Quote:
Originally Posted by Laserschwert
But this would only be relevant, if ALL of these people were gamers. Given their disability, do you really think, all of these people got into gaming in the first place?
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Well, not quite - whether or not all people with disabilities are gamers is only relevant if all people without disabilities are gamers, which obviously isn't the case.
What you're really asking is whether people with disabilities are less likely to be gamers than anyone else.
Again this might be surprising - they're actually
more likely to be gamers. The percentage of casual gamers who are disabled is 5% higher than the percentage of people in the general population who are disabled. And that figure only takes into account the people who admit to it, most people with low literacy claim they can actually read perfectly, because of the huge stigma attached.
If you have some kind of impairment you have exactly the same reasons as anyone else to want to play games, plus more on top of that. Sometimes things specific to a condition, such as being told to play games as physio by your doctor (happens alot believe it or not), sometimes as a distraction to avoid needing to take pain relief medication, or even sometimes just because you've got less types of recreation available to you and more spare time to fill.
PopCap wondered exactly the same question as you, so they commissioned some large scale research into it, and the above is what they got back.
Quite an eye opener eh?