Overcoming Social Isolation Through the Power of Play: The 'Why' Behind Everything We Do
The AbleGamers Charity
Building a future where all players can experience the community, friendships, and confidence that comes from gaming.
It was always about social isolation.
One Friday night in the autumn of 2004, AbleGamers Founder Mark Barlet logged on to play Everquest by Daybreak Game Company LLC with his friends. This weekly gaming session was a beloved routine that helped their group of friends stay connected virtually, despite being located all across the country. But on this particular evening, things did not go how they normally went.
One of his friends did not join.
Mark soon learned that his friend’s progression of her multiple sclerosis had exacerbated to the point that it had rendered her unable to join their weekly gaming session. The activity that they all looked forward to every week was not going to happen without some intervention. In an endeavor to help his friend, he began searching for resources to assist her.
Surely, he thought, he would find numerous resources to help point her towards so they could get back to gaming together and stay connected. Instead, he found a void filled with immense need and very few resources to meet that need.
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On August 23rd, 2004, the AbleGamers website was registered.
The original intent was to provide a platform where disabled players could connect with each other and share desperately needed resources to help empower accessible play. Over time, AbleGamers continually reviewed the landscape and found that the central issue was not that resources were hard to find, but rather that they simply did not exist.
The AbleGamers Foundation was established in 2009 because of the incessant lack of resources for disabled gamers.
Since then, AbleGamers has worked to enable players through Peer Counseling, to research engineering of accessible hardware solutions to support the development of accessible and inclusive video games, to advocate for broader inclusion across the gaming industry as a whole, and to create community experiences for players with disabilities.
In 2024, our twentieth year of creating opportunities that enable play, we are working on various initiatives that will impact how players can connect with each other both online and in person. We are excited to combat social isolation with our partners and supporters, and cannot wait to share more.
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