Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Valve Corporation: Make the Steam platform more accessible to blind and visually impaired people (change.org)
submitted 8y ago by fastfinge
lbtm 3 points
I'm all for more accessible gaming, but I don't think a change.org petition is going to do much to influence a company like Valve.
To bring about a change in priorities at modern tech companies, you need motivated internal stakeholders to drive these kinds of efforts. Either that or you can try to have an advocacy organization threaten them with lawsuits, but that causes more harm than good.
To bring about a change in priorities at modern tech companies, you need motivated internal stakeholders to drive these kinds of efforts. Either that or you can try to have an advocacy organization threaten them with lawsuits, but that causes more harm than good.
fastfinge [OP] 1 points
Honestly, I agree with you. I don't think it'll help, either. But if someone wants to try, taking a minute to sign the petition and share it seems like the least I can do. If we assume a petition won't work, it definitely won't. If we try, it probably still won't work. But at least it was tried.
Marconius 1 points
The valve corporation works in a cabal type system where ideas are floated around the company and as they build up supporters they work to unanimously movie idea forward. I don't know if a petition will do anything about this, but I do have friends who work at valve and at other gaming companies around the same area that may help get the idea started within the company. I miss all of my games purchased through my steam account, but gaining access to them again and to more accessible games would be fantastic.
Steam is on the Mac, so there may be voiceover potential there for future updates…
Steam is on the Mac, so there may be voiceover potential there for future updates…
fastfinge [OP] 1 points
From a development perspective, access on the mac would probably be the easiest to implement, seeing as OS X has a well-documented set of accessibility guidelines and APIs, and they make the screen reader, so it implements all of the APIs in the documented way. On Windows, of course, there are multiple screen reading packages, and they all do things slightly differently. While there are APIs on Windows like IAccessible2, support and implementations differ.
As for your games, if you want to access them right now, and have access to Windows, a guide on how to do that is at:
http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?id=13431
It requires that you use the NVDA screen reader, and have installed the OCR Extension for NVDA. Basically, using steam involves trying to run OCR on the text in the steam Window, and clicking on likely looking bits of text. In my experience, this breaks frequently, and I would, in the strongest possible terms, not recommend anyone who is blind purchase any Steam games; any update could, at any time, break this solution, and you will lose all of the money you've invested in games. Also, it won't work on Mac, or with anything but NVDA, Firefox, and Windows. But if you already have some steam games, maybe because you got them for free in a promotion, or because you purchased them before you lost your vision, you can still sort of access them for now, sometimes.
As for your games, if you want to access them right now, and have access to Windows, a guide on how to do that is at:
http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?id=13431
It requires that you use the NVDA screen reader, and have installed the OCR Extension for NVDA. Basically, using steam involves trying to run OCR on the text in the steam Window, and clicking on likely looking bits of text. In my experience, this breaks frequently, and I would, in the strongest possible terms, not recommend anyone who is blind purchase any Steam games; any update could, at any time, break this solution, and you will lose all of the money you've invested in games. Also, it won't work on Mac, or with anything but NVDA, Firefox, and Windows. But if you already have some steam games, maybe because you got them for free in a promotion, or because you purchased them before you lost your vision, you can still sort of access them for now, sometimes.
indent 1 points
Even if this petition were to go through, I don't really see how making the Steam client accessible would help - the games themselves would still be inaccessible, and you'd have to petition every individual developer for updates.
To that end, I think it would be better to focus on a blind specific gaming service instead. I've actually been working with some blind developers to set up something similar to steam, hopefully to drive more audiogame development and get more titles out there. We should have the first titles out in the next few months.
To that end, I think it would be better to focus on a blind specific gaming service instead. I've actually been working with some blind developers to set up something similar to steam, hopefully to drive more audiogame development and get more titles out there. We should have the first titles out in the next few months.
fastfinge [OP] 1 points
Actually, there are several developers who sell through steam, like Choice Of Games, who's games are otherwise perfectly accessible. Also, the developers of Skullgirls (and Shank apparently) have added accessibility features to their games. Unfortunately, it doesn't really do any good, as it's almost impossible to purchase or update the games without sighted help. I think that's what prompted the petition in the first place; there are lots of game developers who are quite willing to help us out. But requiring that they abandon steam to become accessible on PC seems unreasonable.
Acts_Like_A_Cunt -4 points
What a stupid move, blind people can't play video games.
fastfinge [OP] 1 points
Actually, they can:
http://shoryuken.com/2014/01/31/mike-mike-z-zaimont-updates-skullgirls-encore-to-enhance-accessibility-for-blind-players/
http://shoryuken.com/2014/01/31/mike-mike-z-zaimont-updates-skullgirls-encore-to-enhance-accessibility-for-blind-players/
Acts_Like_A_Cunt -5 points
It's not a VIDEO game if you can't SEE it. That's more like an AUDIO game.
lbtm 3 points
Fitting username if I've ever seen one...
fastfinge [OP] 3 points
It's a mainstream game with added features. That'd be like saying it's not a TV show if you watch it on your COMPUTER. Also, for that matter, many major video game sites review MUDs, browser based games, interactive fiction, and other things that are called video games even though they don't involve any video.
Unuhi 1 points
I tried to explore valve and steam a while back.
I'm completely clueless in Windows. Even after asking some friends who do audio gaming in Windows. :'(
I'm completely clueless in Windows. Even after asking some friends who do audio gaming in Windows. :'(
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