RimWorld Access¶
RimWorld Access is a mod that makes RimWorld playable with a screen reader and a keyboard. It adds keyboard navigation and spoken announcements to the game's interface, so the same things you would do with a mouse, from building a base to running a colony, you can do by listening and pressing keys.
A note on the people behind this¶
The mod was started by Shane Earley, who built the foundation and did the early work that made everything else possible. Shane transferred the project to me, Aaron Ramirez, in early 2026, and I've been the main person working on it since. If you get something useful out of this, a lot of the credit belongs to Shane.
Why existing guides work here¶
The mod was built to mirror the way the game's interface is structured rather than create a separate path through it. The screens you reach, the menus you open, the names of things: they line up closely with what a sighted player sees. That matters because RimWorld has a huge community and a detailed wiki, and most of what's there applies directly.
I learned the game by watching sighted players on YouTube. These docs are not meant to replace the wiki, and they are not the best strategy advice available. For playing well, the RimWorld wiki is the better resource. These docs cover how to work the mod's controls. For everything else, including getting good at the game itself, see Where to learn RimWorld.
What you are getting into¶
RimWorld is deep. It was inspired by Dwarf Fortress, which gives you a sense of the territory. People put hundreds of hours into it and still find new things. The learning curve is real.
The difficulty is adjustable, though, and that helps a lot. Turn it down and raids get rare and mild, you get room to learn the controls, and the game plays a bit like a darker, more grown-up Sims: build a home, keep people fed and mostly happy, watch small dramas unfold. Someone will have a mental break over a bad haircut, and you will learn to live with that.
If you are new to this, especially if colony sims are new to you, start on a low difficulty or peaceful mode. Learn the keyboard first, get a colony on its feet, and turn the pressure up later. You can raise or lower difficulty at any point in a running save, so there is no need to commit to anything right away.
For context, the closest prior reference in blind gaming for this kind of depth is Castaways by Aprone, a survival and colony game that has been a community favorite for years. Other complex management games have since become accessible too, including Oxygen Not Included. RimWorld sits in that same territory, with a lot of systems to learn. These docs exist because that learning curve is worth some guidance.
Download¶
Download the latest release, then follow Installation to set it up. A Steam Workshop release that installs and updates automatically is planned for later. The one setup step you should not skip is turning off the Steam in-game overlay, so keys like Shift+Tab actually reach the game.
Where to go next¶
You do not have to read these docs cover to cover. Here is where most people should start.
- New here? Start with Installation, then First launch to get the mod set up and find the RimWorld Access options.
- Want to understand how the controls work? The Core Concepts section is the foundation. If you understand how menus, the map, the scanner, gizmos, the context menu, and the info card work, you can find your way around any screen in the game.
- Just need a key? The keyboard reference lists every shortcut, organized by where you are when you press it.
- Want to get good at RimWorld itself? See Where to learn RimWorld for the wiki, the YouTubers, and the advice that turns a struggling first colony into something that survives.
If you would rather not jump between pages, the whole thing is also available as one long page. That is the place to read it all at once. I would hold off on saving a copy to read offline, though, since I expect to be updating these docs often and a saved copy will fall behind.