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Sega Europe hosts OneSpecialDay

Discussion in 'General Sega Discussion' started by Cooljerk, Sep 28, 2017.

  1. Cooljerk

    Cooljerk

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    Saw this on my twitter feed and felt like sharing, because it put a huge smile on my face. One Special Day is an event by SpecialEffect, an organization that builds custom controllers for disabled children world-wide so that they can live more normal lives. Having worked with the City of Houston on ADA requirements, and also having worked with MD Anderson on a project for disabled children, this stuff hits me right in the heart. Most people without disabilities never give a single thought to how even a slight disability closes so many doors. I can't tell you how many times I've worked with clients on Houston ADA requirements and heard something in response akin to "Well, I never intend to hire disabled people," which honestly makes my blood boil.

    Anywho, Sega hosted One Special Day on the 26th and photos have just popped up online, really worth sharing:

    [​IMG]

    The event concentrated on custom hardware and solutions for different degrees of disability, all the way down to those who are nearly completely paralyzed from the neck down, who rely on eye tracking technologies. They invited a guest speaker who engaged with eye tracking technologies to speak about how transformative these techniques are:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMOgC6coba8

    A special build controlled entirely via eye tracking:

    [​IMG]

    Not just content with donating custom hardware for kiddos and bringing smiles to their faces, Sega of Europe also hosted a cycling marathon, with each KM cycled resulting in a bigger donation from Sega:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    And finally, the money shot. This is Elliot, apparently a die hard Sonic fan from all the non-gaming media, getting to play Sonic the Hedgehog for the very first time:

    [​IMG]

    I know there are lots of amateur and professional game developers who visit this site, just wanted to throw this out there for wider recognition. There are a bevvy of techniques, big and small, that developers can employ to make their games more inclusive of all types of disabilities - one that I've always liked is using custom shaders to simulate the effects of color blindness on top of a game so that developers can be aware of UI decisions.

    Either way, hopefully this warms your heart. Good on Sega and Special Effect.
     
  2. Asagoth

    Asagoth

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    wiki stuff... and a beer... or two... or more...
    This is a noble initiative ... sometimes we forget that there are people who have limitations and we selfishly "shape" our world as if these people didn't exist... there's still much to be done yet... thank you very much for sharing this.
     
  3. JaxTH

    JaxTH

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    Jack shit.
    Never heard of this before.

    So is this a once a year thing or what?
     
  4. Cooljerk

    Cooljerk

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    Special Effects does this all the time, OneSpecialDay is their hashtag for when they actually give out hardware to kiddos affected, as every kiddo has their OneSpecialDay from them. It just so happened that this one for Elliot was hosted by SoE, and they went the extra mile and brought in guest speakers and had the cycling event.
     
  5. Overlord

    Overlord

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    Special Effect, incidentally, for those who haven't heard of them before: http://www.specialeffect.org.uk/

    The Yogscast does charity livestreams every December and Special Effect is one of the benefactors.
     
  6. Cooljerk

    Cooljerk

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    Small update, but they also had a Sega Hardlight photo contest after they hosted SpecialEffect to raise money. Apparently this is the winning photo:

    [​IMG]