Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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About Steam... (self.Blind)
submitted by geoffisblind
So there was a bit of a problem regarding $1 which is a link to a blind accessible game on Steam. It was locked and another MOD post was put up $1 where there was some discussion about blocking all steampowered links. Upon further discussion we have elected not to block links but instead take different action. The concern is not with the steampowered.com website's accessibility or the accessibility of the game itself but rather with the Steam client. For those of you who rely 100% on a screen reader, the Steam client is unfortunately completely inaccessible which renders your purchase unusable because you must have the Steam client to download and launch Steam distributed software.
The official policy as of now is that Steam links will be allowed, but Automoderator will be flairing an "INACCESSIBLE" warning that may not be removed by the OP of a link to anything Steam related. There will also be a warning message posted by Automoderator so as to prevent people from wasting money.
If you did purchase the game that was recently linked and can't play it, /u/Drop9Reddit helpfully posted $1
We hope this strikes a happy medium between censoring the whole site and making sure people don't accidentally waste their money on an inaccessible platform unknowingly. This policy will remain in place until Valve decides to fix the accessibility issue. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about this new policy please don't hesitate to contact the moderation team.
The official policy as of now is that Steam links will be allowed, but Automoderator will be flairing an "INACCESSIBLE" warning that may not be removed by the OP of a link to anything Steam related. There will also be a warning message posted by Automoderator so as to prevent people from wasting money.
If you did purchase the game that was recently linked and can't play it, /u/Drop9Reddit helpfully posted $1
We hope this strikes a happy medium between censoring the whole site and making sure people don't accidentally waste their money on an inaccessible platform unknowingly. This policy will remain in place until Valve decides to fix the accessibility issue. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about this new policy please don't hesitate to contact the moderation team.
Nighthawk321 3 points 7y ago
I got downvoted for saying this earlier, but I'll say it again. It's not 100% inaccessible. You can use NVDA's OCR to navigate it. I know that not everyone uses NVDA. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't JAWS have an oCR function as well? I doubt that the client is remotely usable with VoiceOver, but I thought I would throw in that bit of information about NVDA.
fastfinge 1 points 7y ago
OCR with Jaws doesn't work; I'm told something about how it works doesn't capture the text from the Steam Windows. I don't own JAWS, so I can't verify that though. And OCR with NVDA only works on windows 8 and earlier. If you're using Windows 10, you can't access Steam, even with NVDA and OCR. I can verify this, because I've tried it multiple times. And if you check audiogames.net, you'll find 2 or 3 other users with similar complaints. So Steam is not generally accessible with screen-readers. It can only be forced to somewhat work if you have one particular screen-reader on the exact right platform.
Nighthawk321 1 points 7y ago
Ah gotcha. Yeah I use 8.1 and NVDA, so I'm one of the few exceptions.
fastfinge 1 points 7y ago
Well, don't spend too much money on steam. Because it'll all be wasted if/when you're forced to upgrade to Windows 10 for some reason.
geoffisblind [OP] 1 points 7y ago
That's a fair point, I have nowhere near the experience with screen readers as other people here personally, having low vision I find it easier for now to use screen magnification and color adjustment via Zoomtext. This policy is in place because of concerns expressed by other members of the community regarding the problems with non-OCR functionality. While there are technically ways to make do (like with OCR), the platform is nowhere near to accessible. However there are people here who do make do with Steam's inaccessibility issues so censoring the whole site does that demographic a disservice. This is why we think the warning system works. Thanks for pointing that out though, it could be helpful for people trying to figure out if they can make the system work.
Nighthawk321 1 points 7y ago
Yup no prob. I just wanted to throw that in just in case others wanted to give it a go.
Nandflash 1 points 7y ago
Yeah, no idea what the problem is. . I don't like Steam at all, but it can be used with some patience. We shouldn't be writing off links just because they use Steam.
Edit: forgot to mention, I really hope the accessibility improves. So far, they've completely ignored us.
Edit: forgot to mention, I really hope the accessibility improves. So far, they've completely ignored us.
geoffisblind [OP] 2 points 7y ago
> We shouldn't be writing off links just because they use Steam.
This was precisely my concern, and it is why we have switched it to a warning system. The problem is that for some people jumping through all of the hoops for it to make do is too much and if they don't know what is required to make it work ahead of time that is a problem. We don't want people spending money and regretting it later based off a product linked on this sub, which is why we think the warning system strikes a good balance between censorship of potentially great content and causing problems to this sub's members without them knowing about the added difficulty of working with Steam. Thanks for your input!
This was precisely my concern, and it is why we have switched it to a warning system. The problem is that for some people jumping through all of the hoops for it to make do is too much and if they don't know what is required to make it work ahead of time that is a problem. We don't want people spending money and regretting it later based off a product linked on this sub, which is why we think the warning system strikes a good balance between censorship of potentially great content and causing problems to this sub's members without them knowing about the added difficulty of working with Steam. Thanks for your input!
Nandflash 2 points 7y ago
I understand. It's very unfortunate that Steam's accessibility hasn't been improved. We've been asking them to do something about it for years now.
Nighthawk321 1 points 7y ago
Yeah, I've been using steam for almost two years and haven't seen any improvement.
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