Twitch removes 'blind playthrough' tag in response to feedback from disabled players

Blind people can still play videogames, as proved by Zoe Espinoza, the blind Mortal Kombat badass. But that's not what the "blind playthrough" tag on Twitch highlighted. Instead, it was used to collect streams where players went into games ignorant of their mechanics and story. That's now changed, and the tag has been deleted. As Twitch's director of community and creator marketing Erin Wayne tweeted, "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

Steve Saylor, who runs the YouTube channel Blind Gamer and is also the media editor of the Can I Play That? videogame accessibility website, explained that "Changing the term "blind playthrough" is not SJW's being super sensitive. I've said this before, "first playthrough" is a better description anyway. I personally am not offended by it, but I do think it's a term that can go away. Language changes over time, so let it."

Steven Spohn, chief operating officer of the AbleGamers charity, had mentioned this and other uses of disability terms in different contexts in a thread, saying that, "Just as we used to say "gay" when something was bad, using disability terms as an alternate word for a negative situation or feeling is common in today's language But just as we stopped saying gay to mean bad, we can stop saying these words too".

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