Twitch has responded to feedback from gamers with disabilities by agreeing to remove the term "blind playthrough" from its tag list.
Back in June, accessibility advocate and COO of Able Gamers Steven Spohn spoke publicly about the problematic term in a wider discussion about ableist language, which is when people insert the name or symptom of a disability in place of a negative word like "sucks".
The issue was picked up by Twitch, and now the streaming platform has confirmed it will drop the term in order to promote more inclusive language.
Great question."Blind play through" or "going in blind"Can easily be replaced by saying "No spoilers play through" or "Undiscovered" or "first" (if it is your first)A blind playthrough would be to turn your monitor off, and that's not what most meanhttps://t.co/Y7uwOygWfGJune 15, 2020
"Happy to see Twitch has listened to everyone who shared feedback and removed the 'Blind Playthrough' tag to encourage more inclusive language for our community," tweeted Twitch's community and creator marketing representative, Erin "Aureylian" Wayne (thanks, Comic Book).
"You can still use 'First Playthrough' or opt to use it in combination with 'No Spoilers' for the same sentiment."
Happy to see Twitch has listened to everyone who shared feedback and removed the “Blind Playthrough” tag to encourage more inclusive language for our community. You can still use “First Playthrough” or opt to use it in combination with "No Spoilers" for the same sentiment. 💜December 4, 2020
"I'm happy to see Twitch following through on promises to address and resolving issues and concerns from the disability community. It's just the beginning," added Spohn.
In related news, producer of the upcoming 2020 Game Awards Geoff Keighley has confirmed the ceremony will be available with live audio description for the first time when it's streamed later this week.
"I’m happy to confirm that The Game Awards will have a special audio descriptive mode livestream on YouTube Gaming for the first time," Keighley tweeted over the weekend. "Accessibility matters."
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