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What Everyone Can are doing to help during lockdown

Everyone Can are a charity that help disabled people through the power of technology. At their Technology & Gaming centre in Manchester they help disabled people to speak, control their environment, gain independence and have fun!

They hold accessible gaming sessions for disabled children and adults, ensuring people with physical disabilities who struggle with a normal controller can game. Then helping children and adults with neurodiverse disabilities to socialise, gain confidence and make friends. They also carry out 1-1 assessments to help disabled people overcome obstacles they may face such as struggling to communicate, use a PC or even turn on their lights at home.

During a normal week at the centre they would hold around 5 gaming sessions, helping on average 100 gamers. Then squeezed in between gaming sessions would be 1-1 assessments. On top of all that it’s fundraising to ensure their work can continue!

Since COVID-19 has hit they have had to close the centre and work from home. It’s been nearly 7 weeks since they closed their centre and they miss everyone so much – the big smiles, the loud volume of laughter even the Mario Kart theme tune!

Although they can’t help the disabled community face to face they want everyone to know they can still help and what they’ve been doing so far over the past few weeks.

A big part of their charity is their accessible gaming sessions, now with everyone facing isolation they want to keep in touch with their gamers and ensure they’re still able to socialise with their Everyone Can family. This is why they’ve introduced daily online gaming sessions, although they can’t see their smiling faces it still gives staff an opportunity to game with them and have a chat.

The feedback from the children has been great so far, Dylan says it’s the highlight of his day when he can get online and game with them. Sam is also really enjoying the gaming sessions because he can enjoy multi-player games with other people, he likes getting to talk to the other players and have a laugh!

Everyone Can’s gaming manager Paul said “In these bleak times each smile we put on a child’s face is a win!”

Believe it or not, their assessments still haven’t stopped either! They usually get people to come to their centre or they do home visits, but obviously at the moment they’re unable to do that. So the assessment team have been working hard with service users over the phone and even via video calls.

Andrew has helped a number of service users over the phone with technical support and also helping ensure people can game! I am sure we can all agree video games are great during lockdown, they’re loads of fun and pass the time. But imagine if your disability held you back from gaming? That’s why they’re continuing to help disabled gamers the best they can!

Here is one example of someone they have helped during lockdown…

Daniel is a stroke survivor and consequently is unable to use his right hand side. He wants to be able to play online with his friends on his PlayStation 4 during lockdown, but needs the correct set up to play one handed. After a video call with Andrew we’ve helped pick out the best assistive technology to get him gaming. As soon as the equipment arrives Andrew will help him set it all up over the phone so he’ll be gaming online with friends in no time! Daniel says he is really excited to get online as it will keep him busy and having fun during lockdown. He also said he can’t wait to attend their gaming sessions once lockdown is over!

They have much more assessments lined up over the next few weeks and they can’t wait to help and ensure everyone can game!

If you or anyone you know requires any support please get in touch with them on contact@everyonecan.org.uk and they will try their best to help you over the phone or over a video call.

If you want to support Everyone Can to help them continue their services then you can donate here: https://www.everyonecan.org.uk/support-us/ or get in touch for a fundraising pack!