World of Warcraft patch highlights colorblind support options

World of Warcraft's latest patch adds a colorblind mode to its user interface options, to help gamers with six of the most common colorblindness types better understand the visual information the 10-year-old MMO conveys.

"UI Colorblind Mode" was available in the game's help menu, but now will be highlighted in a suite of accessibility configurations. The mode adds "certain words and phrases to the tooltips throughout the game," so that players understand the significance of certain objects, NPCs and other players by more than just the color of text describing them."

For example, when you move your mouse cursor over a piece of rare gear and then a piece of epic gear, the game colors the names of the items blue and then purple, respectively. With ‘UI Colorblind Mode' enabled, the game will add the words "Rare" and "Epic" to the tooltips for those items. For players who find it difficult to discern between friendly, neutral, or hostile targets, additional indication text in the tooltip will now appear when you move your mouse cursor over.

Here's a look at the user interface:

World of Warcraft will offer three filters to accommodate six types of colorblindness, and they are even adjustable for the strength of one's colorblindness.