[games_access] UN Convention -> national rights?

[Michelle Hinn]

Hey Sandra,

The UN convention is not something that will necessarily apply to any country's government. A lot of people on the list who are from the US have strong arguments against why accessible gaming law should not exist. I'm not necessarily one of them -- in my opinion an awareness campaign is never a bad thing.

To make something into law in the US will need to go WAY beyond anything the UN decides.  

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you mean by "action" and "law?" Again, I'm not saying that awareness campaigns are bad -- just that government enforcement and lawmaking is hard. The UN may have a Convention but it's not something that will mean that a developer needs to worry about it. :(

Michelle

On Oct 30, 2010, at 11:35 AM, Sandra Uhling wrote:

> Hi Michelle,
> 
> well that is changing now. Thanks to the UN Convention.
> But what is going to be changed will depend on what we do.
> 
> When Germany signed the protocol they thought they do not need to do
> anything.
> Well, when you see the action plans it is the other way round :-)
> Now it is the time to get this action into real action.
> 
> But I do not have enough knowledge to write very good request. :-(
> Of course we can only ask for laws for accessibility,
> when we ask also for support for game designers.
> 
> Instead of getting only funds when you realize accessibility,
> the companies should be supported to develop more accessible games.
> Video games cannot be barrier free, they can be poor of barriers.
> That is something important to say to the government.
> 
> Best regards,
> Sandra
> 
> 
> 
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: games_access-bounces at igda.org [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] Im
> Auftrag von Michelle Hinn
> Gesendet: Samstag, 30. Oktober 2010 15:58
> An: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List
> Betreff: Re: [games_access] UN Convention -> national rights?
> 
> Hey Sandra,
> 
> We do have some laws but the trouble is that the ones we have are more
> focused on equal opportunity in the workplace for the disabled and such.
> Given that years ago a law passed requiring "open captioning" (the captions
> are either on the back of a movie theatre chair or on a hand held device)
> for people who are deaf that has MAYBE only happened in a handful of movie
> theaters in the country, I don't have much hope that a law requiring
> videogame accessibility would ever happen. As I said, the movie industry has
> to provide the open captioning YET no on enforces it... 
> 
> And our political climate right now is getting very hostile towards
> videogames, especially as our mid-term elections are in just a few days --
> the more conservative that get into office tend to see videogames ONLY as
> evil -- they would rather them not exist at all for anyone, not just the
> disabled.
> 
> Michelle
> 
> On Oct 30, 2010, at 8:27 AM, Sandra Uhling wrote:
> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> the UN Convention is great. But at the moment it is only for the states.
>> The states have to change their national laws that it effects also
>> companies.
>> 
>> At the moment we have the possibility to give some feedbacks for the
> German
>> action plan.
>> What kind of law do we need that it effects also companies?
>> 
>> E.g. PS3 console and not accepting special controller
>> 
>> How should a law look like that the gamer can request an update because
> they
>> are discriminated?
>> It is also important that this will work, also when there are mistakes in
>> the request.
>> 
>> Someone an idea?
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Best regards,
>> Sandra
>> 
>> 
>> 
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