Hey everyone, it\u2019s rant time! Today\u2019s topic, the gameplay streaming service known as Twitch. \u201cBut Brandon,\u201d I hear you say. \u201cYou use Twitch yourself!\u201d I do, because certain aspects of Twitch make it the best option for what I am doing. However, that does not mean it is free from all judgement, and ladies and gentlemen, it\u2019s time to judge.<\/p>\n
We of the disabled community are fighting inaccessibility all the time. Sometimes we fight it where we work. Sometimes we fight it when we go out. Sometimes we fight it in video games, as I do. It feels like all day, every day, we\u2019re fighting society\u2019s refusal to simply accommodate us. If that sounds like whining to you, you\u2019re probably not disabled, and have no idea how honest I am being right now. Regardless of what you might think, access to everything should be a wright for all. Inaccessibility is more than a lack of access, it\u2019s a lack of freedom to do things and experience things others can. It is wrong.<\/p>\n
I have been working to correct assumptions, and right wrongs where I can where video games are concerned. Video games have been my focus because I have always loved them, and as a result I\u2019m passionate about playing them. Long story short, this brings me to where I am today, attempting to educate and entertain with my gameplay analysis and discussions about accessibility and whatnot. Wouldn\u2019t it figure, though, that one of the tools I use to do this, (this is where we come back to Twitch), is now partially inaccessible?<\/p>\n
The worst part of this situation is that there used to be no problem. Even up until a couple weeks ago, the ability to edit info on Twitch videos, and then export them to Youtube was perfectly accessible. Oh sure there had been problems before that while the new site was in beta, but it seemed as though all had been fixed. I actually thought that perhaps my concerns had been listened to and addressed. I was wrong.<\/p>\n
Everything was fine the first couple days after I started doing this full time. I was delighted with how things were going. Then, somewhere, some switch got flipped, or some process was altered, and everything changed. Suddenly, attempting to export my video pulled up a page that a screenreader can\u2019t even read. Even using additional tactics such as Optical Character Recognition wasn\u2019t enough to get an idea of where I should be clicking. Overnight, this functionality has become totally inaccessible to the blind.<\/p>\n
As before, I attempted to get a response from Twitch\u2019s support account on Twitter, @twitchsupport. I had heard they really do answer requests. But just as before, I got no response. My supposedly more highly-valued affiliate status doesn\u2019t seem to matter much to them, because addressing accessibility concerns is, as it is for many companies I\u2019ve learned over the years, too big a task. Or, if anything, it is something that is placed on the back burner, and I mean the one in the way, way back, which is covered in dust from disuse.<\/p>\n
So how have I overcome this issue? Well, for the moment, I have actually recruited a friend of mine. This friend has graciously agreed to, with my permission, log into my Twitch account every day, and export the relevant videos. Is that not the dumbest and most unnecessary thing you\u2019ve heard all day? It\u2019s necessity. It\u2019s responding to Twitch ignoring the problem. It\u2019s doing what I have to do to make something out of this. I do it because I want people to see these videos and learn from some, and be entertained by all. This work matters to me. It\u2019s just a shame I have to take such measures in order to do it.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not expecting a miracle to spring forth from this blog. This is, as advertised, a rant. I would love to see change. I would love for this to result in a conversation with the Twitch development team. Believe me, it\u2019s a conversation I would love to have. But I\u2019m going to leave you with this. Consider, for a moment, what it means that I don\u2019t expect anything. It is, unfortunately, still a general expectation that people will not listen or care, and that\u2019s a sad state of affairs. At any rate, I\u2019m done for now. Thanks as always for reading, and continue to be awesome!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hey everyone, it\u2019s rant time! Today\u2019s topic, the gameplay streaming service known as Twitch. \u201cBut Brandon,\u201d I hear you say. \u201cYou use Twitch yourself!\u201d I do, because certain aspects of Twitch make it the best option for what I am doing. However, that does not mean it is free from all judgement, and ladies and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[36,126,76,212,211,213,214,91],"class_list":["post-284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-accessibility","tag-blind-gamer","tag-blind-gaming","tag-streaming","tag-twitch","tag-twitch-support","tag-twitch-tv","tag-video-games"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":285,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284\/revisions\/285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandoncole.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}