COO Steven Spohn has announced that the AbleGamers #SpawnTogether campaign has raised $1 million in donations since launching last September. This impressive outcome follows an AbleGamers shoutout from Brie Larson back in April during a Fortnite stream, a gesture she made after learning about the charity from Sony Santa Monica Studio's Alanah Pearce.
Spohn has become an influential gaming industry figure over a short time, advocating for greater accessibility in gaming and setting up the AbleGamers charity to raise awareness and campaign on behalf of people with disabilities. The group has also played an important role in developing new tools for gaming platforms like Xbox, as AbleGamers and other non-profits helped design the Xbox Adaptive Controller in collaboration with Microsoft. The importance of AbleGamers' mission has also been recognized by other celebrities, including Dwayne Johnson, and major companies in the games industry, with Twitch donating $1 million to AbleGamers in 2020.
On Monday, Steven Spohn announced AbleGamers has hit its lofty fundraising goal of $1 million as part of the #SpawnTogether campaign. Last year, the AbleGamers COO made it his goal to reach $1 million raised by his next birthday in September 2021. In a video posted to Twitter, Spohn confirmed the fundraising goal has been reached with a month to spare and thanked supporters, saying, "I am forever grateful to the people who supported this campaign." Later in the video, he added:
"This is not my victory. This is a victory for everyone who donated a dollar, told a friend or family member, or just shared on social media. The point of #SpawnTogether was to prove that we can do great things if we all band together. We can change lives. We can make the world a better place. And that's exactly what we did here for gamers with disabilities; we made life better, together."
Perhaps the most notable impact of AbleGamers is its efforts to lobby game publishers and developers to include accessibility options in their titles so that everyone can play and enjoy them. A recent example of this came earlier this year when developer Behaviour Interactive confirmed it would add colorblind options to Dead by Daylight, a popular free-to-play multiplayer game, following comments made by Spohn online drawing attention to the issue. This type of grassroots advocacy has contributed to creating a generation of some of the most accessible games in the medium's history, with publishers like PlayStation Studios making deeper and more expansive accessibility options a mainstream discussion with games like The Last Of Us Part II and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.
The news that AbleGamers has now raised more than $1 million is a testament to the hard work of Steven Spohn and all of the organization's members and public supporters. The milestone will hopefully mean that the charity can work more effectively than ever to make the gaming sphere a more accessible and welcoming environment for all players.
Source: Steven Spohn