Hi, I am an almost fully deaf Overwatch player and my condition hinders my enjoyment of the game and ability to participate and contribute as much as those with clearer hearing.
I know hearing is a crucial part of this game for both hearing the movement of the enemy to knowing when an ult is being triggered so you can help your team avoid it. Unfortunately I am unable to hear ults and footsteps especially during gunfights and find myself dying to them on too many occasions. Unless I visually see an ult I don’t know if one is coming and usually by the time I see it, it is too late to avoid or counter it.
I am seeking a possible solution to help those with hearing impairments enjoy the game more. Overwatch already supports options for colourblind people so I think an option for hearing aid would be a welcome addition if it is provided in a way which will not give any advantages.I know it is not possible to have any visual cues for footsteps but for ults I think a visual cue to indicate an ult has been triggered would help deaf players tremendously.
I have created a possible concept of how this could be achieved. The portrait of the hero ulting and his/her voice line written underneath. The colours would change to indicate if an ult on your team is fired or if its the enemy. This way it provides visual aid for those that can’t hear clearly to synergise ults in a team play or prepare to avoid and/or counter an enemy ult.
Here is an example of how it would appear if an enemy McCree ulted, the portrait and voice line would pop up with a glow and clearly show that an ult is incoming.
https:// i.imgur. com/Jo0uxum.jpg
I hope some possible solution can be taken into consideration for development. Thank you.
Edit Notes:
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The visual cue will not show location of ult but rather that an ult has been triggered nearby in your area.
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I already play with subtitles, I find them to be too clustered, confusing and not easy to keep track of what is happening especially when focus is on the gameplay.
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Some popular games already have deaf support in the way of a ring around the crosshair which shows sounds. It could be possible to implement a similar ring in Overwatch.
8 Likes
sounds resonable but they should make sure if they do this they should make it so its not an upgrade to the normal version
Personally I think something like this would be too much of an upgrade because it doesn’t just addressed hearing but makes it more obvious so you don’t tunnel vision.
I do think they could do subtitles though when an ult line triggers.
2 Likes
There needs to be something as obvious as the noticeable sound of ults, subtitles are too out of the way and would need a massive overhaul to be of any use.
I could see this as a real thing but if normal players were to use it, it might be too much.
Maybe they could make it something that you could sign up for. Proving that you’re actually deaf somehow.
Valorant has a real cool visual effect for sound qs that I think makes it very accessible for people with hearing issues.
It’s just a wheel that flashes in the direction of the activity that I find a reallly cool add on. Very subtle but helpful.
I’m sure OW could easily add something similar.
5 Likes
Fortnite has a similar feature with the sound visualizer showing gunfire among other things and their direction. I think hearing is more a important aspect in Overwatch though since certain ults can be the difference between victory and defeat and everyone being on a level playing field no matter their disability is a positive thing.
I am glad to see new games like Valorant coming with deaf support on launch, I think its even more reason for the Overwatch team to see if they can bring something to the hearing impaired Overwatch players.
2 Likes
I’m actually on the opposite spectrum as you - I have a vision disability and depend heavily on the amazing sound cues in this game to be able to play. So it’s kind of interesting hearing from the other side. 
I’m very much in favor of making games more accessible to people with disabilities (obviously) as long as it doesn’t hurt the core game in any way. Personally, I think your idea seems fine. There’s also the idea of screen flashes and such to alert you that an ulti is being used.
I don’t know, but I do think it’s awesome that more companies are at least trying to be more inclusive now a days, so at least there’s that.
Good luck, though! I hope Blizz keeps on improving those features to help you out. 
3 Likes
I have subtitles set to “everything” as alot of things aren’t part of “critical gameplay”
I have to ask the people who spam voice lines to please not as I am using subtitles as I’m hard of hearing, if they ignore my request or mock me I will squelch the chat and report them for spam.
I have had players insult me before when I have died to not hearing enemy players behind me or when I have failed to avoid an ult I could have avoided had I heard it.
Some even stated I shouldn’t be playing the game at all. I won’t even try competitive mode because of this.
A lot of people don’t seem to show understanding or care that I play at a huge disadvantage to everyone else.
Or just make it so enabling this option disables all sound in the game.
People who are already hard of hearing won’t lose anything from it, but people with normal hearing will have to sacrifice audio if they want to play with it, essentially gaining nothing.
1 Like
In any case human reacts to audio faster than visuals, so theres not much of a competitive advantage with a mod like this. Except if you have bad audio / fresh to the game etc
That would be a disadvantage to those who do have some hearing and use it, but still qualify as hearing disabled, I would assume.
1 Like
Yeah, screw those people. Ran into a few of those in WoW. Haters gonna hate, but don’t let 'em get you down.
And don’t ever feel like you don’t have the right to play competitive. Any disadvantages will be factored in by your gameplay and the SR system will place you where you belong, so you’ll never actually be “hindering” your team or anything like that in the grand scale of things, if that’s what you’re worried about.
You might find this interesting:
4 Likes
Oh! Duh… lmao I didn’t even think of that.
1 Like
To be fair, those of us that can hear often can’t hear footsteps either. Roadhog is apparently really good at tip toeing.
need to keep this thread alive in hopes devs see it to be made aware of the issue.
