Access All Areas
From being an unemployed producer and community manager, Felicia Prehn talks about the trepidation of becoming an advocate for accessibility in their adopted Finland, and the joy of finding a supportive studio that measures diversity by ability ahead of disability
IN THE SUMMER OF 2020, I found myself unexpectedly unemployed. I had left my role of five years at a boutique 3D animation and mobile game studio earlier in the year for a startup that promised me the world, but ultimately couldn’t deliver. Now I was once again hunting for work in the notoriously- competitive game industry job market. This time was different, however: every recruiter knew I was blind. Years prior, my local IGDA chapter invited me to speak about my experiences as a blind gamer. Before this, I had never thought about accessibility in games. To me, video games were another aspect of a world that was not meant for blind people, and I had accepted that engaging with them involved a level of patience and occasional disappointment. After I gave my presentation, I started to receive
more requests to speak on accessibility. At first I felt as though everyone must be mistaken; I was a producer and community manager with limited game design experience. I wasn’t an industry veteran, and I hadn’t worked on any blockbuster projects. I also had to weigh the potential risks of being a female-presenting blind person in the spotlight. I was no stranger to Internet trolls, but I was wary of trolling that may impact my career. But at some point I realised that I may be the only blind person working in the Finnish game industry, and that if I didn’t stand up for blind players and speak from experience, who would (or could)? In 2018 and 2019, I spoke at several schools,
conferences, and events. My assistant and I travelled across Finland and the rest of Northern Europe hoping to convince industry professionals that blind and disabled people do actually play, and sometimes even make, games. I pushed myself to be open and vulnerable, sharing my struggles and frustrations with sometimes too sharp of a tongue in rooms full of Europe’s largest game companies, in
order to make things better for others. I found myself hoping that my activism hadn’t negatively affected my chances of finding a new job. There has always been reason for apprehension among those of us who work on diversity issues in the Finnish game industry. Our industry and community have come a long way, but the fear of being seen as a “troublemaker” can be haunting. Sometimes developers can take feedback about the accessibility of their games as an attack on them as individuals, or as feedback that would benefit only a small group of their player base. The misunderstanding can have lasting impacts. In less than six months, I was able to land my
current role as a player experience specialist at Next Games. On my first day, I received messages from my colleagues telling me how much they’d enjoyed lectures I’d given over the years. My expertise on accessibility and diversity were acknowledged, with discipline leads and management regularly seeking my opinion. I am also now the lead of our Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging working group. I’ve never felt the need to apologise for being blind or needing accommodations. Though I was worried that my openness would cost me opportunities, I managed to find a workplace where that was valued. I wish that all disabled people would be able to feel as confident and secure with being their most authentic selves at their workplace as I am, and that we could speak openly about our experiences and frustrations without lingering worries of negative implications and judgement from future employers. The key to creating a more inclusive industry is to put an emphasis on hiring diverse teams and judging team members based on their skills, rather than on irrelevant factors like blindness or other disabilities, and by not being afraid to work with people from different backgrounds.
February 2022 MCV/DEVELOP | 27
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