that days puzzle, not only did the keyboard read out loud to tell me what letter it was that I was touching, it also had all sorts of other custom-built audio responses, that made the game relatively easy to play, fully blind. Some of these responses included telling me if a letter was absent, present in another position, or correct as I touched letters on the included on -screen keyboard. This helped to remind me of the letters I’d used already and if they were in the puzzle somewhere. Also, after submitting a word, the game reads out loud, each letter and then states if is absent, correct, or present in another position. These two sets of responses were enough to open the door to make the puzzles solvable, without help from anyone else. This was a perfect example to me that just a little bit more effort by the developers of the game, was enough to include me in the game. That experience was enough to give me back something that I had lost, and have played every single day since, minus a few days that didn’t log in until after midnight so my precious streak ended. But let’s not talk about that, it’s too painful.

So, this was the first thing I was able to put back into my hobby bucket and I encourage all of you, whether sighted or somewhere on the blindness spectrum, give Wordle a try. It is available on Android and iOS, along with various other platforms. Even if you cannot do it as fast as you used to, you can still do it and that’s what matters most.

Now, it did take me probably 15 minutes to solve that puzzle, as I fumbled around the screen, trying to find where to hit the next letter or the “ENTER” button. But, the point is, I was able to do it. This mattered to me more than anything at that point in time. I am learning to celebrate the win, no matter how big or small.