Twitch released its Twitch Accessibility Statement earlier this year, rededicating itself to improving the platform with inclusivity and accessibility in mind. Since its publication Twitch has made improvements to multiple aspects of its service, and yet another change has been made by Twitch in pursuit of a less discriminatory environment. It’s a small but meaningful change to some, as the tag for “blind playthroughs” has been removed.
“Blind playthroughs” is a tag that has been used by some Twitch streamers to imply they were playing a game for the first time, or with no awareness of the game going in. The term has been criticized as ableist language by advocates, inserting a disability in an unconstructive way over more accurate language. As such, Twitch took the opportunity to remove the tag in favor of something more appropriate.
Steven Spohn, the COO of the AbleGamers Charity, mentioned the term back this June in response to a follower’s question. He notably didn’t mention Twitch in his response, but described how ableist language like “blind playthrough” and “going in blind” can be “easily replaced by saying ‘No spoilers play through,’ ‘undiscovered,’ or ‘first.’ ” He went on to say that the term blind playthrough more accurately describes playing with the TV or monitor turned off.
Twitch community and creator marketing representative Erin Wayne confirmed the change on Twitter. Wayne said they are, “Happy to see Twitch has listened to everyone who shared feedback,” regarding the removal of the blind playthrough tag. They recommend using tags for “first playthrough” and “no spoilers” for game streams on Twitch instead. Spohn also replied, saying, “Happy to see Twitch following through on promises to address and resolve issues from the disability community.” However, Spohn says this is just the beginning.
A vocal minority online has questioned the necessity of such a change, as always seems to be the case with regards to discriminatory language regardless of whether it’s intentionally harmful or not. What’s important is this change contributes to efforts against ableism in the gaming industry, and it helps create a more accurate and correct tag system.
Twitch plans to continue making changes to its platform both big and small. In its statement earlier this year, Twitch dedicated itself to a continued discourse with streamers and viewers who have disabilities. As Spohn said, this is still just the beginning for Twitch, and there are many more opportunities for it to take advantage of. While just changing a tag required months of feedback, there are likely ways in which Twitch can improve its process going forward.
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