[games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim?

[Ian Hamilton]

It's USA specific.

FFC = federal communications commission,  ACS = advanced communications services, and I assume NAD = national association of the deaf.

>From what I remember the reason for the waiver was to do with console lifecycles and game development time.

There's something similar in UK law, an area where general accessibility legislation technically applies to games. In the UK accessibility law applies to the supply of goods and services, and not to the goods themselves. So games generally don't fall under it, but if you're offering in app purchases then technically you do.

Not that a case has ever been brought under it, and I don't think it would be wise to either.

----- Reply message -----
From: "Sandra_Uhling" <sandra_uhling at web.de>
To: "'IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List'" <games_access at igda.org>
Subject: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim?
Date: Wed, Jan 7, 2015 14:11


Hi,

sorry I do not understand NAD, FCC, ACS ....?



Regards,

Sandra



Von: games_access [mailto:games_access-bounces at igda.org] Im Auftrag von
Thomas Westin
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 7. Januar 2015 14:56
An: IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List
Betreff: Re: [games_access] Important Question: What is our meta aim?



Hi all,



Here is some interesting stuff from NAD via Dan;

- I knew about the communication services part (I think it was brought up on
this list by someone in 2010 or so), but I wasn't aware of a waiver with a
deadline. This will be interesting to follow-up in October/November:



Dear Mr. Fischbach,

Thank you for contacting the NAD. We fully support making games accessible
for people with disabilities. We're not aware of any efforts in Congress or
at the Department of Justice addressing video games accessibility.

However, under the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video
Accessibility Act of 2010, advanced communications services are required to
be accessible to people with disabilities. We have made arguments before the
FCC that many online games are primarily used for advanced communications
services and thus should be made accessible. However, the FCC is still
working on the ACS rules and actually granted a temporary waiver until
October 2015 for games where ACS is a primary or co-primary purpose to the
Entertainment Software Association.

Please let us know of any efforts to make games more accessible.

Sincerely,
Andrew Phillips



Best regards,

Thomas



7Jan 2015 kl. 10:09 skrev Thomas Westin <thomas at westin.nu>:





Dan recently volunteered to find out more about this situation in the US (as
I am based in Sweden), and we will hopefully be able to share some results
of that soon.



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