[Montage of exterior and interior shots of Sony campus]

[Title: Sony's Innovations & Challenges]

[Tile: Stories]

[Title: The Challenge of Accessibility Support ~Making Playstation "The Best Place to Play"]

[Shawn Layden
Chairman, Worldwide Studios
Sony Interactive Entertainment
President
Sony Interactive Entertainment America]

[Shawn at Sony HQ, speaking at GAAD event]

Shawn: Accessibility is a big word to describe a very fundamental idea. We're creators of great stories.

[Josh Straub and Brandon Cole sat at a table at Sony HQ, chatting with PlayStation people]

Shawn: Do we want everybody in the world to have the chance to experience that?

[Shawn speaking at GAAD event]

Shawn: The answer is of course we do!

[Yasuhiro Yamana
Senior Director, Global Product Strategy & Management Department]

[Nohiro Nagai
Director, VR Product Development Planning
Development Planning Sec. R&D division Global R&D]

[Shunsuke Bamba
Section 2, Global Product Strategy & Management Department]

[Engineers in Sony Japan offices, screen behind showing PS4 accessibility menu]

Nohiro: I think that accessibility is a very important function for both people with or without disabilities.

[Footage of Uncharted 4's playtesting sessions with gamers with disabilities]

Nohiro: We provide a chance to play in the same way.

[Engineers in Sony Japan offices]

Yasuhiro: When you say disabilities, there are visual and hearing and other disabilities, and it was very difficult to figure out how to accomodate all of them. That was tough from the beginning

[Title: Exploring Uncharted Territory]

Yasuhiro: We couldn't have done it without the cooperation of many engineers, and that was one of the challenges. And whether we would really be able to meet the needs of our customers was a concern, after all nobody tells us what to do. *laughs*

Nohiro: With so many people involved, it also seemed unlikely that we would see a 100% perfect solution.

[Close up of skimming through the PS4 accessibility menu]

Nohiro: We had our assumptions, but honestly, we were pretty uncertain about whether it would actually work until the very end.

[Kevin Chung
Director of Compliance
Sony Interactive Entertainment]

[Kevin in front of a large PS4 screen, showing Uncharted: Lost Legacy]

Kevin: The law in this case didn't say, "you must go do A, B, C". It said to "accomplish A, B, C". It didn't say how to do it.

[Engineers in Sony Japan offices]

Yasuhiro: Once the prototype was completed, we ran user testing in the US I also went there to watch the test.

[Footage of testing sessions]

Yasuhiro: I went with confidence, thinking that we had created something that was pretty good. But we had unexpected results.

[Josh Straub and Brandon Cole sat at a table at Sony HQ, chatting with PlayStation people who are nodding and taking notes]

Yasuhiro: We had placed the entry point for the accessibility settings at the bottom of the screen. Of course, to us, we knew exactly where it was at a glance. But there were several users that could only see right in front of them, and they couldn't see it. Since it was at the bottom, they coulndn't see it. That was quite a shock for me. I wondered who exactly I had been designing this thing for over the last year.

[PS4 accessibility menu]

Yasuhiro: So before we released it, we moved the accessibility settings to a more prominent position.

[Title: Everyone relates to Accessibility]

[Kevin in front of PS4 screen]

Kevin: On a personal level I also had a deep interest in working with accessibility.

[Photo of Kevin with his mother]

Kevin: My mother, many years ago, was a teacher assistant in the public schools, and she was working with children who had disabilities.

[Kevin in front of PS4 screen]

Kevin: Severe physical disabilities, mental disabilities, and emotional disabilities. And I was raised from a young age to understand and have compassion for people with disabilities. They are entitled to have the same opportunities as anyone else and to be treated like anyone else and should be included.

Kevin: We think of disability as a sickness or an illness, and sometimes it is a medical condition. But we all get older, our senses sometimes degrade. So everyone should be able to relate to accessibility. Even if they themselves may not have a medical condition or know someone who does.

[Title: Impossible becomes possible]

[Engineers in Sony Japan offices]

Yasuhiro: Normally, user tests are done to examine whether it is easy to use. But in terms of accessibility there was a tremendous leap, because impossible becomes possible. With settings such as "Larger Text", "High Contrast", and "text to Speech" etc., from the moment they turned on these features users were really happy. When they expressed their joy I was really moved.

Shunsuke: It was really easy for the healthy. They all liked the "Bold Text" feature.

[Kevin in front of PS4 screen]

Kevin: I have a great respect for Sony and PlayStation's engineers.

[Designers and programmers in an office]

Kevin: These people are very, very smart, very technically able, and they knew what the goal was,

[Kevin in front of PS4 screen]

Kevin: and I never really had a doubt that they would come up with something great.

[Title: Create a playground where everyone can enjoy]

[Kevin in front of PS4 screen]

Kevin: We should be committed to doing everything we can within reason to make sure that person can try it,

[Footage of testing sessions]

Kevin: and not feel like, that because I'm deaf or blind or in awheelchair that I can't even try that experience.

[Uncharted 4 accessibility menu]

Kevin: for a lot of people video gaming is an escape. It's an experience that in real life they may not be able to walk across the desert or climb a mountain or fire a gun or fly into space,

[Kevin in front of PS4 screen]

Kevin: but in video games we can help them go to those places.

[Engineers in Sony Japan offices]

Shunsuke: I think it's about showing users a place for fun. Nothing formal about it.

Nohiro: PlayStation is a platform, So it isn't fun in and of itself,

[Uncharted 4 gameplay]

Nohiro: but rather it is the titles that gather around it and other elements

[Gamers playing Uncharted 4 at an expo]

Nohiro: that make PlayStation the best place to play. I think that's what we as SIE need to always keep in mind.

[Title: SONY]