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Seven tech charities to support this holiday season
Here's a list of the best tech charities you can donate to.
AbleGamers Foundation raised over $100k in 2013
The AbleGamers Foundation, a nonprofit charity that helps makes gaming accessible for those with disabilities, raised more than $100,000 in 2013. AbleGamers told GamePolitics that the funds were gathered during events like Minethon and PAX East and were pooled with donations from businesses and livestreamers. In a look toward what's to come, AbleGamers COO and Outreach Chair Steve Spohn said the foundation has "really cool projects coming up this year." These will include partnerships, launching new technology, establishing new facilities for caretakers and other efforts to be unveiled in 2014. In addition to funding those projects, donations made in 2014 will help support AbleGamers' year-round grant program, which involved the Summer of Fun grant last June. You can find more information about AbleGamers' cause at its website, including examples of what your donations would make possible.
AbleGamers creates how-to accessibility guide for devs, publishers
The AbleGamers Foundation has created a 48-page document it hopes will serve as a how-to guide for game developers and publishers on how to create more accessible games. The in-depth guide by the disability non-profit covers in great detail how to make games available to those with varying degrees of mobility, hearing, visual and cognitive issues."We are gamers first. To us that means that the core of the game should never be changed or altered in any way," AbleGamers Foundation president and founder Mark Barlet told Joystiq. "Our mission has been and always will be to include as many accessibility options for those who need them that are also invisible to those who don't."Some of those "invisible" ideas include being cognizant of color-based game mechanics for the 10 percent of males who are color-blind and offering different levels of visual feedback for those with hearing impairments."Developers could harness more than 33 million gamers if they were to look at these guidelines and incorporate even half of them," Barlet said regarding the economics at play with accessibility. "So far we have been largely successful, but we still need to convince publishers the almighty dollar is just waiting for them from gamers with disabilities if they would only pay attention to accessibility."Grab a copy of the document here: Includification [PDF]
Report: Industry missing out on revenue from aging, disabled gamers
According to a report coauthored by the Able Gamers Foundation and 7-128 Software, the game industry is losing out on up to $3 billion in revenue by failing to cater to older or disabled gamers. The report alleges that the gaming population is getting older, noting that the ESA pegged the average gamer's age at 35 in 2008, up from 33 in 2007 and 30 in 1995. It states further that more and more homes have access to game consoles and internet-connected PCs, opening the industry to a wide potential audience of older players -- players that are more prone to disability than the young. Finally, Baby Boomers -- those born between 1946 and 1964 -- have much more disposable income than younger demographics, adding up to billions in potential revenue. "If the gaming industry does not realign their priorities to include accessible gaming," notes the report, "then a collision will happen in the next five years," resulting in "lost sales and lost customers." The report proposes that game developers begin implementing accommodations for disabilities in their games, including variable font sizes, color blind modes, variable speed settings and more in order to cater to the disabled market. "By making video games accessible to gamers with disabilities, which includes older gamers," writes co-author Eleanor Robinson, "game manufacturers will unlock a lucrative, paying market of consumers for years to come." [Via The Escapist. Image: AbleGamers.org]
Player vs. Everything: Gaming with a disability
Stephanie Walker was a gamer who had never expected to have to deal with a disability. She was 23 at the onset of her condition, a college student who also worked a full-time job. She liked to spend the little free time she had unwinding online. Initially resistant to the idea of playing EverQuest, Stephanie quickly discovered that slaying virtual orcs and bandits while joking around in party chat was surprisingly fun. It was a great way to keep in touch with long-distance friends and burn some stress after a long day. She didn't have a lot of time to play, but she was good at it when she did. While working at her job one day, Stephanie noticed that her right hand and leg had fallen asleep. When she tried to get up to walk the sensation off, she realized that something was seriously wrong -- the entire right side of her body had just stopped working. Stephanie was rushed to the hospital, and the diagnosis was confirmed the following morning: she had multiple sclerosis, and she would have to deal with it for the rest of her life. Overnight, everything changed. She went from being someone who spent 20 hours per day away from home to someone who really never left. Moving around within her house required an enormous effort on her part. Even feeding herself had become a challenge. The little things, like not being able to get online and chat with her friends (something she really enjoyed) just made her situation that much more painful.
