Sid Meier's Civilization V (Civ V Access)
Community mod that makes Civilization V playable with a screen reader on Windows, with keyboard-driven menus, map reading, and contextual key help.
Short verdict
Blind strategy players who own or want to buy Civilization V with Brave New World and are comfortable installing Steam games and mods.
Facts
- Developer
- Firaxis Games / Civ V Access by Rashad Naqeeb
- Platforms
- Windows
- Game type
- Turn-based strategy, 4X
- Language
- English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Polish, Russian, Korean, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese via community pack
- Accessibility rating
- Recommended for experienced screen reader users who are comfortable with mod setup
- Platform
- Windows
- Vision / need
- Blind, Low vision, Screen reader
- Accessibility
- Audio cues, Audio descriptions
- Game type
- Strategy
- Last updated
- 2026-06-12
Where to find the game
- Steam: Sid Meier's Civilization V (Civ V Access)
Covers: Windows
Accessibility
- Civ V Access uses Tolk integration for common Windows screen readers and describes the game as fully playable through a screen reader.
- Custom keyboard-driven menus with arrow keys, Enter, Tab, type-ahead search, F1 to repeat text/dialogue, and F12 for mod settings.
- The map can be explored with six directional keys for the hex grid; cursor movement reads terrain, ownership, units, improvements, and other tile information.
- Shift+/ lists active shortcuts for the current context, and Ctrl+I opens Civilopedia help for the focused object when available.
- F2 can read descriptions of image/art screens; the mod also includes keyboard-layout and menu-verbosity settings.
Known limitations
- Requires the Windows version of Civilization V and the Brave New World expansion; Mac/Linux editions are not confirmed for the mod.
- Steam Overlay should be disabled because it is inaccessible and can intercept Shift+Tab; Steam’s F12 screenshot key can also conflict with the mod.
- Custom scenarios are not supported, and compatibility with other Civ V mods should not be assumed.
- The hex grid has six directions and can take time to learn without sight; this is not a simple audio game.
- Some artwork descriptions are AI-generated, and only parts of the translations are confirmed as tested by the developer/community.
Price/status
The mod is free and open source. You must own Civilization V with Brave New World, preferably the Complete bundle from Steam or another official Steam-key store.
The Civ V Access mod is actively updated on GitHub as of June 2026; Civilization V Complete is still sold on Steam.