About Our Player Panel

AbleGamers has a player-led panel of 650+ people with disabilities who advise gaming companies on development, accessibility, and representation. Our Player Panel is the largest organized impaneled group of people with disabilities in the world. The voices of people with disabilities on this panel are actively changing the video gaming industry for the better. 

 

Amplifying the voices of people with disabilities is our biggest priority. It’s what makes our approach to accessibility and inclusion so effective. AbleGamers is full of experts on game design, technology, and engineering. We’ve built a prestigious team that the industry comes to for opinions and ideas about supporting people with disabilities in their games. Our expertise and resources are only one part of the picture, though. AbleGamers believes that the best service we can provide to the community is to use our weight as an organization to bring people with disabilities forward and let them share their own voices, experiences, and expertise with video game companies. People with disabilities are the experts in their own lives, and there’s no substitute for the kind of knowledge and connection that can be exchanged when a game developer talks to someone who understands accessibility struggles firsthand. 

AbleGamers facilitates these conversations and brings the voices of people with disabilities into industry conversations. We help matchmake companies who approach us with teams on the player panel to ensure a collaborative, engaging process. We ensure that companies compensate our Player Panel members for their expertise and labor, which provides agency and validation for the time and effort people with disabilities put in to make a difference. Our players directly engage with gaming industry executives and professionals who have become increasingly passionate about finding ways to make their games, consoles, and events accessible and welcoming. 

Impacts: 

Not only does our Player Panel program provide an empowering avenue for people with disabilities to get compensated for their hard work, it also gives players an incredible vantage point in the video gaming industry. It allows them to directly impact the universe they live in by being part of the game creation process. In addition, it affords players the opportunity to be part of making something that they love even better. 

The Player Panel additionally creates a marketable avenue for people with disabilities to get jobs in the industry. By using their expertise, being compensated for it, and working on a team effort alongside some of the biggest developers in the world, our Player Panel members are positioned to join the industry full-time. Many of them do, and there are dozens of Player Panel alumni working in-house for major gaming companies now, helping to make change and impact the video game industry from the inside out. 

The AbleGamers Player Panel has an impact far beyond the world of video gaming. AbleGamers has been contacted by major consumer electronic companies asking if they can be put in contact with the Panel to collaborate on accessibility for items like TVs. The Player Panel is an example of how elevating and amplifying the voices of people with disabilities has a domino effect across the industry and marketplace. The push for accessibility is here, thanks in large part to the tireless work of people on our Player Panel.