Make Quest Accessible for People who are Deaf
Set new dev guidelines that force all developers to incorporate accessibility features for people who are deaf.
Subtitles, some other UX prompts, I'm no expert and not deaf but I have built websites for the blind and consider accessibility fundamental to the user experience.
This idea was inspired by this Reddit users post https://www.reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/comments/e997wb/quite_a_lot_of_the_quest_apps_are_completely/
David Alexander
shared this idea
36 comments
-
Lina Taylor commented
Focus on subtitles in games when possible, but Oculus, add live captioning to the base UI of every VR headset. For Oculus Quest 2, this would allow Live Captions in ALL media. It's not a perfect technology, but for sure it's better than nothing. Live Captions in Chrome and on Android are what actually get me through life these days. That and transcription call services... because Google made calls with it proprietary for its very own phones and no one else for all of Android 11's release.
These transcriptions would make everything better for people like me by a solid 40%. Those who don't want it, just don't activate it. I don't mind seeing comic-style dialogue boxes pop over talking characters and a nice box with rounded corners for things like descriptions of sound effects and maybe something to indicate where its coming from if sound is crucial. Sure, it would break immersion, but it's absolutely critical for us to be prepared to sacrifice that much to have an even footing.
-
Tagraf
commented
Note to the Oculus developer: Android already has a "Live Caption" supported feature -- so if there's any way to enable it and make way to the Oculus environment -- and simply live captioning to any audible sources from an app (or through the mic if optional) and OVERLAY the captioning to the app.
It's not 100% solution but it's BETTER than having to relies on any game to be captioning.
Sources:
https://support.google.com/accessibility/android/answer/9350862?hl=en -
Anonymous
commented
As a developer no. This is a giant no. It should not be a forced requirement due to the scope involved. If you want to kill indie games developers. Go ahead.
-
Chfrat
commented
This should not be a forced issue (as someone said earlier) but something all companies should provide if possible for those with disabilities. Closed Captioning shouldn't be an impossible option to add for many VR experiences. I am sure there are also some with visual disabilities that could be helped too.
-
Anonymous
commented
My son is deaf and closed captioning would be greatly appreciated. It’s a great time to be alive - and this virtual world is amazing! Please ask developers to consider adding cc. I realize accommodating every different ability is a daunting task but this is an easy win. My son is 10 and it is important for him to have experiences on an equal playing field to his hearing peers whenever possible.
-
Mike Royal commented
This would be great. Forcing it is not necessary, but I'd like to see accessibility encouraged by labeling apps as deaf-friendly (maybe with a CC annotation as many video streaming services have).
-
Silent Mage
commented
As a developer "Set new dev guidelines that FORCE all developers to incorporate accessibility features for people who are deaf." as a consumer Don't support any game that lacks critical features and developers will get to it. begin forcing random X accessibility options and where does it end? When oculus tells me I must follow these guidelines (insert wall of legal text) than drops another wall of text saying all of the features I must have in my game. by page 4 of things I must include I drop my new beat based game because I don't know how I'm going to make it color blind accessible, hard of hearing accessible, Motor impairment accessibility, Cognitive impairment accessibility. I'd walk away from oculus faster than I ran away from google play for requiring me to put my home address out publicly. All of those things can be done of course. color blind accessible: make alternate texture for different color blind types(more space needed), hard of hearing Have some sort of visual representation of the beat(too many things happening at once and interferes with those who are cognitively impaired).Cognitive impairment have less things on the screen and calm down the music being played. When trying to make a game you are already trying to do too many things at once especially if you are a one person team. to add this as requirements would hurt so many indie teams... but 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act 2010 may have some things to say.
-
Matthew Bermudez
commented
Even recently with a game like The Last of Us Part 2 creating such an expansive array of options for users with different disabilities. While some of those sure are game type related and how a game can be played. The other side of that story is how much Naughty Dogg's UX team invested so much into accessibility and it shows. Some of these features I can imagine could be adapted through the use of vibrations, whether from the headset at multiple points or through different points within the controllers. Even something as simple as giving the user the ability to change font size or color to account for different forms of blindness these features alone have the potential to shoot sky forward what accessibility options are currently available.
-
Tipsy-Rose
commented
I am a deaf blind twitch streamer. Who is wanting to specialize in vr gaming for the deaf hoh and deafblind and blind of course. WhenI say blind I mean all forms of blindness. If I am not mistaken game devs need to take in consideration on accessibility.
Forcing isn't something I would want to do but rather find ways we can HELP the gaming devs add caption and dialog to their games. It was passed not long ago that games should consider adding subtitle and captions / accessibility options to their games. If I can help then I be honor to do so.
I'm an avid starwars fan and would love to play Vader Immortal.
Thank you!
-
Garrett
commented
I don't think this is a good idea to "force" this on devs. It would take more time from game developers to add this into their game when they could be working on more important things.
But if this gets supported, then they need to also make it so blind people have accessibility as well! Oh, and don't forget about the color blind people too. Let's force game developers to make it so every single person on Earth can play their game!
What a bad idea. There would just be too much work to get everyone in unless Oculus is able to add these things in themselves without making the game devs develop it.
-
David Cutsinger
commented
Subtitles would be great. Also many modern hearing aids are Bluetooth enabled and connect directly to cell phones. Please do the same thing with the Quest!
-
BarZaTTacKs
commented
This has no use for me in my daily life but I can absolutely understand that there are people that this would change everything for them. Also you never know what can happen to yourself, you may find yourself in need of such a feature in the future. Please start to introduce these requirements slowly but steady.
-
Emma
commented
Please make the effort to make VR games accessible to all HoH and deaf folks by including captions. Its really not that big of a request and there are so many people who would benefit including people outside the Deaf community.
-
Silver Stratton
commented
100% agreed with and support this request. My wife is deaf and can't enjoy some of the VR content because they decided to not include subtitles or captions as an option.
-
Brenda Mobley
commented
I have hearing limitations; some of it is from being older. Captions, and an auto captioner for social spaces, are really a must. If I can’t see what to do, I’m stuck.
-
Don Cullen commented
Just found out there's a legal obligation for Oculus to put a strong effort into implementing support for captioning. See: https://www.interactiveaccessibility.com/news/new-requirements-video-games-fall
-
Jeff
commented
I am not deaf, but I do wear hearing aids, and I am tone deaf, meaning I have a hard time hearing different pitches in sound, and often can't follow what a particular narrator is speaking about, please implement this into the development of Oculust products.
-
Matt Taylor
commented
Another non deaf user here who would love to see this implemented. I use subtitles in games often as I find it easier to follow what's being said, so the lack of support for this is baffling. Please implement this and allow other users decent accesibility.
-
Tia LaPiana
commented
My sister is deaf and she sees no attraction to VR when she can't see what is being said. Please push out this technology SOON, it would be a win in the humans being bros subreddit.
-
Hayke
commented
Definitely agree with this. Companies should take accessibility more seriously. I think it should be mandated by law to make digital content as accessible as possible.
Oculus enforcing this means Steam will also have accessible games because the devs will have done the hard work like subtitling, visual cues etc, so they'll implement it on other platforms