Blind People Want to Play, Too

Alexander Stern filed a lawsuit against Sony because according to ADA the company does not make games more accessible. And before we shrug this off by saying that they can't make blind people see anyway, let's look at some of the implications.

Certain games cannot be made accessible for the blind for the simple fact that they require vision. But what kind of vision? Many blind people play games because based on the sounds they are able to navigate them without having to see the screen. Maybe they are not achieving the same results as their sighted peers, but really what's important here: to score high, or to get out of everyday duties and play a bit.

And there is more to this lawsuit. Stern also wants to auction his characters which other people are able to do, but this feature is not accessible. Well, this should not require any vision, even if the game itself does. I don't see any reason why he shouldn't be able to do if there is a possibility out there and technology would allow him to do it if it was used properly.

And one thing that Sony is surely guilty of is that the company chose to disregard Stern's repeated formal requests. I don't have any information whether Stern mentioned the possibility of a lawsuit in his requests, but it is just good company practice to respond to legitimate requests.

And this is still not the end of the implications of this lawsuit, because it is not the first case that a company got into trouble because of ADA. Section 508 demands accessibility at the Federal Government, but many companies tried to get away without making products accessible for people with disabilities. However, in the recent years, ADA is getting a more thorough interpretation, and it is actually applicable to the private sector, as the Target settlement shows for example

Stern's lawsuit will actually be very helpful to continue making the precedence that at this age, we cannot ignore people with disabilities. Not only because they could mean one fifth of a company's revenue, but because it is not a society which would tolerate discrimination.