Making Steam accessible for the blind and visually impaired

[robjoy88]

Hello,

Recently, I have started a petition to urge Valve to make their Steam gaming platform more accessible to the blind and visually impaired, using screen readers on pcs.
I thought this would be quite important to spread, as currently Valve Corporation seems to ignore any attempt of direct contact. Collecting as many signatures as we can, as well as raising awareness might change their mind, hopefully for the best!

Being blind myself, raising awareness among game developers was my first goal, as I experience the shortcomings of mainstream games. Luckily, I am not alone, with the help of a few friends of mine we managed to make a mainstream game fully accessible and playable for the first time ever. (http://shoryuken.com/2014/01/31/mike-mike-z-zaimont-updates-skullgirls-encore-to-enhance-accessibility-for-blind-players/)
Currently, a lot of developers are aware, however only a select few choose to implement extra features which aid us in reading menus, game text, or provide extra sound cues for navigation and object location. Still, I consider this as a huge success and a great achievement, since until now, there was no other fully accessible game available.
Yet again, I am not alone: many people regard the first ever blind accessible game as a success, however the accessibility of the platform it is released on is short on praise, to say the least.
Unfortunately, people at Valve Corporation do not ensure that their software can be accessed equally, especially by blind or low vision users.
Many of us, including myself, have attempted contacting them, with no luck whatsoever.
I am currently petitioning for accessibility at https://www.change.org/p/valve-corporation-make-the-steam-platform-more-accessible-to-blind-and-visually-impaired-people with the hope that this time, Valve Corporation will listen. The more than 500 people who chose to sign certainly believe so, just look at the comments.

Thoughts, signatures are welcome.

Rob

[Nokando]

I agree, some things can easily be changed to make life easier.
I am trying to rasie a little awareness myself with what is currently a small group
hoping it may grow in the future and have lots of useful info:
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/Visu