Sony Sued For Discrimination Against the Blind

[neilsaccount]

as soon as i saw visually impaired gamer i said out loud to myself, how in the hell is that possible? If i couldnt see the screen and all my objectives then it wouldnt be fun for me at all. Just listen to music or something kid if you need audio cues

 

[Gebi10000]

That guy has a point. films and books are easily accessible to visually impaired, why not games?
There are already tons of applications to make PC games assessable to these people ,and if sony isn't supporting them, that makes them the pricks.

 

[goldenheart323]

If this guy wins, at least Capcom will finally make a patch to make Dead Rising readable on standard def TV's.

Frankly it should be taken seriously, if this guy does have enough vision to get something out of a computer monitor, why can't Sony provide a mod to make certain things easier to see or tell out? It makes me sick the lack of sympathy that is being projected here. As Tom pointed out, there have been plugins and mods made to make it easier for vision deficiency. I have to wonder why Sony is being so short-sighted. (Okay, that was a pun, but it still fits.) A lot of people in this thread scoff at people with half the vision ability of others, how would you feel if you had only one arm and Logitech and Microsoft refused to make a mouse with more buttons and controls on it to make up for the lack of ability? May as well say that games are only for the super healthy.

It's not a question of "Why can't Sony do that?" it's a question of "Why should Sony be FORCED to do that?"

Games are made to be played by people with 2 hands, 10 fingers, 1 eye with average sight, and the mental capacity of a 10yr old. I would hardly call people with those minimum requirements "super healthy". Have you seen any hard core gamers??? Definitely NOT super healthy.

 

[laikenf]

I'm not quite sure but doesn't visually impaired cover a wide spectrum of visual disablilties not just complete blindness, i mean it also covers people who as parshally blind, extreme colour blindness etc etc.

'Blind' is used to cover all sorts of sight impairments, lots of people can be registered as blind but can still see to some degree, just not as well as the majority of people. I imagine that the person who is fighting against Sony will have some vision, obviously enough to see the characters on the screen just not all of the text or finer details of the graphics.

It sounds like a stupid idea but I think it would be looked at differently if it was 'Sony sued for discrimination against the partially sighted'. It is reasonable to put large text in games, but I wouldn't say that it's going to be taken all that seriously in court.

Frankly it should be taken seriously, if this guy does have enough vision to get something out of a computer monitor, why can't Sony provide a mod to make certain things easier to see or tell out? It makes me sick the lack of sympathy that is being projected here. As Tom pointed out, there have been plugins and mods made to make it easier for vision deficiency. I have to wonder why Sony is being so short-sighted. (Okay, that was a pun, but it still fits.) A lot of people in this thread scoff at people with half the vision ability of others, how would you feel if you had only one arm and Logitech and Microsoft refused to make a mouse with more buttons and controls on it to make up for the lack of ability? May as well say that games are only for the super healthy.

I think the problem is the way he approaches the situation. Millions of blind people out there manage, and when I say manage I mean that they find there way around circumstances in life that a lot of times end up enhancing other abilities they already possess. Video gaming is no more than pleasure, leisure; it's not an essential part of everyday life, therefore devising alternate ways to enjoy himself with such recreational tools would be the path a normal blind (or visually impaired) person would take (someone mentioned earlier a blind kid who could beat Super Mario Bros.).

It is quite amazing the things blind (or visually impaired) people come up with when faced with such challenges, and facing these challenges with determination is what makes the rest of us sympathize with people with disabilities; his actions will only bring out the worst reaction out of most of us, because a lot of people see it as an abuse, and see him as just another greedy human being.

 

[MercurySteam]

The hell? That's an absolute load of crap. We may as well start saying that Sony is being discriminative against the poor as the PS3 isn't cheap enough.

They can't make modifications to games that were "suggested" by one little person.

I'd like batteries that never run out for my wireless controller, lightning fast download speeds and a 0% of RRoD, but I don't think even Microsoft could provide any of those things.

Sure I'm over exaggerating, but it's not Sony's fault he's visually impaired, and it's not Stern's fault Sony can't implement small modifications for their games wanted by one person.

 

[Uncompetative]

The more reasonable course would be for this fellow to put all his money into developing Interactive Fiction MUDs rather than pay lawyers' fees.

 

[Lt. Vinciti]

Lawsuits! Sign-up Now!
1.Deaf v Guitar Hero/Rock Band
2.Paraplegic v Nintendo Wii Fit
Am I missing any?

"Stern also wants Sony to make its online auction system, through which players auction off in-game items for real money, to be accessible to the visually impaired" (Hey,isnt this bannable by MMO companies?)

 

[Rensa]

I might point out that I never said it isn't a good idea for Sony to make its games more accessible (not just to the vision-impaired but also to hearing-impaired, motor-impaired, etc.). I think that's a fantastic idea. But it's also a far cry from placing a legal obligation on the developer or publisher of an artwork to make its work accessible.

 

[HentMas]

Jesus, some people here seem to think its a bad idea to make games more accesible to everyone, he haves a point!, and i see his reason to be much more in touch with the gaming comunity than say "dedicated servers" wich people seem to ***** twice a day.

 

[Lilani]

This is like a deaf person suing Bose for not making a music player they can use. Some things are just impossible and/or pointless to make accommodations for EVERYONE.

Not that I find it a bad thing when they do try. Reasonable accommodations are fine if they want to go that extra mile, that's no problem at all. In fact, things like that should only help their business. But when it's not required or beneficial to your safety, don't go around suing people.

 

[EeveeElectro]

Oh yeah, and 360 and Wii make games for the visually impared. I forgot. ¬.¬

 

[BangsLiekWhoa]

The most strange thing here is that he is picking on Sony. Why not sue the other companies as well?

 

[StarStruckStrumpets]

Is it just me, or are Sony up for the court bash this year?
First the District 9 thing, then that other thing that I can't remember...now this?
Good grief.

OT: As it has been said above, it isn't a right to be catered for when it is a luxury industry. How would a blind person play a game anyway? I can't imagine them being great at the Hack 'n' Slash genre to say the least...

 

[asinann]

The code in Everquest is so old, and the original code wasn't mapped (Verant, the original makers didn't expect the game to last 6 months) add in the lack of devs (there's a whopping total of 7) and they just don't have time to completely recode a 10 year old game to allow the blind to play in a visual medium.

This is like suing auto makers because the blind can't drive.

And for those of you suggesting he may just be color blind, I'm color blind and I can play EQ just fine.