Re: The Vale Demo
Except it's not.
First, "describe it to me". This is an easy one to field. All I am saying is that for people who know Alex, you'd think they'd be used to her and able/willing to describe stuff without prompting. That's it, that's all. When it comes up with Shepherd, or others who don't know her, I don't mind. It makes sense on all kinds of levels.
Regarding the hear/see/language correction thing, answer me this. If I went through your post and corrected your grammar right here and now, would it bug you? You'll probably say it wouldn't; hell, maybe it wouldn't, after all. But I'd wager that for many people, that sort of nitpicking would be annoying. It's not really funny. If I, as a blind person, say "Wow, I just saw...", whatever, you know what I'm talking about; if you turn and go, "Don't you mean you heard...", that's like correcting someone's grammar, except worse; you are telling me what language I should use based on my disability. That's called ableism, folks, and while it's not by any means a crushing example, it's the sort of microaggression that adds up.
"But wait!" I hear you say. "Shepherd didn't do that to Alex. He sorta did it to himself!"
Sorry, not good enough. It's almost as bad. He didn't correct Alex, he corrected himself. By doing this, Shepherd is deciding that the words and terms that one would use for an able-bodied person should not be used for Alex, despite the fact that if you told Alex to "have a look around", she would very likely understand what you meant. Also, given the stigma attached to disability, even in this world, having it constantly referenced as a point where people have to tread different ways for you? Well, uh, it gets tiring to watch, much less to be a part of. I, for one, have long since told people I care about to use whatever language makes the most sense, and not to try and avoid words like look and see and watch when referring to me. The result? Perhaps because of this, and perhaps because of other reasons, a lot of my friends will tell you that at different times, they all but forget that I'm blind in the first place. Thank you, world, this is what I want.
So what I'm trying to say here is that I think this sort of language thing is something some people are really jerkish about. Shepherd isn't awful, but it's just a reminder of what goes on in the real world. Some blind people may not care about this; that's fine, but I do, so I'm stating my opinion here.
Oh, also, the game comes with graphics support of some kind. This means it is conceivably playable by the sighted, or at least those with some usable vision. Guess what, folks? This means that anything said or done while representing the blind is going to play into stereotypes, or not. This means that when you misstep like this, get egg on your face and misrepresent the blind in this fashion, it's not just the blind community who feels it. Sighted people may see this and go "Ha! See, even small indy media says I should do this", whereafter the silly language correction business continues in perpetuity. This plays into optics and impression management, and I don't expect all of you to know or even care about this, but as a fresh indy company that's trying to make a good impression, you take risks by this sort of representation, and you take none by removing it.
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