Hi Eleanor, While I agree with you that we, as blind gamers, must continue to try and contact mainstream developers and make them aware of our needs we also have to remember all of us have a biological time clock. For example, I'm already in my mid 30's and for a human being that is about roughly half the human life span. I shouldn't have to wait 10, 20, or 30 years to see some access changes being done in my life time. I should be able to experience and enjoy some of these games right here and now. While there are groups like IGDA trying to get changes they aren't going to get these companies into making any changes soon, and certainly not force companies to go back and remake every single game they have ever designed with accessibility. Which is exactly what they need to do to make it fair that each and everyone of us have an opportunity to play these games.
This is were the problem comes in. I know full well what what the copyright laws say, and pretty much how they work. Problem is companies have been able to use copyright laws as a means of denying equal access to products and services for years. If I want to play a certain vidio game I can't because it is not accessible, and the company can use copyright laws to keep me from producing my own accesssible version. If I want to listen to a certain movie with audio description I often have to have someone send me a copy from the U.K. so I can listen to it with audio description because the American broadcasting companies rarely if ever have audio description. There are probably hundreds of other examples, but the fact is when it comes to fair and equal treatment a blind man or woman always gets the short end of the stick. Somehow large mainstream companies always get the gold mine while we get the shaft. To get back to the point I'm tired of the should of, would of, could of line. It is time we do something pretty major to make access changes now with or without the companies permission. If they don't like it and sue for copyright infringement I'll be happy to go on CNN, Fox News, or any major media outlet of your choice and expose these companies for the unsympathetic, short sighted, greedy jurks they are. Perhaps some media publicity of this issue will light a fire under their collective butts and make them aware some of us are sick and tired of being stone walled, denied, and/or being outright ignored. We want access changes and we want them now and not 50 years from now. Cheers! On 12/3/10, Eleanor <[email protected]> wrote: > The only problem with the approach that Dark talked about in his analogy > about a cake recipe with cows vs goats milk is current law - at least in > the US and probably elsewhere. Currently if a company has a copyright > on any story line, it has to defend it whenever it is breached - no > matter what the circumstances. If they do not defend against someone - > let's say a blind developer who wants to make an accessible game, they > lose the right to defend against another company who takes their > material to make big money on. > > If you read any information on how you protect your copyright, you will > see that the onus is on the holder of the copyright. Now if they give > permission for that blind developer to use the material, and someone > comes along with a proposal to make a game that has, lets say, captions, > they would be hard pressed not to grant the same thing to that company - > even though a game with captions might be developed with mainstream > gamers in mind and make millions for the second company. > > I do think that the only way we can get accessibility built into games > is to work with organizations and game companies such as Dark has done > and slowly raise their awareness about changes to their games that will > make it accessible. > > Eleanor Robinson > 7-128 Software > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > [email protected]. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to [email protected]. > --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
