Games industry charity SpecialEffect has announced that this year’s One Special Day fundraising and awareness event will take place on Friday, October 6th. Last year, 90 game industry companies came together to raise more than $840,000 through corporate donations, fundraising events and sales revenue. Through One Special Day, SpecialEffect aids gamers with physical disabilities.
“I cannot overemphasise the importance of One Special Day in enabling our work to bring the joy of video games to physically disabled people across the world,” says SpecialEffect founder and CEO Mick Donegan. “Our team is facing an ever-increasing demand for all of our services – accessibility advice, assessments, the expansion and localization of resources such as gameaccess.info, our DevKit and our Eye Gaze Games website – and the generous support of the games industry in securing the future of these life-transforming, free to access initiatives is hugely appreciated. Despite the current economic challenges, we’re looking forward to celebrating One Special Day in the company of a truly amazing and supportive industry.”
SpecialEffect Helps Thousands Each Year
One Special Day was first held in 2016. Since the inaugural event, more than $2 million has been raised to help people with disabilities around the globe. The charity’s therapists and technical specialists offer advice and assessments for disabled people and provides customised technology loans to improve their day-to-day lives. Additionally, SpecialEffect shares the information it gathers with the games industry to help developers make their titles more accessible.
The father of one of the charity’s previous beneficiaries stated, “The SpecialEffect team visited our disabled 21-year-old son, Liam, to help him play games virtually independently for the very first time; to have been there to see the look of joy on Liam’s face is to know why all at SpecialEffect and anyone out there who contributes their efforts and or money for the charity are simply awesome.”
Jack Brassell is a freelance journalist and aspiring novelist. Jack is a self-proclaimed nerd with a lifelong passion for storytelling. As an author, Jack writes mostly horror and young adult fantasy. Also an avid gamer, she works as the lead news editor at Hardcore Droid. When she isn't writing or playing games, she can often be found binge-watching Parks & Rec or The Office, proudly considering herself to be a cross between Leslie Knope and Pam Beasley.
