September 2018 - last edited September 2018
@PugLove888
You also make some very good points. I was thinking they could put the wheelchair and other things into the patch as they did toddlers. Who does not like free content? Then put ramps and other things needed in a pack that would include skiing or even skateboarding in a pack Introducing a new skill. There are other skills that need a ramp. That could be a game pack. Hey they gave us laundry....
Addressing those other disabilities you mentioned the cane could also be a ski pole adapted and just so it moves in front they would have to work that out. We have pets now so seeing g eye dogs would be a good skill for a pet. Also a dog for the deaf. Make the pets able to do more things even if we cant control them.
Someone is going to complain no matter what and I am very surprised that there have not been more here that have not complained
Not that I want them to. I love that we are having a discussion. But usually you have to be prepared for others who have no idea what a discussion is.
The sims now move their hands all over the place with a little control and imagination they could be doing sign language. This game is about imagination right?
I just wish that EA would take some real interest in what the simmers have to say but seems that they listen to a select few who are more active and Express themselves the loudest. You must have heard the old saying a squeaky wheel etc.
We can only hope that if they put in disabilities that they do them where we have choices and can use the things somewhere else.
October 2018 - last edited October 2018
@JP585, you aren't' the only person to suggest this! If you would have done a search before posting, you would have seen this thread:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Game-Information/Disability-for-the-sims/td-p/6407365/highlight/true
And if you read the entire thread you will see that one of the Sim Gurus has mentioned that they are at least considering this possibility.
I'm just concerned about how this would be implemented. Some people really want it but others do not. It would have to be done respectfully as well! I do think it would be possible if they also let Sims just need these items temporarily if they get injured. (Perhaps a Daredevil pack?!?). I also love the idea of being able to train your dog to be an assistance animal!
And if they did this they would certainly have to give us better elevators and/or chair lifts for staircases, as well as ramps! Personally I think this would be better served in some kind of offshoot of the Sims, so they could devote more disabilities -- I fear that no matter how many they would include, there would still be some people who feel left out.
But even if they don't do it for The Sims 4, they might do it for The Sims 5. It is certainly interesting to think about.
July 2019
You know what would be awesome, for the sims? Disability. Give us wheelchairs, canes, walkers, hearing aids, service dogs. Make it so that people can make sims that truly represent themselves and add diversity to the game. I’m not asking for anything crazy, even though sign language being added would be the coolest thing ever, just basic stuff: ramps, wheelchairs, canes, walkers, hearing aids, service dogs, showers with chairs in them, animations that don’t involve standing to move or change, that kind of stuff. The fact that sims doesn’t already have disabilities is disheartening. Help us get disabled sims!!
July 2019
@KittenKaley I have seen many people show interest in this feature, so you are not alone.
Hope this helps!
October 2019
I believe that the game would be much more realistic if it included this. I also wish that things like : Wheelchairs, ramps , Elevators , crutches and many more items.
Why isn't this available?
Many thanks
October 2019
Probably because it requires a lot of money and resources to make that happen, thus would warrant a game pack or even expansion pack.
Now this is just how I think EA works, but I think when EA decides on what packs to make, they look at:
1) what do people most want to see.
2) what type of world/setting would add on to the game (e.g. jungles/islands/cities etc. so my next bet would be egypt-esque or high-tech world)
and
3) what is a fun game play we can offer to people.
1) There will always be some pack that the majority of people want to see rather than disabled. First it was pets/seasons/mermaids etc. now it's bands/university etc.
2) No specific world comes to mind with disabled, the best I can come up with is high tech world with the ability to have sims become cyborg or have cyber-parts like a leg or an arm, but then what would the use be of e.g. a wheelchair?
3) it is increasingly hard to come up with "fun" gameplay for something as unfortunate as disabilities.
It's all about demand, and they have to think of what is "safe" for them. It's a lot safer to make a pack like university and get backlash on that, because let's face it, a lot of the gameplay in sims 4 gets stale quickly. If they tackle something as difficult as disabilities, and let's face it, a delicate and personal matter that will pull at people's heartstrings, only to have it flop because people don't find it entertaining or their money's worth.
Heck people are so entitled, they deem this and a 100 other things as things that should have just been in the base game of sims 4. It's like they have no concept of how much time and resource and money goes into the making of even a single gamepack.
If you want EA to make disabilities a priority, the best you can do is to cause a hype for it, have simmers sign a petition and then wave it around on the sims 4 forums. It worked for mermaids! (though nobody is happy with the mermaids and how limited they are, so careful what you wish for)
October 2019
@Unicorngirluk26, I understand many people want the Sims 4 to reflect their real lives, and that disabilities are a real life experience for many. @RaichiSims gave some very good reasons why disabilities probably won't be added to the Sims 4. But there are even some more reasons:
1) To make wheelchairs, crutches, blind people walking realistically (with or without a cane for the blind & also with or without a seeing-eye dog) etc, would require a bunch of new animations for all instances of life! This would take an incredible amount of time, resources, and money.
2) Some people want realistic gameplay -- but other want fantasy gameplay. The Sims has always been a mix of both. Realistic gameplay lovers are why the Laundry Day SP was created! But fantasy gameplay lovers are why we also have the Vampires GP and the Realm of Magic GP! Yes, a disability pack would fall in the realistic gameplay category... but it is only realistic for a small portion of the population. Comparing it to Laundry Day, everyone in the real world does laundry or has it done for them. (Personally, I'd rather make stories about the difficulty of living with a disability than try to make a story about doing laundry because a laundry story would be super boring! But not everyone plays the Sims in order to create stories.
3) @RaichiSims touched on this earlier, but no matter how many disabilities EA would put into the pack, there will always be some disability left out. So by trying to be more inclusive, EA would actually end up excluding somebody! I've seen requests for not only wheelchairs, crutches, blind Sims, deaf Sims (with sing language), asthma, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, missing arms, multiple sclerosis, and even more! An endeavor like this would probably need to be in its own separate game, not crammed into one pack. And you would still have a lot of disabilities not being represented .
4) Many people with disabilities don't want to play a game that highlights their disability... they play the Sims 4 to escape for a little while the difficulty that is in their lives. I do understand that especially for younger people with disabilities that they just want to feel understood, loved, and respected! But there are a lot of older people with disabilities who play this game too, and most of them don't want disabilities in the game. Some of them have dealt with their disabilities all their lives, and they realize that most of these conditions would not make for fun gameplay.
5) Which brings us to the most important reason. Many people with disabilities wouldn't want their conditions to be trivialized. That is all to easy to happen in a game. One of the Sim Gurus a couple of years ago has stated that they were looking into having disabilities in the game, but they wanted to talk with actual people who had those disabilities to figure out if this would be a good thing to put into the game or not. If EA were to try this, it could go horribly wrong and hurt the very people they were trying to represent! I can also see a lot of mean people harming their disabled Sims just for "fun" I think this is why we haven't seen disabilities in the game.
August 2020
Can I suggest an idea for an expansion packs?
I used to be a nanny for a child with special needs. We still remain in contact. I was showing her Sims 4 and she took a huge interest in it. One of the questions she asked me about the Sims 4 is..."Is it wheelchair accessible?"
The answer is decidedly, no, it really isn’t.
Here is a list of ideas in which could be used in such an expansion pack.
Ramps (as an alternative to stairs)
Wheelchairs (fitness points go to a sim who uses a manual wheelchair)
Walkers and gait trainers
AAC Devices (Alternative Augmented Communication devices. These come in various forms, tablets that have speaking by tapping on the right words. Or computers that can sit on tables, desks, floors or be mounted to a wheelchair and can be controlled by eye movement (aka Eyegaze)
Sims could have various physical disabilities such as Cerebral palsy which could have various symptoms, unable to walk (without assistance, thus the various walkers, gait trainers and wheelchairs) unable to speak (thus the AAC Devices)
This would be a great opportunity to tie in the Cats and Dogs pack. Pets could be upgraded to service animals with special training. And then they can assist the sim whether they are at work, university, on a date, or on the town.
This could also introduce animals with disabilities and we could have dogs and cats with little wheelchairs for paralyzed back legs.
There could be public buildings set up for sims to have occupational and physical therapy.
Sims with wheelchairs can join in playing basket ball, or riding their wheelchairs in skate parks.
Another condition could be that the sim is blind. I certainly think that this would make things very interesting. I used to play the game Spore and sometimes for my creatures I would not give them eyes and so I would play them that way. It certainly was interesting.
Gameplay for a blind sim would be very different. Everything could be blacked out except for a ring of light around the sim which would show immediate objects or people.
Going into build mode would be just as normal as you design the house and objects and things inside. But in live mode everything is limited until the sim nears it. Perhaps after a certain amount of time being in that area, maybe after a few days in the same area that circle of light or visibility widens as the sim gets more familiar.
Other sims around the blind sim will get more clear the more times they meet or the stronger the friendship becomes, or if they are enemies and really hate each other.
The blind sim could have a service dog that provides more visibility to the sim as well.
The service animals in both scenarios can do much more on command then with the pets. Such as bringing things to the sim, like food, or leading them through the park, city festivals, museums, to the right university building, or sniffing out caves to explore in outdoor retreat.
Anyway that was my idea. Even if none of this comes to fruition I would very much like ramps, at least, to be added to sims 4.
August 2020
Sorry but this is just not doable. There are no elevators so wheelchairs is out. While ramps could be done it doesn't help much. The gameplay you suggest would be unmanageable. Take the suggestion to make everything mostly blacked out for blind Sim. What would happen when you changed to a seeing Sim? AAC devices. There are no real talking so redundant. while I do sympathize with the disabled much of what you suggest would make for very dull gameplay and most disabled that do play don't do it to be reminded of their disability.
August 2020
Well, you are wrong on several topics.
1. There are elevators featured (but not necessary used in game play) in University and City Living packs.
2. When raising a child in the sims there are options of teaching how to walk and talk. Could be easily substituted for a tablet or communication device.
3. Ramps are great where in bikes could be used as well. Instead of having to get off of a bike each time there are stairs.
4. And as someone who has lived with children with special special needs, I think it is quite dreadful of you to suggest that all people with disabilities wouldn't be interested in a game that stimulates real life scenarios.
All that being said. If wheelchairs became an option for sims 4, it would not just be usable for sims with special needs, there could be some play for characters healing from an injury rather than just being smashed into the floor by a malfunctioning bed, or electrocuted by an angry gnome. And consider the elderly, they could use it to lessen the need to sleep and rest and still do things they would like to do.
And sure going back and forth from a blind sim to a seeing sim could cause problems, but I think it would be fun game play as I have done that in the past with EA's Spore. And my remedy was that the more familiar a place became, the clearer it would be. So not every time it you played everything would be dark, just unfamiliar places (or if things got moved, which does causes issues for people with seeing disabilities.)
My roommate and night blindness, if an area is a little bit dark she cannot see at all, she happens to love the idea of all of this. With these simple filters I think the game would be very interesting. And it would perhaps work great as a teaching tool for kids on what life is like for people with disabilities.
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