Accessibility
Charlie’s week is a lot, and everyone should get to see how it ends. Here is exactly what the game offers today for playing by ear, with bigger text, with less motion, or with a controller or keyboard, and, just as plainly, what it doesn’t do yet.
Applies to the Charlie app for iPhone, iPad and Mac, and to the game on this website. Each item says where it works. Last updated October 21, 2026.
📲 Get the app: iPhone, iPad and Mac. Free, no ads, no in-app purchases. The app is always the clean version of the game; the website starts in its ruder R version.
- Voices and subtitles
- Screen readers
- Text size and zoom
- Motion
- Controls
- Chill Mode
- Not there yet
- Tell us
Voices and subtitles
Every hooman talks, and every line stays on screen App and website
The cast’s lines are voiced, and each one also appears in a speech bubble, so the bubbles work as subtitles. Turn Voices off and the bubbles stay. In the app it’s in Settings and on the pause card; on the website it’s at the bottom of the title screen and on the pause screen.
A few things are text only on purpose: Charlie, Puppy, Pepe and the rats bark, yap and hiss instead of talking, text messages are shown rather than read out, and lines built from numbers (prices, the clock) aren’t voiced.
Subtitle size App
Settings → Subtitle size: Small, Medium, Large or Huge, with a preview. It sizes the speech bubbles, Charlie’s thoughts and the opening scene’s captions.
Separate volumes App
Settings has its own switch or slider for Sound, Music, Music volume, Sound effects, Voices and Voice volume, and the music steps back while someone talks.
Screen readers
VoiceOver in the app App
- Menus, Settings and the in-game buttons are labelled: Health, Fluffy’s temper, each ability with “ready” or “recharging”, Zoom and Pause.
- Big moments are announced once, not on repeat: Volcano Mode and Devil Mode, each Watch Mode highlight as it starts, and every mission result with its stars.
- Watch Mode’s end-of-day card waits for you while VoiceOver is on, instead of moving on by itself.
Describe Watch Mode App and website
Watch Mode plays itself, so you can enjoy Charlie’s week by ear. With a screen reader running, it describes what’s on screen in the gaps between the voices: what the narrator says, who’s talking, where Charlie is, and each highlight. It’s on by default.
In the app: Settings → Describe Watch Mode (it only speaks while VoiceOver is on). On the website: the Describe Watch Mode for screen readers checkbox on the Watch Mode screen. Pause and pick Today so far to go over the day.
The website with a screen reader Website
Buttons and switches are real buttons with names, the ability buttons say which ability they are, and Watch Mode’s descriptions and highlights come through a polite live region, so they don’t cut off what your screen reader is saying.
Text size, zoom and colors
Bigger text in the menus App
The screens you read follow your device’s text size (Dynamic Type), up to the largest accessibility sizes: Story Mode, a mission’s intro, How to play, the cast, Top Dogs, Watch Mode, Settings, Extras, the pause card and the result card. The title screen and the game world are drawn art and keep their size; inside the game, use Subtitle size and the zoom.
Zoom App and website
The 🔍 button switches between Close, Room and Whole. You can also pinch, scroll or pinch on a trackpad, press − and +, or use the shoulder buttons on a controller. Charlie remembers your choice.
Pinch-zoom the pages Website
Browser zoom isn’t blocked: you can pinch-zoom the menus and every page of this site, including this one. Over the game itself, a pinch zooms the game’s camera instead.
Light and dark App and website
Theme: Auto (follows your device), Light or Dark. In the app it’s in Settings; on the website it’s on the title screen, the pause screen and at the foot of these pages.
Motion and haptics
Reduce Motion App and website
In the app, Settings → Reduce Motion: Device (follows your device’s setting), On or Off. On means gentler screen shakes and flashes, screens that fade instead of sliding, and a zoom that cuts instead of gliding.
The website follows your device’s Reduce Motion setting: screen shakes drop to a fifth, flashes are shorter and fainter, and the pulsing, bouncing and popping animations on the title screen and the HUD stop.
Haptics iPhone and iPad
Settings → Haptics turns off the bumps, Volcano Mode’s rumble and Devil Mode’s heartbeat.
Controls
Touch, either hand App and website
Put your thumb down anywhere and drag to move; the abilities are one tap each. In the app (not yet on the website), Settings → Left-handed puts the ability buttons on the left.
Keyboard and game controllers App and website
The app works with Xbox, PlayStation and MFi controllers; the website with any controller your browser supports. On iPad and Mac the app plays with a keyboard, and so does the website.
| Action | Keyboard | Controller |
|---|---|---|
| Move | Arrow keys or WASD | Left stick or d-pad |
| Zoomies | Space | A / ✕ |
| Puppy Eyes | E | Y / △ |
| Herd Bark | Q | X / □ |
| Pause | Esc or P | Menu / Options |
| Zoom out, in | − + | L1 / LB, R1 / RB |
| Photo Mode | F | R3 / RS (press the right stick) |
Those are the usual keys and buttons. Controls (in the app: Settings → Controls; on the website: Controls at the bottom of the title screen) moves any of these actions to another key or button: pick the action, press the new key, and a key another action already has swaps with it. Reset keys and buttons puts them back. Moving (arrow keys, W A S D, the stick and d-pad), Esc and Menu / Options stay where they are, so there’s always a way to pause and get back. In the app your choice follows you through iCloud; the website keeps it in that browser.
Hold to move or tap to toggle. With Tap to toggle (in Controls), tap a direction key or the d-pad (or flick the stick) and Charlie keeps walking that way; tap it again to stop, or another direction to turn. Every ability is a single press, never a hold, and petting, digging and starting a mission from Free Roam only need Charlie to stand still.
On menus, a controller’s stick or d-pad moves between the buttons, A / ✕ presses and B / ○ goes back. In the app the arrow keys move a gold focus ring the same way, Return presses and Esc goes back; on the Mac, Tab and ⇧Tab step through the buttons too. On the website, Tab, Return and Esc work as they do on any page.
Menu bar and shortcuts Mac and iPad
The Game menu has Pause (⌘P), Restart (⌘R), Quit to Menu (⌘.), Story Mode, The Cast and Bonus Extras (⌘1 to 3), and Sound (⇧⌘M). How to Play is ⌘? and Settings is ⌘,.
Chill Mode
For little pups, grown-up pups, first-timers, and anyone who’d like a calmer walk. In the app it’s in Settings; on the website, tap Chill Mode at the bottom of the title screen. Turn on as much or as little as you like. App and website
- ❤️ Extra hearts: Charlie has twice the health, 200 instead of 100.
- 🐢 Slower hoomans: everyone else walks at three-quarter speed. Charlie doesn’t.
- ⚡ Quicker abilities: Zoomies, Puppy Eyes and Bark recharge twice as fast.
- ⏰ No running out of time: on the road trips (Missions 9 and 10) the rats never quite finish the engine cables.
- 🚶 Just a Walk: Free Roam where nothing hurts Charlie.
Stars count the same and it’s still the whole story. Survival runs with Chill Mode on stay off Top Dogs and Game Center, so those boards compare like with like.
Or don’t play at all App and website
Watch Mode needs no input: pick a speed and an excitement level and Charlie lives his week by himself. Nothing can hurt him there.
Not there yet
Honestly, so you don’t have to find out the hard way:
- Touch has no toggle. Tap to toggle and remapping are for keyboards and controllers; on a touchscreen, moving still means keeping a thumb down and dragging. The moving keys themselves (arrows and W A S D) can’t be changed, and neither can Shift, Control or the other modifier keys be used for an action.
- Missions need sight. With VoiceOver you hear the big moments and the results, and Watch Mode is described, but playing a mission still means seeing where Charlie and the danger are.
- Color. Danger zones are red patches on the floor, and there’s no setting for another color or a pattern.
- Sound effects aren’t captioned. The bubbles cover what people say; alarms, the vacuum and the rest have no captions.
- The website has fewer settings than the app: no subtitle size, no left-handed layout, and Reduce Motion follows your device with no switch of its own.
- English only, in the voices and the text.
Tell us what would help
If something gets in your way, or one of the gaps above matters to you, email support@caldrion.com. Say whether it’s the app or the website, and which device. It helps us decide what to build next.
Stuck on a mission instead? Charlie’s Guide has tips for every one, and the FAQ covers sound, saves and controllers.