Blind gamer sues Sony

Suit gets mixed reception

By John Oates • Get more from this author

Posted in Law, 9th November 2009 10:01 GMT

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A sight-impaired gamer is taking various branches of Sony to court for failing to make their games accessible enough to disabled gamers.

Alexander Stern filed his suit in California at the end of last month. He claims that Sony Entertainment and Sony Corporation of America is failing to do enough to follow the US Disability Act by not making its games more accessible to disabled gamers.

Stern alleges that Sony ignored repeated requests by email and post to make features of its games more accessible. The suit apparently focuses on massive multiplayer online games.

The suit mentions the third party add-ons which are available for titles like World of Warcraft to make the games easier for visually-impaired users, Gamerspotterreports. The suit is also claiming financial loss - Sony runs auction sites for certain games where you can sell your game character's silver battle axe for real world money.

The legal approach is getting a mixed reception in disabled gamer forums. AbleGamers said the voluntary approach to improving accessibility was working and options could be added which the non-disabled gamer would never even be aware of. But the group said it was worried the lawsuit approach would do little to promote the cause or the community of disabled gamers. ®

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