Mattel is making games like Uno more accessible for colorblind players

Metavives June 26, 2024

Examples illustrating the colorblind accessibility changes Mattel has made to three of its games. — *Blokus, Tumblin’ Monkeys, and Uno are just three of the games Mattel is making colorblind accessible.* | Image: Mattel

In an effort to make its games accessible to a wider audience and “create more inclusive play experiences,” Mattel has announced that 80 percent of its gaming portfolio — including iconic titles like Uno — will be made accessible for those with a color vision deficiency by the end of the year, with a push to 90 percent by the end of 2025.

For Uno and its many variants, the four colors used in the game will be distinguished by simple symbols added to each card: a circle for red, a square for blue, a triangle for green, and a star for yellow. For Blokus, a game that has players arranging Tetris-like shapes on a game board, each color will be distinguished by a unique three-dimensional pattern added to the plastic tiles. For games like Tumblin’ Monkeys and KerPlunk, the colors of the sticks that players are tasked with removing will be distinguished with added 3D details.

A group shot of the initial games that Mattel is making colorblind accessible. — *Games that Mattel has made colorblind accessible will be distinguished with a new badge on the packaging.*

The initiative will also expand to the mobile app versions of the company’s card games, with updates to Uno! Mobile, Phase 10 Mobile, and Skip-Bo Mobile that will add the colorblind identification symbols.

This isn’t the first time Mattel has made efforts to expand the accessibility of some of its more popular games. In 2019, the toy maker partnered with the National Federation of the Blind to create a version of Uno featuring braille on every card, allowing blind and low-vision players to participate.

This also isn’t the first time Mattel has made efforts to accommodate the 350 million people around the world affected by colorblindness. In 2017, the company partnered with ColorADD, an organization that developed a unique code, based on five symbols, that allows those with color blindness to identify and distinguish the colors of an object. That partnership resulted in a version of Uno featuring the ColorADD code added to the cards, but Mattel’s latest efforts take a more streamlined approach that’s easier for players of all ages to quickly learn.

According to Mattel, its first colorblind accessible games were released in March, including Uno Flex, Uno All Wild, Uno Minimalista, and Dos, and the updated versions of Blokus, Phase 10, Skip-Bo, and KerPlunk will also be available by year’s end.