Greetings all, I wanted to share with you the latest post from the AbleGamers Foundation (the nonprofit that runs this site). We put this YouTube out for the game industry. 

Transcript for vision impaired readers

• What is the lack of accessibility in your game costing you?
• Has the thought even crossed your mind?
  • Mobility Impaired Gamers
  • Hearing Impaired Gamers
  • Vision Impaired Gamers
  • Cognitively Impaired Gamers
• [Image: Color Blind Test] Heck, 1 in 7 men are colorblind
• Let’s do the math
• NEW SLIDE [Image: $100 bill][Image: Mario One-up Mushroom] In the United States…
• About: the video game industry
• The Video Game Industry was worth
  • $9.7 Billion in 2009
• Down 8% from 2008's $11.5 Billion
• NEW SLIDE [Image: Handicap parking sign][Image: Map of the US] 41,300,000 Americans are disabled...
  • 4.3% of all Americans reported a sensory disability
  • 25 million people reported a physical disability
    • That is almost one in ten Americans
  • 5.8 percent reported a mental disability
• NEW SLIDE [Image: Earth] In the whole world there are 98 million disabled people
  • 10.6 million in the UK
  • 8.6 million in Germany
  • 5.1 million in Japan
• Let's put this in perspective....
• NEW SLIDE [Image: Monster from World of Warcraft] Like it or not, World of Warcraft is a very popular game...
  • It has 10 to 12 million subscribers.
  • That means in the United States alone, the number of people with disabilities is...
• NEW SLIDE [Image: More WOW Monsters] 5 times the subscriber base of World of Warcraft
  • I am hard-pressed to think of anyone who would not want to have 5x the subscriber base of WOW as potential customers...
• Not a fan of World of Warcraft?
• NEW SLIDE [Image: Halo 3 fighter] There are 7 times more disabled people in the US than the number of copies of Halo 3 sold last year..
• [ZOOM IN ON IMAGE] that's a lot of people to help with the Covenant
• NEW SLIDE [Image: dollar bills] If the target audience for video games is the 5 - 64 year olds
  • and 6.4% of 5 to 15 year olds are disabled...
  • not thinking about accessibility could be leaving...
  • $1,122,900,000 in potential  revenue on the table
• and the number really gets big when you look at the 16 to 64 year olds...
  • $2,482,200,000 in potential  lost revenue
• for a total of...
• NEW SLIDE Over $3 Billon in unrealized sales in the US alone...                   
  • Don't think you can afford to worry about Game Accessibility?
  • How can you afford not to?
• NEW SLIDE For More Information...
  • Visit  http://www.AbleGamersFoundation.org http://GameAccessibility.org

Comment (6)

I know that they are not people, but that does not change how sad they can make you. This weekend we here at the AbleGamers HQ had to make the heart-breaking decision to put our beloved Luna Bleu to sleep. I wanted to share a few photos and thank you all for the support.

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Just wanted to share this. A friend of AbleGamers was bring interviewed on her new book, and she game us a nod.

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There comes a time in the life of an organization when change is not only inevitable but essential. Ablegamers.com has continued to grow by leaps and bounds, especially in the past year . The membership has grown and the mission has grown. Therefore, Ablegamers.com will be making changes today that will help to further their goals for the future.  

Effective immediately, Stephanie Walker will no longer be working at Ablegamers.com so that she can assume a new position within The Ablegamers Foundation (ablegamersfoundation.org). She will be shifting her priorities from the gaming news and membership side of the organization to working on the nonprofit side. Stephanie will be using her time to spread the message of The Ablegamers Foundation to businesses, organizations, and individuals that will be helpful in supporting the overall mission of game accessibility. She will also be more involved in the day to day activities of The Ablegamers Foundation.  

The Ablegamers organization believes that expanding their nonprofit arm will benefit them as a whole. Ablegamers.com will continue to be a source of the best game accessibility news and resources. They also offer an ever expanding catalog of game reviews with a focus on accessibility.  The Ablegamers Foundation will press forward even harder with its nonprofit mission to work on the business side of things and help to make the desires of accessible gaming a reality through its outreach. Ablegamers has made a necessary change today that they believe will help the disabled gaming community reap greater things in the long run.

You can expect to still see her around the site, she is not going anywhere as a member, she is just focusing more of the other side of the house.

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I have not failed, I have been VERY sick. I am going to blame it on my friend Rob (who also lives down the street), mainly because he is not a member of the site therefor will never know I blamed him. Anyway he got a killer cold. And if you read last weeks you would know that the last few weeks at the AbleGamers HQ has been snow with a chance for snow. Rob was feeling better and said, "Hey, I am tired of being in the house, can I walk over to you?"

So needless to say, I spent the last week trying not to expire from this world and into another. I have hacked and ripping at my poor throat to the point were I was almost swigging that throat spray. I went to the CVS and swept whole shelf of cold meds into my bag.

So... I was forced to take a week and put it on hold because I just did not have it in me. So I hope that I feel well and I can get started again...

Sorry if I let you down, but I have recovered and I getting back into it... tomorrow.

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Barrie Ellis over at OneSwitch.org.uk has compiled a great list of one-switch games from 2000 to 2009. You may not be familiar with what a one-switch game is, so I will do my best to explain it. It is a game that uses one switch! (button, lever, basically something that is ON and OFF).  So no joystick, no D-pad, just a single button or switch.

My favorite is Number 2 on the list, Strange Attractors 2

Anyway, go check out the list here.

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So for a long time I have a Logitec G15 gaming keyboard. Not the new one that you but the old one with the old liquid crystal display. I used the crap out of that thing, I had worn the paint off of most of the keys.

So a few weeks ago I was standing in Best Buy looking to replace the war horse that has  enabled me to play for years. I looked at the replacement of the G15, but man was that more money than I can spend right now. So I picked up the Cyborg Gaming Keyboard from Saitek. I have played with Saitek/Mad Catz's gear in the past and my impression was always that while the items they made looked a little clunky they were always very very high quality. (and I do own a few other products they made and have been happy)

I was a fool! As you can see in the image below, the yellow boxes are keys that do not work well at all. the Y is the bane of my life, I have to mash these highlighted buttons with a force that makes basic typing a nightmare.

So I reached out to the company using the same support that a non-gaming site would use to get a new keyboard, man did my disapointment go from "kind of" to "very" .

They would be more than happy to have a look at my keyboard, but... I have to pay to have it shipped, and, "Once it has arrived and a tech is available to work on it, we will proceed to fix or replace it." That makes it sound like it may be Q3 of 2010 before I will see this thing again.

Also, in order to do that, I would also have to GO BUY A NEW KEYBOARD, because this is the only one I have.

I am just going to haul it back to Best Buy for a store credit and pick up another keyboard. Those Microsoft keyboard is looking more and more appealing. 

Good-bye Cyborg Keyboard, I was hoping that you and I would be together for years, but alas my language is English, and the letters involved are used on a fairly regular basis, I cannot be your friend... Y, because you can not type Y - R - D - B - 3 and 4.

Mak alet (see I cannot even spell my own name)

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We are beginning to rollout our fundraising efforts and AbleGamers needs your help.

Our most immediate need is to fund some conference and booth presentation materials for the upcoming NCTI conference - one of the largest gatherings of accessibility technology companies and research projects in the country. This will enable us to attract people, and share our cause, out passion, and our knowledge with those in a position to advance our mission. Goal $2000 by Oct 31. http://ablegamers.org/donate.html

If you enjoy the hard work that we are doing at AbleGamers, thank us with a small donation. Every little bit helps.

Thank you.

Comment (2)

I am sure that you have noticed that something has changed here at AbleGamers. No, you are not seeing things, we have a new look.

So why the change?

2 factors played into the change, the first was that I got tired of looking at AbleGamers 2.0. As the EIC I spend a lot of time on the site, and I was just wanting a change, but not to totally move everything around.

The second reason for the move was that we want to get you to be sharing your voice and your thoughts. AbleGamers is YOUR safe place to be yourself and build friendships, find gaming buddies that understand your needs, and just share where we all are in life. To do that, we wanted to make sure that we give the blogs the space the deserve, hence the changes along the top.

We have upgraded many of the backend parts of the site, and you should see it faster.

Please tell us what you think, this is your site too.

Comment (4)

So I was poking around on the web. And I found this... I am not really sure what to think about this. What do you think?

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