Sony Online faces lawsuit from visually impaired gamer

Posted Nov 8th 2009 5:00PM by John Callaham
Filed under: MMO

PC games should be able to be played by everyone, even those who can't see what's happening on the screen. That's the premise behind a new lawsuit that was filed in October by Alexander Stern, a visually impaired person, against Sony Online Entertainment.

According to the story from GameSpot, Stern claims that Sony Online's titles (no specific game is mentioned) do not do enough to make their games accessible to people like himself. Stern believes that violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. The lawsuit says that various phone calls and emails requesting such features be added have been ignored. Sony Online has not commented publicly on the lawsuit.

Tags: everquest, everquest-2, sony-online, sony-online-entertainment

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

...wow

THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS.Posted at 6:12PM on Nov 8th 2009 by Sam

Ok so blind man wants to play video games so is he going after microsoft and nintendo as well. Video games say it all in the name they are video based why not go after LG for not making touchable tv's oh wait tv stands for television wait was vision in that word. Why dont they make a car he can drive too. Who said video games were ment to be played by all. If i was disabled and had no use of my hands and feet could i sue too. this person is someone that just wants something for nothing like a con or a broke ass winning B***H who wants to feel power because hes always wallowing in his own self pitty and thinks he can get the one up. can you sue for bulls**t.Posted at 7:36PM on Nov 8th 2009 by Rob

Rob if you actually read the article and links, and not just the headline you would have read that he already plays video games.

Making a game more accessible to the handicapped doesn't mean bs like "touchable tv". Blizzard added text to color coded items to help colorblind (maybe even completely blind if they use a text reader) players identify item quality. Little things like that go a long way.

Most video games are sorely lacking in the Human-Computer Interaction department.Posted at 12:27AM on Nov 9th 2009 by smi04

Add your comments.

Your comments:

Remember me

E-Mail me when someone replies to this comment

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.