Accessibility

Afternoon Games is a collection of classic card, tile, and puzzle games that run in the browser with no account and nothing to install. Every setting below exists in the site today and is saved in your browser under ag:prefs so you only have to set it once.

Display, text size, and contrast settings

• Big cards and tiles (big). Every solitaire, card, and mahjong table has a Big cards button in the toolbar, and Free Games for Seniors, Large Print Solitaire, and Mahjong for Seniors open with Big cards turned on automatically. When active, card faces switch to pure white (#ffffff) with 7:1 contrast black (#000000) and deep red (#a30000) inks, larger rank numbers and suit pips, and a 52 px minimum button height.
• Text size (text: Normal, Large, Extra large). In Settings at the top of any page, you can switch the site text size between Normal, Large, and Extra large. This scales body copy, headings, button labels, and puzzle numbers across every page.
• Theme and colour contrast (theme: Automatic, Light, Dark). In Settings, you can follow your device setting or lock the site to Light or Dark. Both themes are tested in code so body text meets at least 7:1 contrast, secondary text and links meet at least 4.5:1, board and card borders meet at least 3:1, and Minesweeper digits 1 through 8 remain distinct under protan, deutan, and tritan colour vision.
• Dim blocked mahjong tiles (mjDim). Turned on by default in Settings. In Mahjong Solitaire, tiles that are covered or hemmed in on both sides are shown darker while keeping at least 3:1 symbol contrast, so the free playable tiles stand out at a glance.
• Reduce motion (motion). Follows your system prefers-reduced-motion setting automatically, or can be switched on in Settings. When active, Minesweeper squares open without the ripple animation and the board does not shake.
• Mouse and touch controls (controls: Automatic, Mouse, Touch). In Settings, choosing Touch places a large Reveal / Flag switch below the Minesweeper board so you can flag mines with a single tap instead of right-clicking or holding a long press.
• Sound off by default (sound). Every game starts silent. You can turn soft clicks and the board-clear chime on or off in Settings (or from the toolbar button on Mahjong Relax).
• No-guess Minesweeper by default (guessing). By default, every Minesweeper board is checked by a solver before your first move so it can be cleared by logic alone without a forced guess. A switch in Settings lets you allow plain random boards if you prefer them.

Smaller boards and no-clock modes

• 72-tile Easy Mahjong board. Easy Mahjong and Mahjong for Seniors deal 72 extra-large tiles in two layers instead of the classic 144-tile five-layer Turtle stack, and every tile on the board has one matching partner. Mahjong Connect (Easy) starts on a 48-tile board.
• No-clock Relax and Zen modes. Mahjong Relax runs with no timer, unlimited undo and shuffle, and automatic reshuffling whenever no pairs remain. Zen Minesweeper runs with no timer and no score, and lets you undo an opened mine and keep playing.
• Untimed card games. Hearts, Euchre, Spades, Gin Rummy, Cribbage, and Canasta against the computer have no clock at all, and wait as long as you like between turns.
• Plain-English hints and unlimited undo. The card games, mahjong games, and logic puzzles include a Hint button that highlights a legal move and explains why in one plain sentence, plus Undo to take moves back.

Keyboard play where it exists today

• Page navigation and dialogs. Every page starts with a Skip to content link. Menus and the Settings and Statistics dialogs open and close from the keyboard, trap focus while open, and close with Escape.
• Grid, word, and dice puzzles. In Minesweeper, Killer Sudoku, Nonogram, Kakuro, and Mahjong Connect, the arrow keys move focus across the grid. In Minesweeper, Space opens a square, F places or removes a flag, and C or Enter chords an opened number. In Killer Sudoku and Kakuro, number keys 1 to 9 enter digits or notes, and Backspace or Delete clears a cell. In Nonogram, Space or F fills a square and X marks it empty. In Word Ladder, letter keys type the next rung and Enter submits it. In Yahtzee, Space or R rolls the dice and keys 1 to 5 hold or release each die.
• Card games and Mahjong Solitaire. Face-up cards and free mahjong tiles are focusable buttons that can be reached with Tab and played or selected with Enter or Space. Across the solitaire, card, and mahjong tables, H shows a hint, U or Ctrl+Z undoes a move, N starts a new game, D draws from the stock in Klondike, Spider, Pyramid, Golf, and TriPeaks, and S shuffles in Mahjong Solitaire and Mahjong Connect.

What is not here yet

We want activity directors, libraries, and players to know what the site does not do yet so nobody over-promises:

• Not yet: full screen-reader play on card tableaux and 3D mahjong stacks. Every game announces hints, move results, and scores in a polite status region (aria-live="polite"), and buttons carry labels, but multi-column solitaire layouts and five-layer Mahjong Solitaire stacks do not yet read out full column-by-column or layer-by-layer board state for blind screen-reader play.
• Not yet: arrow-key cursor movement inside 3D Mahjong Solitaire. Grid puzzles and flat Mahjong Connect support four-way arrow keys, but layered Mahjong Solitaire currently uses Tab to move between free tiles rather than arrow keys.
• Not yet: custom keyboard shortcuts or voice control. Single-key shortcuts (H, U, D, S, N, F) are fixed in code and cannot yet be remapped.
• Not yet: a third-party WCAG conformance audit. Colour contrast and token distances are checked by automated tests on every build, but Afternoon Games has not undergone an external WCAG 2.1 AA certification audit.

Report an accessibility barrier

If a game is hard to see, reach with a keyboard, or use on your device, write to [email protected] or see Contact. Tell us which game and device you use, and we will look at it.

Link to this page

Libraries, senior centers, and low-vision resource directories are welcome to link to this page. Copyable HTML link:

<a href="https://afternoongames.com/accessibility">Afternoon Games</a>