[games_access] Big news, PS4 zoom & system level remapping

Thu Mar 12 21:27:50 EDT 2015

On the plus side they've at least been made aware of the need for per-game profiles, and system updates happen regularly enough. 100% agree about baby steps, I'd be pretty surprised if this turns out to be the end-state of remapping.
The vision stuff that's in the beta is all public knowledge now, up here: http://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2015/03/accessibility_ps4.jpg
In particular, the screenreader... again in terms of baby steps, even if its limited in scope for now, it's still an astronomical step in the right direction, good times eh?

Date: Thu, 12 Mar 2015 18:07:19 -0400
From: steve at ablegamers.com
To: games_access at igda.org
Subject: Re: [games_access] Big news, PS4 zoom & system level remapping

There will be more than one profile, but it is across the board. So you will need to change the remapping across all games if you need it changed for one. It has nothing to do with motion controls, as well. There's also the thing built-in to emulate a joy to key simulation. This is purely for buttons to be rearranged.
Also, there are some other amazing changes such as contrast, text enlarging, and screen inversion, All things that will help gamers with visual disabilities.
Our fight is far from over, but baby steps.
On Thu, Mar 12, 2015 at 5:53 PM, Barrie Ellis <barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk> wrote:
Good news whatever way you look at it, despite it taking Sony 20 years of Playstation development to finally acknowledge this huge need. Good to hear of your involvement Steve.
Are there any fuller details on what the remapping will enable? Is it one single profile, which is applied across the board? Or can you profile shift to pull up different set-ups as you need them? For instance, I'd like to be able to map RT, LT and L-stick LEFT,Right to a single stick for some driving games. Is that possible? Also, can you do anything with the motion-controls? Motion sensors since the Wii cause huge barriers obviously for some players. Would be great if there was a way to simulate these using a hand-set. At the minute the Titan One adapter gives you a little access to these using alternative controls, but it's not great.
Will the other options work in any games, or will they have to be specially adapted? 
Really keen to find out more.
Barrie

On 12 March 2015 at 16:42, Steve Spohn <steve at ablegamers.com> wrote:
I'm so glad the news about this broke. It was killing us not being able to talk about it while being under NDA.
Also, more things coming. I can't say exactly what, but suffice it to say, our criteria in game reviews is changing.

On Thu, Mar 12, 2015 at 4:55 AM, Ian Hamilton <i_h at hotmail.com> wrote:

Official confirmation from the PlayStation blog:

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2015/03/11/ps4-update-2-50-yukimura-preview-suspendresume-and-more/

From: i_h at hotmail.com
To: games_access at igda.org
Date: Sun, 8 Mar 2015 20:59:25 +0000
Subject: Re: [games_access] Big news, PS4 zoom & system level remapping

I've been keeping an eye on the reaction, lots of people saying that remap is only useful if applied per-game, a smaller number talking about having the current mapping exposed for developers to read, so they can adjust tutorials and QTEs accordingly, and a bit of concern about how much of the UI will be accessible using the text to speech.
However that aside here are a few of the comments from people with disabilities, bits and pieces I've seen on reddit, neogaf, twitter, forums, news site comments etc.
MOTOR:
"As a one handed gamer button assignments has me excited""That is awesome""FINALLY… Custom Button Remapping for all games coming to PS4, this is legendary for disabled gamers. Go Sony!""I have a friend with no thumb on his right hand, used his index finger to both use buttons and use the stick, this will be incredible for him to be able to relocate say, X (the most commonly used button) to say, L1 (one of the most rarely used buttons).""This is an absolute godsend for me!!! I have always wanted fully customizable buttons for consoles being a one handed gamer. Many default control schemes have had me use my control pad in many awkward positions and this will make things easier.""As a disabled gamer this feature is awesome and i'm really happy it's coming""Fantastic news.""News about the system level button mapping makes me so happy! Way to go Sony! Giant leaps forward in gaming accessibility.""Sony I could hug you right now, as a disabled gamer, Universal Button Remapping is the best firmware feature ever"
VISION:
"Sigh. I guess I know what I'm buying next month. :D""Yo you may want to tweet @PlayStation for the Text to Speech feature to remain in the final version for PS4 2.50 update""When you talk about the PS4 update, i beg you not to pass over the text to speech feature. A true game changer for the blind.""The PS4 is going to have text to speech. Accessibility for the blind. It's pretty amazing.""I hope PlayStation keep the Text to Speech feature that is set to be released in the new update! Then I can really use my PS4.""This next PS4 update will include text to speech, and a high contrast display, which is wonderful!""man I can't wait to test that Text to Speech feature on the upcoming PS4 update. I wonder who advicated for this? If so, major props""Oh my gosh. This is awesome. I get the feeling they might roll it out eventually, but it might take a while.""Oh dear god in heaven! this is exactly the thing I've been waiting for all these years. For heaven's sake man, get me the information I need to contact sony or their playstation team, since I've got a brand new ps4 still in the box. If they put in a screenreader, you had better by golly believe that I would be playing video games with the rest of you.""Dang the stars for me not having a ps4 right now.""[wow]... If Sony is going to put in a screenreader in the firmware, I'll get a ps4 as quickly as possible. It would be so awesome to use all the other features on the device.""I was going to buy a ps4 anyway but... if this becomes a thing then my mind will be blown.""This may have just totally pushed me over to the ps4 side. I don't have one, but I've spent the past few months considering a console but there's a few reasons I haven't just jumped on the bandwagon. Never the less, I'll be following this closely. I have a couple friends who have a ps4 who I know will be very interested in this."
Ian
To: games_access at igda.org
Subject: Re: [games_access] Big news, PS4 zoom & system level remapping
From: i_h at hotmail.com

Ok yep has been covered by just about everywhere now, Google News is reporting 49 news stories about it!

E.g. 
http://m.uk.ign.com/articles/2015/03/06/app-suspension-button-mapping-reportedly-coming-with-next-ps4-update

Ian

----- Reply message -----

From: "Ian Hamilton" <i_h at hotmail.com>

To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" <games_access at igda.org>

Subject: [games_access] Big news, PS4 zoom & system level remapping

Date: Sat, Mar 7, 2015 09:25

The beta testers should not have shared it, they're under NDA. 

However several of them have, so the cat is it out the bag now, it is public knowledge. It has been widely shared and discussed on Twitter and Reddit and covered by games press too, such as Kotaku.

There are some negative reactions to these features being included in the beta (e.g. 'who would ever use remapping? Clearly a filler feature, scrap that and give us media playback instead'), so it certainly wouldn't hurt for us to catch a few of those
 and fix the misconceptions.

Ian

----- Reply message -----

From: "Javier Mairena" <javier.mairena at gmail.com>

To: "IGDA Games Accessibility SIG Mailing List" <games_access at igda.org>

Subject: [games_access] Big news, PS4 zoom & system level remapping

Date: Sat, Mar 7, 2015 08:55

Really great!!  :)

But, can we actually talk about that openly?
It seems that the twitter account of the beta tester who reveated that have been deleted.

On 7 March 2015 at 17:26, Ian Hamilton 
<i_h at hotmail.com> wrote:

The full beta accessibility menu is now circulating. As well as the extra low-vis options (high contrast, text size), there's also a screen reader in there. 

Presumably apart from remapping this all only affects the main PS4 UI and not games, but still, it's an astronomical leap forwards for consoles.

https://twitter.com/isaparrot/status/574038584577015809

I think it's safe to say that you've got your news story now Sandra!

Ian

----- Reply message -----

From: "Ian Hamilton" <i_h at hotmail.com>

To: <games_access at igda.org>

Subject: [games_access] Big news, PS4 zoom & system level remapping

Date: Sat, Mar 7, 2015 00:00

Not officially confirmed of course, but there's an accessibility menu in the beta of the next firmware update that includes zoom and system level remap -

http://gematsu.com/2015/03/ps4-firmware-2-50-adds-suspend-resume

Ian

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-- 
Steve Spohn
Chief Operations Officer
AbleGamers CharityAbleGamers.com | Facebook | Twitter

Read the award-winning, critically acclaimed set of game accessibility guidelines for developers to create mainstream games that are accessible to everyone: Includification.com

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-- 
Steve Spohn
Chief Operations Officer
AbleGamers CharityAbleGamers.com | Facebook | Twitter

Read the award-winning, critically acclaimed set of game accessibility guidelines for developers to create mainstream games that are accessible to everyone: Includification.com

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