Sony Sued For Discrimination Against the Blind

Tom Goldman

Crying on the inside.
Aug 17, 2009
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Sony Sued For Discrimination Against the Blind



According to one gamer, Sony is not doing enough to make its games playable by the visually impaired.

Visually impaired gamer Alexander Stern believes that Sony is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by discriminating against the blind, and has filed a lawsuit to get the company to comply with his demands. Before you get all up in a huff, the suit does not claim that the PlayStation 3 is in violation because it displays graphics on a television. Rather, Stern's lawsuit was filed over Sony Online Entertainment's failure to make its online games as accessible as possible.

Though no specific videogame has been named in the suit, the one most likely involved here would be SOE's Everquest. Stern claims that he has been sending both emails and snail mail to Sony for a while, requesting simple ways that Sony can make its games easier to play, though these requests have been ignored. Other games, such as World of Warcraft, already allow for third-party modifications that have been aiding visually impaired gamers. Two examples include an audio compass and a text-to-voice inventory system; these are what Stern hopes to get Sony to implement, or to at least allow for the possibility.

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. Because Stern can't access this feature, Sony is costing Stern money, says the suit. If it is not easily possible for Stern to use the marketplace to sell his items, I can see his point.

Strangely enough, this is one of the first lawsuits in recent memory that doesn't strike me as unreasonable. Stern only wants to be able to access the same features as everyone else, and for Sony to allow for the same modifications to be added to its games that plenty of other games already have. If I was Stern, I'd be royally pissed that I couldn't get the same dose of Evercrack as everyone else too.

Source: Gamespot [http://www.gamespot.com/news/6239339.html]

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APPCRASH

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Mar 30, 2009
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Excuse me while I get my laser pointer. I'm off to go sue books, driving, tennis, and my computer screen.
 

Barky13

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Apr 7, 2009
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How would a blind person play games at all? Yes, an audio compass and text-to-voice are both good ideas but I can't imagine the situation being very enjoyable. Then again, that may just be because I'm so used to being able to see.
 

leeloodallasmultipass

THE Fifth Element
Mar 23, 2009
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This will fail. They dont have to Cater for anyone. they are providing a luxury service not a persons right. they have no obligation at all to provide games for anyone, let alone a visually impaired person.
 

SpiritMacardi

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Feb 4, 2008
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If he's blind, how the heck did he even find the game to ***** about it? And how did he write e-mails for that matter?
 

dmase

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Mar 12, 2009
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Its not as easy to mod games on a console as compared to a pc, yeah they could offer something on ps store but then you would probably have to make a download for ever different game. This is were sony is saying to itself shit why couldn't he have been a microsoft fanboy.
 

Rensa

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Nov 4, 2008
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Lawl.
APPCRASH said:
Excuse me while I get my laser pointer. I'm off to go sue books, driving, tennis, and my computer screen.
Bingo. Art forms can't fall under the jurisdiction of discrimination legislation. Should painters be obliged to make paintings accessible?
 

Elesar

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Apr 16, 2009
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The Music industry is discriminating against the deaf.
Or more seriously, thank you, you blind idiot. You've given me more evidence that the entire frakking culture is Sue-Crazy.
 

Go on

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Mar 11, 2009
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Like someone else said videogames is a freakin luxury you cant claim to have personal rights over it.
 

vshade

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Oct 29, 2009
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SpiritMacardi said:
If he's blind, how the heck did he even find the game to ***** about it? And how did he write e-mails for that matter?
I don't know if you are being sarcastic, but I have a visually impaired friend who works as a programmer. Some games could be made more accessible, like having some big notes with big contrast in guitar hero for example.

But I really think he is just trying to make easy money...
 

Proteus214

Game Developer
Jul 31, 2009
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I know that a lot of companies are getting into making games more accessible to the handicapped, but making a game accessible to the visually impaired is incredibly difficult.
 

GodsAndFishes

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Mar 22, 2009
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He might as well go and sue Honda, or Toyota, or any other car manufacturer as cars aren't able to be driven by the blind.
 

Lvl 64 Klutz

Crowsplosion!
Apr 8, 2008
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Wait, wait, wait...

Sony encourages RMT now!? Guess I know my fall-back plan for finding a job.
 

Iron Mal

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Jun 4, 2008
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As some would know, my favorite games are the kind that you can play with a blindfold on (they're so calm and peaceful, plus the music is brilliant), the shame there is that they're very, very rare.

Seriously though, while I'm sure it would be possible to make some games accessable to the visually impaired it would a) be difficult to impliment without making it ostentaious or comedic (who can honestly say that the audio descriptions that some films have aren't funny?) and b) would only be used by a small percentage of players (making it more effort than it's worth).

Sadly, when you become blind your gaming days are clearly over (it's one of those past-times that just so happens to be centred around seeing things).
 

Jinx_Dragon

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Jan 19, 2009
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I just need to point out that visually impaired does not automatically mean blind.

But...

I am sure the people with visual problems understand that there are going to be certain things they can not do, simply because they lack the full spectrum of sight. Computer games would rate quite high on those list of things a person lacking full sight would find less enjoyable. Honestly, if your struggling enough to see the screen that you need audio keys to know when your facing 'north' then you do have to consider that, maybe, you are too far gone to truely enjoy this medium. It sucks, seeing the world as a blur or not at all, but one can't really blame a game designer for your misfortune.

This sounds to me that one said person realized Sony has a online store. Because they are trading for real money an argument against them could, more easily, be made. Now they can make a case where they where financially 'harmed' by not being able access to trade, and because real money is involved it is discrimination. Caccchiiing.
 

beldaron

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Oct 1, 2009
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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.
 

LegendaryMan

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Jun 30, 2009
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It seems that the stupidest of persons get to sue sony.
While microsoft tries to fight of the cases for Bad hardware Sony
gets sued by 16 year old trolls that got their PSN banned and blind people because their machine isnt blind friendly.
 

SultanP

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Mar 15, 2009
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That guy is a dick. I hate the sue happy morons that somehow, despite their incredible stupidity, long enough to be able to sue people.