SpecialEffect are gaming-enablers. Using a varied range of tech including eye-control and (sometimes heavily) modified joypads, they try to ensure that anybody can play computer games, no matter their disability.
They’re also a canny bunch. For their latest fundraising effort, they’ve pushed a community item set all the way through Steam Workshop’s approval system and into Team Fortress 2.
“MASSIVE thanks to everyone who clicked the link to vote for @SpecialEffect items in TF2,” tweeted Sports Interactive’s Miles Jacobson. “It worked & the 1st item is live now!”
The charity has partnered with a cluster of high end community creators to design their items: theBelly Buttonsare built by Svdl, theQuarter Cabinetby Sparkwire and Void, and theVirtual Viewfinderby Ronin and Psyke. Ogle the results below:
Now the items have been voted into the game by the Workshop community, 1% of the revenue share for each will go to the artists responsible, and the remaining 99% to SpecialEffect.
All of that cash will go towards enabling the enablers, who have demonstrably improved the process of therapy, rehabilitation and confidence-building for the young disabled people they’ve worked with. Not to mention allowed this young man to play Colin McRae with his chin. Remarkable stuff: