AbleGamers Reviews Games From a Disability Standpoint 125
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Soulskill
from the gaming-for-all dept.
from the gaming-for-all dept.
eldavojohn writes "Early last month a visually impaired gamer sued Sony under the Americans with Disabilities Act (and if you think that people with disabilities don't play games, think again). The AbleGamers Foundation has decided to step forward and provide a rating system for games that blends together a number of factors to determine a score with regard to accessibility. Visual, hearing, motion, closed captioning, speed settings, difficulty settings and even colorblindness options are all taken into account when compiling these scores and reviewing these games."
The equivalent... (Score:1, Interesting)
...of forcing Hollywood to make all movies accessible to the blind.
I feel sorry for those with disabilities, but be realistic. Game producers don't need the extra delays and budgetary nonsense programming in these concessions to the disabled would bring.
Just started to look at their site (Score:5, Interesting)
I have just started to look at their site and the first thing that I notice as the page was loading was that the pictures that you click on near the top to go to choose the platform all have the same alt text of "xbox reviews". That will be confusing for someone using a screen reader.
I thought the whole layout seemed a bit complicated and confusing, with javascript menus and a very busy interface. Gray text on a gray background seems an odd choice for the color blind people out there.
Still, at least they are raising public awareness. Even if you don't think that game makers should HAVE to provide support for all disabilities, this kind of site fills in the role that most game reviewers would not consider.
This is absolute nonesense (Score:2, Interesting)
If you have no legs or can't walk, you're never going to learn karate and becoming a kickboxing champion. End of story
There are certain things, of course yes we can make more accessible to the disabled, but I'm sorry, gaming is NOT one of them. A recreation that refines split second reflex and hand eye coordination SHOULD NOT BE MUCKED UP so someone with fucking parkinsons can play it 'easier'.
If you have Parkinson? Sorry you simply can play games that require a steady refined hand. END OF STORY.
I know im going to get modded as troll / flamebait but i am SICK TO DEATH of people who are PHYSICALLY LIMITED EXPECTING TO BE ABLE TO DO THINGS AS IF THEY ARE NOT: REALITY CHECK, YOU CAN'T AND YOU NEVER WILL, DEAL WITH IT
Re:Accessibility Ratings? Good. Lawsuit? No. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Sueing? (Score:3, Interesting)
I have a mild red/green color blindness and find some games with color codings difficult to navigate. I had an especially hard time distinguishing the green and yellow elements in Chrono Cross where color is a primary component of the game play.
Re:Accessibility Ratings? Good. Lawsuit? No. (Score:3, Interesting)
That's how I found out. People thought I was kidding when I said I couldn't read the ishihara tests.
It's a bitch of a disability too, I've had many job opportunities pulled from me because of it, and the misunderstanding of what color blindness actually is.
Why is that a problem? Because the government doesn't consider color blindness a real disability. Increasing numbers of jobs tack on 'normal color vision' into their job descriptions because some person up the chain thought it would be a good thing to toss in.
I once had to fight for my job as a test engineer because I worked with aircraft. Naturally the government decided that since it dealt with aircraft, you had to have normal color vision. Because you know how important color vision is when testing god damned communication links.
I had to go to vision specialists to 'prove' that I could do my job. It took 2 months to get everything sorted out.
Too many people don't understand what this disability is, and think it is ok to just slap the 'normal color vision' requirement into a job without actually considering what that means.
Re:Sueing? (Score:3, Interesting)
Let me tell you, until you've watched the Imagination-land part 1 episode in descriptive video, you have NEVER truly seen South Park.
Sadly, parts 2 and 3 were done with a different voice actor who seems to be a moron whose writer wasn't paying attention. But the first one is fan-bloody-tastic.