How Well Does Las Vegas Accommodate Vision-Impaired Visitors? 

Updated July 25, 2023

 

To the best of our knowledge, it's now a federal requirement to permit seeing-eye dogs and to have Braille signage for room numbers, exits, and elevator numbers in all new properties. We checked with several casinos large and small and all confirmed that they were in full compliance with these minimal regulations.

 

Not a single property that we've asked, however, offers any Braille or large-print menus. Each of the properties we've spoken with did stress that they'd be happy to provide a concierge to help orient a visually impaired guest and give a basic tour of the property, plus they all  claimed that their wait (and other) staff is more than happy to read menus and assist blind guests whenever necessary.

 

In terms of accommodations, our principal piece of advice is to find a property that you like, then explain what you need; we're pretty sure that most will be willing and able to accommodate your requirements. Since there's no shortage of hotels in this town, if your first choice isn't up to the task, simply call the resort next door and see what they can do for you.

 

As far as slot machines go, in 2002 with much fanfare, the Ray Charles machine was introduced (click here for that story). Unfortunately, it never caught on, so no slots, as far as we know, cater to the blind and vision-impaired.

 

There is some good news for bingo lovers, however.The Electronic Dauber (TED for short) for visual- and hearing-impaired bingo players was developed by a company called Game Tech International, based in Reno. It uses RF (radio-frequency) technology. TED basically plays the game for you, punching in card numbers as quickly as they come out of the bingo hopper and enabling you to electronically "mark" as many as 57 bingo cards at once. An alert sounds if you're one number off a bingo and a little song plays if you win, so there's no chance of missing a winning card.

 

Although TEDs are particularly helpful to the visually impaired, they were originally developed with sighted players in mind, but were later equipped with optional Braille keypads, making them even easier to operate for those who have seeing difficulties.

 

The first casino to introduce TEDs was the Oneida Indian Nation's Turning Stone resort in New York state, but the devices have since been introduced in numerous casinos throughout the U.S. Other manufacturers, including Fortunet in Las Vegas, have brought out similar devices and all the bingo rooms that we surveyed had one version or the other. We've been told the monochrome versions are easier to read than the color ones.

 

No casino in Las Vegas that we've spoken to has the Braille overlays, but since the TEDs do all the work for you, they're hardly necessary.

 

For those who like their bingo a little more interactive, we understand that Gold Coast and Arizona Charlie's (Decatur) casinos also have Braille paper cards that are available upon request.