Dylan's Quest to Game

Dylan, who has Cerebral Palsy, loves watching his sister and brother-in-law play Wii, PlayStation, and Xbox games. But, while Dylan likes watching his family and friends play video games, what he wanted was to play games with them. So, he contacted AbleGamers to find out what we could do to help get him in the game so he could be included and play instead of just watching.

Dylan was limited to using only a mouth stick on a tablet. AbleGamers Sr. Peer Counselor Jessie assessed his accessibility barriers and worked with Dylan to develop a personalized solution that would allow him to play. After much consultation, they arrived at the QuadStick, a mouth-operated game controller, being the ideal solution.

It took practice, the QuadStick can be a challenging piece of adaptive gaming equipment to master, but Dylan got better at using his new game controller and can now access many more games than before. Now, Dylan is hitting home runs in his MLB game and playing right along with family and friends, proving that everyone can game with some practice, support, and the right equipment.

"We really appreciate all you have done to make this possible for Dylan. He was just saying this morning how happy he was when he finally made a home run in his MLB game. This is a terrific program, and we are truly grateful for this grant.
Blessings to you all."

How many people AbleGamers helps depends on how you define “help” - we provide hundreds of free customized controllers or assistive technology devices every year, which change people’s lives for years. We help thousands more find the right solutions through our intensive FAQs on our websites. And tens of thousands through education and outreach initiatives powering hospitals and rehabilitation centers with our partnerships to assist entire communities, but how do you quantify the number of players who are currently playing games thanks to the accessibility options that AbleGamers and disability advocates successfully advocated for in today’s most popular games? We don’t know the answer as a number. We can only tell you that we’ve done our best to move the needle on a very difficult problem and we’re doing our best with what funding we are given.