GameSpot is reporting a lawsuit, filed by a visually impaired gamer, alleges Sony is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by not making its games more accessible with reasonable modifications.
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But now, one visually impaired gamer has gone beyond simply requesting accessibility features and is demanding them by way of a lawsuit. Last month, disabled gamer Alexander Stern filed suit against Sony, Sony Online Entertainment, and Sony Computer Entertainment America in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. The suit alleges that Sony is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to implement features to make its games accessible to visually impaired gamers.
The Americans with Disabilities Act states that, "No individual shall be discriminated against on the basis of disability in the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of any place of public accommodation by any person who owns, leases (or leases to), or operates a place of public accommodation."
According to the suit, Sony ignored repeated requests through postal mail and e-mail to come up with reasonable modifications to its games to make them more accessible. The suit, which doesn't mention SOE games by name but appears to focus on massively multiplayer online titles, requests the addition of visual cues to point gamers to their destinations for gamers with "disability impaired visual processing."
No. Uh... No. I don't think so. It can't be coming to this. Next up, the double amputee that's suing Huffy for failing to provide prosthetic legs with their bikes.
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Is a paralyzed man going to sue a bike maker next? A sony game isn't exactly a "place of public accommodation." I understand if a public place needs to be accessible but this is a privately owned luxury product. It sucks to be any degree of blind but come the eff on...
Is his theory that an MMO is a virtual place of public accomadation?
Too bad he (or his lawyer) can't actually be bothered to read the AMA. MMO's don't make the cut. Here's ADA 36.104 (defintions):
Place of public accommodation means a facility, operated by a private entity, whose operations affect commerce and fall within at least one of the following categories --
(1) An inn, hotel, motel, or other place of lodging, except for an establishment located within a building that contains not more than five rooms for rent or hire and that is actually occupied by the proprietor of the establishment as the residence of the proprietor;
(2) A restaurant, bar, or other establishment serving food or drink;
(3) A motion picture house, theater, concert hall, stadium, or other place of exhibition or entertainment;
(4) An auditorium, convention center, lecture hall, or other place of public gathering;
(5) A bakery, grocery store, clothing store, hardware store, shopping center, or other sales or rental establishment;
(6) A laundromat, dry-cleaner, bank, barber shop, beauty shop, travel service, shoe repair service, funeral parlor, gas station, office of an accountant or lawyer, pharmacy, insurance office, professional office of a health care provider, hospital, or other service establishment;
(7) A terminal, depot, or other station used forspecified public transportation;
(8) A museum, library, gallery, or other place of public display or collection;
(9) A park, zoo, amusement park, or other place of recreation;
(10) A nursery, elementary, secondary, undergraduate, or postgraduate private school, or other place of education;
(11) A day care center, senior citizen center, homeless shelter, food bank, adoption agency, or other social service center establishment; and
(12) A gymnasium, health spa, bowling alley, golf course, or other place of exercise or recreation.
It is a sad fact in this country you can sue anyone for any reason. This asshat will get some money. The biggest loser here will be the consumer. We will pay more for Sony branded products as a result. I should sue for that.
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Why just Sony? I agree partly as some things about games really do annoy me. I am colour blind in green and brown and sometimes games do not allow for simple things like hud change colour. Little things like that are really helpful.
Reminds me of the strip club that got sued by some girl confined to a wheelchair because they wouldn't hire her to be a pole dancer. Yeah, that happened.
It was also slapped down in court by a reasonable judge.
Also..not sure why people bother arguing with teecakes... I sincerely believe now that he is a bot built by Sony and unleashed on small community sites.
Why just Sony? I agree partly as some things about games really do annoy me. I am colour blind in green and brown and sometimes games do not allow for simple things like hud change colour. Little things like that are really helpful.
It sounds like he wants to play a sony game and can't, or at least not in its entirety. I know WoW for example has color settings for the color blind *shrug*
This aint nothing though, try having public design projects and sites utterly destroyed to support ADA. Sometimes ADA is simply not feasible or the cost becomes such that its not even worth doing, but we're forced to support it. There's a point where people need to suck it up and not expect everyone else to pick up the bill for their problem (not that reasonable efforts should not be made). /rant
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JFC, enough with this shit, its not the world's fault people are born with disablities, and its not the world's duty to accommodate itself to everyone.
i'm going to sue because i suck at games, and since they're too hard for me, all the developers are discriminating against me, who's joining me?
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Hey, start supporting this guy. Now Sony will have to develop a system that connects directly to your brain, ala the Matrix. This is the first step to straight-up "mind-control" videogames - NATAL v33.0!
i'm going to sue because i suck at games, and since they're too hard for me, all the developers are discriminating against me, who's joining me?
Not all of the developers, Nintendo is adding noob mode to New Super Mario Bros. Wii. The game will play itself after you die 8 times. Maybe you should stick to that
Im actually suing every country that speaks another language, because i cant understand them. things like this make me really hang my head in shame for America..
Why just Sony? I agree partly as some things about games really do annoy me. I am colour blind in green and brown and sometimes games do not allow for simple things like hud change colour. Little things like that are really helpful.
The lawsuit isn't even about something as sensible as that. Let's focus on one specific sentence from the article...
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Originally Posted by The Article
The suit, which doesn't mention SOE games by name but appears to focus on massively multiplayer online titles, requests the addition of visual cues to point gamers to their destinations for gamers with "disability impaired visual processing."
Based off of the limited information in this article, the plaintiff either has a visual processing learning disability or his eyesight is pretty damn bad; regardless, he's essentially asking for blatant markers to point out where to go in a friggin' quest chain.
I really do feel for this person. There honestly isn't a day that goes by where I try to imagine my life without eyesight or the ability to hear and the impact it would have on my life. I draw and paint; without eyesight, I would be hardpressed to be able to pursue my artistic goals, let alone take in the visual mediums I love. Without hearings, my life would be closed off to the music I love. This is a terrible prospect and I really, truely feel for this person.
At the same time, however, one has to realize that a disability may just force you to turn your back on something you love. Blindness inherently restricts your ability to enjoy visually based mediums, such as books, films and video games.
I seriously doubt, however, that this person is visually impaired, given the fact that he's asking for visual cues to help point him in the right direction. I'd be willing to bet he has trouble processing visual information, can't quite get where to go and needs some extra help. I'm sure there's a site like WoWHead for whatever SOE game he's trying to play that can help fill in the blanks.
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