Visually Impaired Gamer Sues Sony Online

[Burr]

Refusal to implement or facilitate changes to make online games more accessible violates Americans with Disabilities Act, suit claims.

Last month, disabled gamer Alexander Stern filed suit against Sony, Sony Online Entertainment, and Sony Computer Entertainment America in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. The suit alleges that Sony is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to implement features to make its games accessible to visually impaired gamers.

According to the suit, Sony ignored repeated requests through postal mail and e-mail to come up with reasonable modifications to its games to make them more accessible. The suit, which doesn't mention SOE games by name but appears to focus on massively multiplayer online titles, requests the addition of visual cues to point gamers to their destinations for gamers with "disability impaired visual processing."

Beyond the denial of entertainment, the suit also contends that Sony's actions have caused visually impaired gamers a financial loss. Because Sony runs an official auction site where gamers can sell their in-game items for real money, the suit says Stern's inability to participate in that marketplace is costing him money.

Well that settles it. I'm suing Taito for making Puzzle Bobble impossible to play for color blind people like me!

The article says Blizzard isn't in trouble because it allows mods, and those mods help blind gamers out. But I dunno.. suing? Seems like losing out on blind customers is punishment enough for Sony Online. This isn't about basic accessibility. There's so many other options out there, and if you take that line of thought too far then deaf people can sue music publishers for producing a product they can't enjoy..

And seriously.. costing him money? Nobody has a right to make money by reselling fake online video game stuff. By that token, anyone banned from MMO's for their asshattery can sue because the game administrators "cost them money."

[Decipher]

Gotta get the message out there some how.

[Sully907]

It amazes me that a lawyer would even take a case like this, there can't actually be a judge who won't throw this out right? RIGHT? I need to know this guys! Or I will lose faith in humanity!

[Lord Moon]

All it takes is for one lawyer to sniff out a possible class action lawsuit and the race is on, so to speak.

[Gene Starwind]

Originally Posted by Sully907

It amazes me that a lawyer would even take a case like this, there can't actually be a judge who won't throw this out right? RIGHT? I need to know this guys! Or I will lose faith in humanity!

TBH, this case is a lot less absurd than any Jack Thompson suit.