One-to-One: The life-changing work of SpecialEffect

UK charity SpecialEffect helps physically disabled people play games. Through bespoke equipment and software, it's changed lives. It's why Microsoft and Sony asked SpecialEffect for help while making their Xbox and PlayStation accessibility controllers, and it's why the charity has become a leading speaker in the movement for better accessibility in games.

But really, fundamentally, it's about play. "A lot of the people we work with have had a lifetime of not being able to do things that they're capable of doing, that they want to do and they're seeing their brother and sister do, and they're seeing all their mates do, but they're unable to actually join in," SpecialEffect founder and CEO Mick Donegan says. "A lot of people come to us like that, and a lot of them have actually given up all hope. Their self image, basically, is of somebody who says, 'I can't do this.' And it's been going on for years.

"It's that moment when, for the first time, they're actually able to play a game that they want to play for the first time; that moment. And you can see it on their face: it's the moment when it changes - that their self image changes from 'I can't do this' to 'I got this'. It's that moment. It's like you've helped them open the doors to this wonderful world of gaming, having just been looking in through the window for years and years and years."

You can find out more about SpecialEffect on its website: https://www.specialeffect.org.uk/

(Note: an earlier version of this podcast has been intentionally replaced by this listing.)

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