Can I Play That was founded with one goal in mind — to change the industry for disabed people.
Over the past two years, we’ve succeeded by nearly every measure. Our dedicated staff produces content that is read by everyone from players to studio executives, and our impact is significant.
When Susan and I started doing accessibility work focused solely on deaf and hard of hearing players back in 2014, we both quickly discovered how much we love serving the gaming community and the tangible proof that our efforts were paying off. When we turned our success at OneOddGamerGirl into CIPT, we did so with the intent of continuing but on a much larger scale.
For the past year and a half, Grant Stoner has been a critical part of our remarkable success at CIPT. But it’s time to make a change so we can continue our good work.
Grant shared yesterday that he’s leaving CIPT to focus on his career as a journalist. There is no one I want to see succeed more. Grant has been the journalistic backbone of CIPT, and I’m eager to cheer him on as he continues to bring accessibility into the mainstream as a games journalist, and make his own name in this industry.
Grant brought to Can I Play That talent and skills as a journalist that I don’t have and with that in mind, I’m thrilled to share with you the next iteration of Can I Play That.
CIPT will be expanding to bring about change in the games industry in new ways. We’re bringing on two new partnerships to do so.
One of those partnerships is with someone you likely already know and love; Stacey Jenkins. Stacey and I will be working together to provide community managers (and indie/solo devs who wear many hats, including that of community manager) and streamers with Accessible Community Management Workshops. In this workshop, you will learn how to ensure your social media and forums are accessible to and inclusive of all members of your community. From accessible memes to inclusive PR and marketing, you will come away with everything you need to ensure no one is alienated by your great content.
We will also be offering diversity, equity, and inclusion workshops designed specifically for the video game industry with an exciting new partnership with Yi Shun Lai. Yi Shun and I have worked together on bringing awareness of the accessibility issues in publishing and storytelling to a broader audience, and we know each other via our mutual efforts for better accessibility at a higher-education institution. She has her certificate in diversity and inclusion studies, and a few months ago she came to me with her diversity, equity, and inclusion guide that she wanted to make inclusive of disabled people too. I loved the guide and asked if she wanted to work together to bring a version of it to the games industry when the time was right. Now, finally, the time is right. Yi Shun and I will offer a range of workshops, for everyone from game writers and narrative designers, to HR staff, to community managers, in which participants will learn from material designed specifically for the unique needs of their studios how to foster greater inclusion and diversity, both within the studio and within their community of players.
I am so proud of the accomplishments of CIPT over the past two years and I am eager to take those accomplishments to the next level with Stacey and Yi Shun. Stay tuned to the site and our Twitter for more on what we’re doing next.
Learn more over on the new Learn page in the menu bar or by emailing learn@caniplaythat.com.
