Description
Screen Reader is now TS4 Access! This expanded release is a joint project with LeonianUniverse, bringing more accessibility features to The Sims 4.
TS4 Access adds narration, keyboard navigation, and accessible gameplay menus to The Sims 4, providing support for blind and visually impaired players that is not available in an unmodded game.
The mod reads menus, panels, dialogs, pie menus, tooltips, and notifications aloud, and can also announce what your Sim is doing. You can find Sims and objects, open their interactions, and furnish your home using the keyboard!
Narration begins at the main menu, with keyboard support for loading saves, choosing a home, and selecting a season if you have Seasons installed. Live Mode and object placement in Build Mode are also supported. Some parts of the game still require the mouse; please see the limitations below.
Accessibility Features
- World Scanner: Browse Sims and objects by category, hear their names and locations, and open their interactions. The scanner updates for your active Sim and filters out objects with no interactions.
- Accessibility Menu: Check needs, mood, skills, career, inventory, relationships, and more. You can also open the phone, switch household Sims, change settings, and have the keyboard shortcuts read aloud.
- Simplified Menus: Use the arrow keys to move through supported options one at a time, including phone actions and gameplay dialogs for jobs, events, food, and drinks. This is enabled by default.
- Travel & Moving: Choose travel destinations from lists of worlds and places. When choosing a home, hear whether a lot is occupied and whether your household can afford it.
- Build Mode: Browse the catalog and place supported objects using a spoken lot cursor. Rotate placed objects, undo a placement, or sell an object at the cursor.
Speech & Screen Readers
You do not need to have a screen reader installed to use the mod. The mod can use a Windows text-to-speech voice instead. Microsoft Zira is selected by default, but the voice can be changed in Settings.
To use your own screen reader, such as NVDA or JAWS, or a braille display, install the free Speech Pack alongside the mod. Microsoft Narrator is not supported.
⚠️ Windows only: TS4 Access does not currently support macOS.
Installation & Getting Started
Install the mod directly inside Mods\TS4_Access, and download the TS4 Access Helper.
Once before your first play session and once after every monthly game patch, run the TS4 Access Helper with The Sims 4 closed. Open TS4AccessHelper.exe, choose Enable Script Mods, and wait for confirmation before starting the game through Steam or the EA app. The tool checks and enables both Custom Content and Mods and Script Mods Allowed, so please make this part of your setup!
Game patches can turn mods off again. Check for a compatible TS4 Access release after a patch. If the game resets the settings on its first launch, close it, run the tool again, and restart.
These guides cover setup and controls in more detail:
- Installation & Getting Started - Setup, the Speech Pack, the helper, and your first household.
- Controls & Settings - Keyboard shortcuts, the scanner, menus, travel, and speech options.
- Build Mode Guide - Placing, rotating, and selling objects.
In-game, press Ctrl + Alt + H to open the accessibility menu and choose Keyboard shortcuts for spoken help. The download also includes README.txt, CONTROLS.txt, and CHEATS.txt for offline reference.
Important Limitations
Not every part of the game is fully accessible with a keyboard.
- Create a Sim: Most controls support keyboard navigation, but appearance and customization controls still require the mouse.
- Build Mode: Walls, floors, roofs, rooms, stairs, pools, terrain, and paint still require the mouse. Objects that need a wall, ceiling, fence, water, or bare ground cannot currently be placed using the mod's cursor.
- Maps: Some destinations still require the game's traditional maps. After selecting a lot, you may need to continue through the controls to reach Play or Confirm.
Compatibility
TS4 Access is Base Game compatible and supports all expansion packs. No expansion packs are required.
⚠️ This mod overrides several UI files to enable narration and keyboard navigation, so it may conflict with other mods that modify the user interface.
If you use weerbesu's UI Cheats Extension, install the matching compatibility add-on using my priority folder guide. Update the add-on alongside TS4 Access.
Feedback & Support
Join the Accessibility Discord server to ask questions, get mod support, and share feedback! We'd love to hear how TS4 Access is working for you.
If you run into an issue, please include the menu or object and the steps that led to it. This makes it much easier for us to reproduce and fix!
Useful Links
- Carl's Sims 4 Guide - Guides to needs, skills, careers, and other gameplay systems.
- The Sims Wiki - Information about the game's worlds, objects, Sims, and packs.
- Download NVDA - A free screen reader for Windows that can be used with the Speech Pack.
Use the TS4 Access guides for the mod's controls; the gameplay resources above describe the unmodded game.
If you run into an issue, please include the menu or object and the steps that led to it. This makes it much easier for me to reproduce and fix!
TS4 Access is developed jointly by tyjokr and LeonianUniverse, building on our Screen Reader and a11yscan mods. The world scanner, lot cursor, object placement, and several keyboard ideas originated in LeonianUniverse's mod.
Thank you to everyone who has helped us test and shared feedback!
The TS4 Access Team
Owner
