NPR. He was around the age of 12 when Steve Spawn discovered video games.

He was at home, which is where he was most of the time because he has spinal muscular atrophy.

It's a condition that gradually takes away a person's ability to use their muscles.

And one time one of the nurses helping him asked, have you ever tried playing video games?

And I told her that I was too disabled.

There's no way that I could.

And she challenged me that there was no reason I couldn't just hold the controller.

I was using a powered wheelchair.

So why couldn't I hold the controller and she brought over in

Nintendo and it was like love at first sight I literally kidnapped it and

wouldn't let her take him back and yeah it was it was really great I

ended up falling in love and beating Mario.

As Steve's condition progressed over the years and moving became more difficult he's had to find more

creative ways to keep playing like using a dentist pick to push keys on a keyboard or wearing a

special hat with sensors that allows him to control a game by tilting his head.

And he's had to do all this because for a long time the video game industry just was not thinking

about gamers like Steve or gamers with disabilities generally but that is

starting to change this is the indicator for Planet Money, I'm Adrian Ma.

And I'm Whelan Wong. Today we continue our week-long series on the video game industry

by looking at how advocates and game developers are shifting the status quo on accessibility.

Support for this podcast and the following message come from Wise,

the app that makes managing your money in different currencies easy.

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