£10k donation helps increase provision of assistive gaming tech to disabled children

GamesAid has donated £10,000 to the small charity Lifelites, which donates and maintains assistive technology to give life-limited and disabled children using children’s hospice services a chance to play, be creative, communicate and control something for themselves.

This funding will help increase their donations of assistive gaming technology to disabled children in hospices.

Simone Enefer-Doy, Lifelites Chief Executive, said: “Gaming is a vital lifeline for children and young people with disabilities. It’s a chance to play, to have fun and to be in control, regardless of the confines of their condition. It can level the playing field and give them access to a world where their disability is irrelevant.

“However, too often these children are unable to play the games they love because they don’t have access to the right technology. Thanks to the GamesAid funding we’ll be able to allow more children the opportunity to access these games and technology.”

The charity has developed its own Interactive Entertainment Hub, which is a portable unit packed full of assistive gaming technology, including the Xbox Adaptive Controller. Launched back in 2018, this controller is the first mainstream controller designed specifically for people with disabilities.

Simone continued: “Our Interactive Entertainment Hubs can go wherever the child is in the hospice, even if they can’t get out of bed. It can give them the chance to be in control.”

GamesAid is a UK videogame industry charity that raises funds for distribution to a wide range of smaller charities helping disadvantaged and disabled children and young people.

Members of the UK video games industry propose and vote for the charities of their choice annually. The charities that get the highest number of votes then get an equal share of all the monies raised that year, proving that games and gamers can do great things for others.

Des Gayle, Chair of GamesAid, added: “GamesAid is so happy to be supporting Lifelites again. Games are an amazing medium and LifeLites’ work allows children who normally wouldn’t normally be able to access games to play along like anyone else, this is a truly wonderful thing.”

Lifelites has been donating life-changing packages of assistive technology for over 20 years and supports children using every children’s hospices services across the British Isles.