Do you love Minecraft and helping others? Today AbleGamers, a gaming charity working to make gaming more accessible to all gamers, will begin Minethon, its annual 48-hour Minecraft stream for charity. Gamepedia, via our Streamer wiki Streamerpedia, have sponsored this exciting event to help raise awareness. Check out their livestream and consider making a donation today!
We had a chance to virtually sit down with AbleGamers Founder Mark Barlet and ask him some questions about AbleGamers and today’s livestream. Check out what Mark had to say to us, and read the rest of the interview on Streamerpedia while watching Minethon! No donation is too small, so check out Minethon and donate today!
What prompted the creation of AbleGamers?
AbleGamers was started to fill a need in the disability community to find ways to play games around the challenges being disabled presents. After Stephanie Walker, Mark’s adoptive sister, suffered an attack from multiple sclerosis (unable to use her hands to operate a mouse, Mark set out to find information that could help her continue to game. Mark scoured the Internet. There was no information to be found. Fortunately Stephanie’s abilities returned, but Mark decided that there should be a place gamers with disabilities could go to find ways around the challenges of everyday disabilities, including those with neurological conditions that may flare up or get worse over time. And thus AbleGamers was born to fill that void and ensure no one would go through the terror of losing the ability to game, alone.
How did Minethon get started?
MineThon was founded by Ethan Smith in 2011 after being inspired by the Mario Marathon. To date, the MineThon volunteers have raised more than $45,000 for the charity. MineThon is an annual Minecraft charity stream that raises donations for AbleGamers.
What accessibility options does Minecraft have for disabled gamers?
Minecraft has several built-in accessibility features, including the ability to turn off PvP and PvE, so that gamers are able to build in a safe sandbox, at their own rate, without any danger of the frustrations of being killed or their progress destroyed.
Also, the community has made amazing mods for the game enabling fascinating accessibility options such as using voice commands. And we have been able to successfully make Minecraft work in our laboratories using only eye-gaze technology
Read the rest of the interview here!
