Can’t hear it? Tough.
Posted on 29/08/2011 by Alwyn Wilson
Recently I have been involved in (gamer) community discussions regarding deaf players and sound alerts. The complaint was originally brought to light by a hearing player who noticed that certain sound cues in Starcraft 2 had unnoticeable text equivalents for his deaf friend. The issue relates to in-game events, such as a nuclear launch, with a commander warning sound cue: “Nuclear Launch Detected”. This notification is undeniably noticeable for hearing players, however the only warning a deaf player receives is a small text notification on the left side of the screen, which disappears relatively quickly when building units or production facilities. It should also be noted that, like in most RTS games, your attention is typically divided between managing your economy, your attack and defence forces as well as scouting. Effectively, staring at the left hand side of the screen for a small text notification, which might not come for 20 minutes or even at all, is clearly not the best approach for a deaf gamer competing in gold or platinum leagues. Being an advocate of accessibility and usability without discrimination, I joined into the discussion and was shocked by a few things.
Firstly, the attitude toward deaf gamers by some members of the Starcraft 2 community was disgraceful. The argument to make the game more accessible by adding subtitles for sound cues was mocked to the extent that suggestions were made on how to make the game fair for everybody; Starcraft 2 should just be a black screen with no sound and every gamer should simply guess where they should be clicking, or 'better yet' disable mouse input because there might be players with no hands. Many players taking part in the discussion failed to realise that optional subtitles wouldn't affect their gaming experience whatsoever, yet the addition of subtitled sound cues would drastically improve the gaming experience for any hard of hearing or deaf gamers. I don't for a moment believe that this isolated to the Starcraft 2 community either, it's a problem that exists within society as a whole. We don't have to search far before seeing that prominent celebrities with a lot of influence are also ignorant to the fact that some people do have hearing disabilities, and even complain when companies make an effort to cater for the 13% (A massive 9 million people) who have hearing problems in the UK, even if it is completely obvious that a film might have subtitles, often given away by the word “subtitles” next to the film listing. In DJ Sara Cox's case it wasn't listed as having subtitles which further highlights what a half-arsed approach companies take to making their services available to disabled people. I do wonder if they just expect deaf people to show up and pay for a ticket on the off-chance a film has subtitles?
The second thing that I noticed wasn't so much shock as it was disbelief. When contacting Blizzard directly to suggest optional sound cue functionality, I was greeted by a customer support representative who completely overlooked my suggestion and questions, and had given me a standard reply which failed to address anything that I had originally contacted them for. When replying to them in an attempt to get a more direct response, I was told that customer support have absolutely zero contact with the development team, and they were unable to assist me in suggesting any functionality. However, if I wanted to attempt to contact them, I should post on their community forums and the development team may view the suggestions there. However, once on the forums there is no feasible way to make suggestions where a development team member might view them. There is no suggestion forum or even a thread for that matter, and the technical support forum (and so I have been warned about) is only to support currently implemented features that are not working correctly, and is not a place to make suggestions or recommendations to the game developers.
Ultimately, the only place to make such a suggestion would be in the general topics area, but with hundreds of nonsense posts and silly suggestions by players who believe that, because they can't play the game correctly, their preferred race needs buffing it's easy to see why the development team would rather stick pins in their eyes, pull them out of their socket and roast them as an appetiser before reading through any of what the Starcraft 2 community has to say. However to me this simply highlights the ignorance of corporations and the on-going battle by consumers, not just gamers, to contact large corporations and get a reasonable answer from them.
Not so long ago, I was watching a live pro-gaming tournament that was being streamed online with a deaf friend of mine. He requested that I try to transcribe some of what was going on so that he wouldn't be completely lost. Even with my limited typing speed, I was able to transcribe 90% of what was said for him. After the event, he thanked me and pointed out that even some recorded programs and films have shockingly bad/inaccurate subtitles, and we speculated that for live events, corporations probably wouldn't hire anyone to transcribe, even on a slight delay, because it would cost too much money – Or more money than they would be willing to part with. To me this only further highlights that, even in 2011 with all the technology we possess, corporations are unwilling to take the extra steps necessary to make it easier for disabled people to have a better experience when using any entertainment medium. In fact, unless a lawsuit is presented they're reluctant to act on even the simplest of issues.
I really hate to say it but maybe the American suing culture isn't so bad after all? As consumers, we could at least accomplish something as simple as subtitles for sound cues in a computer game. Also, it is technically a violation of the Disability Discrimination Act which states online services should have the same experience for disabled persons, as it does for those without disabilities. And an online game would probably fall under 'online service' given that you have paid for it. But then, why would anyone care? Blizzard is a multi-billion dollar company which pays high taxes, and as members of society we typically don't give a rat's arse about anything that doesn't affect us or our loved ones.
7 comments
Posted by Thea Christensen | Permalink
Posted by Alwyn Wilson | Permalink
Thank you Thea.
You raise some good points about games though, it’s often difficult to find out if they’re subtitled or not. My friend has been known to comment that he “hopes the cut-scenes are subtitled”. It seems like such an obvious thing to include, but there are still games where it seems they have neglected to play the game without sound to see how the experience plays the same/similar. I remember beta testing for RA3 three years ago, all it took was a simple “Can you include subtitles on cut-scenes?” for EA to include them.
As far as I know, subtitles on live events are computer generated so you get a really (Sometimes amusing, other times annoying) mash of random words that don’t make sense.
I definitely agree that something is wrong though. What’s worse is being ignored when trying to get these things included.
Very well written post, I must say.
I myself am Dutch and in Holland all the English programs have Dutch subtitles, unlike most countries we don’t dub our TV shows (Except for the children’s shows) and shows that are Dutch usually have subtitles via Teletext, it seems to me like watching Dutch TV as a deaf/hearing impaired works a lot better then in the UK, or other countries that don’t subtitle.
As for Blizzard, in WoW there is the chat that shows what NPC’s say, and all the cinematics are subtitled, there’s also a color blind mode. But a (MMO)RPG is a lot more text based than an fast paced RTS, so I guess they had a better opportunity to implement such features in World of Warcraft than they had in StarCraft 2
I sure don’t disagree with the fact that most companies could do a lot more to make life a little easier for the hearing impaired, such as small things as subtitles, and text notifications. But some games would be more suitable for it then others, you can’t expect developers to make it easier for deaf players to locate enemies in an FPS, no matter at which disadvantage they may be, non-hearing impaired would just abuse systems like that.
Blizzard is a very large company and they their forums get spammed by people that have ‘suggestions’ every day. Because of all those useless posts it becomes very hard for Blizzard what to decide what to take serious and what not. Best chances are to start a petition of some sort to draw attention, a simple topic on their forums will just draw trolls.
Posted by Alwyn Wilson | Permalink
It would seem that watching Dutch TV as a deaf person would be a more enjoyable experience. We have subtitles but they’re often not very well done.
I’m not sure I completely agree with the gaming part of your comment though. I can understand how, in an RPG when characters talk, chat bubbles are a nice effect. But it seems to me simply oversight not to include subtitles for deaf or hard of hearing people for key events in the game.
I agree, it’s hard to implement sounds in an FPS for deaf gamers with footsteps of someone behind a corner, and I’m not sure I would expect them to do so. The issue in SC2 and other RTS games is more to do with voice notifications and less to do with sounds that would alert somebody of your positioning.
The problem though is they don’t even have a suggestions forum. They have just revamped their forum community and added new category areas, but still there is a suggestion area lacking and no real place to post such things; even if they are of a more law-abiding nature.
Thank you for your suggestions though, we are working on changing this type of thing within the gaming industry.
Posted by Adam Riddick | Permalink
Hey,
Been meaning to comment for a few days now but haven’t found the time.
Coming from a country that claims to promote equality at every oppurtunity, they’re not doing a very good job of it.
The government made it law for business to have ‘disabled access’ for those who can’t walk, and made it law for all media to have the same experience for all players, not one infringed upon by disablity. Subtitles is such a basic thing, adding subtitle is much easier than creating a full HD3D Intro Movie that never appears in the game.
‘Would you like to turn subtitles on?’ ... A menu option effects nobody negatively, its pathetic they don’t have these options, and apparantly its law.
Yet more proof, if it was needed, that the nations law fails.
- Adam
P.S - Another good article 
Posted by Enadriell | Permalink
Oh woah… I just found this post and I can totally agree. I sometimes play games without sound because of thin walls and parents/neighbours rage. All I can say that it is definitely harder to play without a sound,so I can only imagine hows that on a regular bases. Loads of people are careless and all they actually care about is money,so I am not surprised at all. Loads of games have flaws and all due to people not caring enough to improve them. OFC,we get “fix” later,but I personally think we can go without 80% fixes if they did their job on time and properly. Its really stupid that they didn’t add extra subs and/or bigger font/easier to notice text. I really hope Blizzard and other companies will do something about it asap. I can’t say much more,you said everything. Anyway,cheers from Croatia and keep up the good work!
I came, I read this artclie, I conquered.
What a well-written post, I can only agree!
When going to buy a game in a shop (no matter if its for pc, ps3, x-box, wii etc) you have absolutely no chance to see if the game is subtitled, when you ask in the staff in the shop, they not able to tell you if its subtitled or not. So as deaf/hearing impaired you know have two possibilites 1) you can buy it and hope the best or you can leave the shop with no game. If the game is subtitled why not write it on the box to get a chance to sell more games?
Living in a country where English isn’t your native language make you lucky having the films in cinema subtitled unless its a film that allowed for kids to watch, then they speak your native language. This means if you a deaf/hearing-impaired parents with hearing kid(s) you suddenly get a problem, you can now tell your kid(s) they have to wait until the film gets released on dvd or you take your kid(s) to the cinema and then sit in the dark “wasting” money.
What is more sad is that its not only with games and film you meet impediments as deaf/hearing-impaired. On railwaystations (and in the trains too) they still use public-address systems, makes it a bit hard to know if your train suddenly leave from another perron than planned.
Subtitles on live-programs are often non-excisting or really crappy, so kinda waste of time to watch the program.
In many shops they play music (sometimes loud) and as hearing-impaired it suddenly becomes difficult to do your shopping if you need help from the staff.
To be honest I don’t think Blizzard care much about their deaf/hearing-impaired customers I play wow and sure they have subtitled films in wow, but I also miss a speech balloon on the NPC because I know that some of them really have some funny comments. I pay the same as the hearing people, so why I am not getting the same as them?
I could go on with this comment, but guess we can agree that something is “wrong”.