You are not logged in. Please login or register.
AudioGames.net Forum → General Game Discussion → PlayStation Experience accessibility panel
Up here, I got a mention in at 29:00 of the need for game engines to sort out their screen reader compatibility issues:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gslH30CTao
Also this isn't mentioned in the audio, but the person in the first couple of minutes of the video who is introducing the panel is Shawn Layden, chairman of Sony Worldwide Studios.
I don't have time to watch the entire video right now, but that sounds awesome. But honestly, from the first 5 minutes or so, if sony really wants to lead in this area as they say, then they need to catch up to microsoft.. who are way ahead. I still don't understand why they coded their tts so badly where they have to manually code in what can be read, especially with the system interface... but I hope this all gets remedied soon! I would personally love to be a part of one of these panels... not high profile enough, unfortunately. haha.
This is a cool panel, but Sony are not leading at this stage and I really hope they can catch up, as I'd like access for all.
To be fair, Microsoft is only leading because Narator had a base to work with already, and they're working witn windows... not a screen reader from scratch.
Also it's worth mentioning that accessibility is a broad church, there are some areas that they're leading on, in both games and consoles.
What you can take from this is a very strong statement of intent, this year we've now had not only Shawn but also Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, state very publicly that they think that accessibility is important and that they are committed to making advancements in the field.
Having those kind of statements and commitments together with having any kind of accessibility functionality at all on consoles would just have been plain science fiction even only 2 years ago, so I'm pretty hopeful for the future 
This may sound a little selfish, but other accessibility enhancements, as nice as they are, don't do much for the vision end as they seem to be focused on everything except tts. As for the accessibility statements, so far, microsoft has delivered much more imho. They've also been more open about communicating with fans, whereas sony have been dead silent. I stil love Sony, but I haven't had much hope since version 4.0 when I stopped noticing tts updates. lol
They do! They've been doing updates for vision, but enhancements for low vision rather than no vision. Their most recent update upgraded the large font functionality. I own a hat, lets have this conversation again this time next year and if TTS isn't significantly better by then I'll eat it
I'm generally optimistic about accessibility, but as there hasn't been an update yet that hasn't included any accessibility upgrades I'm pretty confident about this one.
I'm hoping. lol And I shouldn't sound bitter... I just wish they coded the original base better for the tts. If they weren't going to update it often, they should've coded it to at least be dynamic. hahaha. But let's see what the coming year brings... maybe I'm just happy because Microsoft is making a much more visible and obvious effort. lol I like being optomistic, but generally I try and temper it so as not to be disappointed. But with an accessibility panel at psx this year... my hopes are definitely going higher than nowhere!
Hi.
This video is really awesome... I don't have any hope left regarding to the TTS function on the ps4, but it's really great that game developers is a part of the panel also. My point is: Why should accessibility on a console matter if the games aren't accessible? Developers are starting to realize that people expect accessibility in games, which is the reason for I'm excited about this video. I'm more motivated to contact developers about making their games more accessible again.
Keep in mind those are certain companies... all the big name ones like Capcom, Namko, EA... are probably not going to give much thought to that side of things or pay any attention from a group of people calling about and for accessibility. But I still haven't watched the whole video yet. But I too, hope for increased attention towards game accessibility.
I was going to ask actually where this puts us in terms of game accessibility? I mean yes it's great that these consoles now have tts I'm not knocking that at all! but at the moment that's not enough for me to shed out the money to go buy one. what about the games themselves. at the moment the games don't work with the tts. which I'm sure in the long term that's the eventual goal to have them work with it? so yes my question is really where does this realistically put us in terms of being able to play the titles right out of the box. without having to memorise menu's get help to memorise menu's, then of course to play the games themselves. how far away are we realistically from all that?
If you're going to wait til game accessibility itself is a standard, I'm afraid you'll be waiting a while. Games like Killer Instinct have been fortunate enough to be developed by people open to fan feedback, but most companies will still care about money first, and with our market being a tiny one, accessibility will likely be focused on those who are low vision first since those enhancements are relatively easy to make as opposed to trying to find a way to get tts to read any form of embedded graphic or video. That is the main reason these games don't all work with tts on sony, or even narrator on xbox1... getting text-to-speech to read embedded video is still a trick people have to come up with in any reliable fashion since that doesn't just require processing plain text and spitting it back out as speech, but a whole bunch of middle stuff like OCR.
what sony need to do is get their act together and stop blocking the TTS at the hardware level. Until they do this, their text to speech doesn't even compare. There are more than just blind american gamers out there. Microsoft basically win outside the US for not doing this at all since day one.
Yeah, that's one of the reasons I'm pecemistic about sony's accessibility efforts, for all their claims. But again, as I said to Ian... I'm not entirely without hope. I just wish there was something more direct we could do instead of just voicing our opinions on the forum and tweeting. Something that we knew for a fact wasn't just being glossed over.
well this is why I think having speech from within the game is better than using an external tts. a lot of games can be modded and or scripted. so you have a vanilla version and a modified version.
Modding isn't endorced by developers... and is very difficult to do on a console. How would you propose tts from within a game... the game engines themselves don't support tts coding.
"Keep in mind those are certain companies... all the big name ones like Capcom, Namko, EA... are probably not going to give much thought to that side of things or pay any attention from a group of people calling about and for accessibility."
See here:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/2856 … ssible.php
It's important to look at accessibility as a general concept and not just blind accessibility. I understand that issues that affect you personally will obviously get your attention more, but the more people think about any kind of accessibility, the more people realise that designing for gamers doesn't just mean designing for both, the closer we'll be to decent blind accessibility.
" I just wish there was something more direct we could do instead of just voicing our opinions on the forum and tweeting. "
Just speak to people, go along to your local developer meet-up groups and ask for a speaking slot . Or even just speak to people there casually.
"I'm sure in the long term that's the eventual goal to have them work with it? so yes my question is really where does this realistically put us in terms of being able to play the titles right out of the box. without having to memorise menu's get help to memorise menu's, then of course to play the games themselves. how far away are we realistically from all that?"
The big blocker is game engines, the tools that people use to make games. They aren't compatible with screen readers. That's where advocacy efforts need to be focused.
I live in Vancouver. We don't get any developer meetup groups here very often... but I get what you're saying. It just so happens the only people I can easily talk to are people who aren't involved at all about development or who don't care. As for being focused on accessibility as a general concept, I do admit my focus is vision... and that's quite obvious. But it certainly isn't as easy as just focusing on it as a general issue when you see areas being improved in every area except for yours. But you have a good point... and I do my best to see the whole picture, as you said. the fact that they're even starting to care about accessibility at all in the gaming industry says a lot compared to how it used to be.
Yes, exactly!
You might be surprised about how big Vancouver's game development scene is! It is a huge games industry hub with everything from mobile indies to the biggest console publishers... some recognisable names include EA (the FIFA and NFL games are all made in Vancouver), Capcom, Nintendo, Namco. There are a good amount of developer meetups, for example the full indie meetup next due to happen on Dec 15th that currently has 100 devs signed up for it.
And not forgetting Seattle, which has everything from Valve to Microsoft to Bungie.
Shame I didn't know you were there when they had a virtual reality hackathon not too long ago.
I've hit up a couple of Vancouver contacts, will see what they say.
Hi.
In my oppinion if both developers of consoles want to extend their accessibility to a wider range of blind or visually impaired people, they need to publish their screen reader outside the US.
Yeah, I know, America has probably the biggest number of blind people, but still, it's a major factor in my oppinion.
Ian, I knew the companies were here, just not the part about meetups... I would love to be able to speak at a Capcom or Namko conference, as honestly, being huge in the fighting game industry and action games in general, I would love to discuss their fighting titles with them... and if there was a sony development conference to chance to talk to about tts, that'd be even better. 
Ah sorry I hope I wasn't being patronising in that case!
Most companies don't have their own conferences or conventions, it's only the big ones like Blizzard and PlayStation who do. Although Vancouver does have some general game development conferences.
Your best bet is to make game developer contacts in general, if you get to know enough people in the local industry you'll soon enough end up talking to people from all companies.
I don't think that either company do fighting games, Capcom Vancouver make the Dead Rising games and Namco Vancouver do mobile games, but no doubt they'll have contacts.
AudioGames.net Forum → General Game Discussion → PlayStation Experience accessibility panel
Generated in 0.021 seconds (57% PHP - 43% DB) with 11 queries
