In a blog post published early this month, Xbox’s global head of impact, Jenn Panattoni, wrote about Xbox and Special Olympics’ renewed partnership intended to celebrate the intersectionality of the disability and gaming communities. The post was coincident with the announcement of this year’s Gaming for Inclusion Esports Tournament.
As Panattoni wrote, Microsoft and the Special Olympics have come together to empower though technology for the last decade, since 2014. The collaboration has taken various forms, with Panattoni saying it has “evolved through the years.” On November 11, Special Olympics athletes and partners will play in a virtual Rocket League tournament alongside celebrity supporters of Special Olympics in NFL players and WWE superstars. A week later, on the 18th, there will be in-person and live-streamed events based in Los Angeles during which people will play.
Panattoni went on to note that, late last month, Xbox hosted three Special Olympic athletes at the Microsoft Experience Center. The trio received so-called “shoutcaster” training, as well as lessons on commentating through a series of workshops and guest speakers.
Now in its third year, I covered last year’s event for the column.
“It’s exciting to see the power that inclusive gaming can have in building community and having fun,” Panattoni said about this year’s event in an interview last week conducted over email. “Special Olympics is such an incredible partner to work with [and] we look forward to this every year! It’s important to continue Gaming for Inclusion with Special Olympics because it’s an important way for us to ensure gaming is a place where everyone feels included. While we can bring knowledge and expertise when it comes to video games, Special Olympics takes everything and puts together an incredible event benefitting so many people.”
Panattoni emphasized Xbox’s—and by extension, Microsoft’s—ideology on accessibility and inclusivity vis-a-vis gaming, telling me Xbox “gaming is absolutely for everyone” and the focus on accessible games are part and parcel of “Xbox’s commitment to making gaming a place where everyone can experience the joys, connections and creativity of gaming.” In a broader sensibility, that the Gaming for Inclusion tourneys are annual events show their integrity to this mission, with Panattoni saying it removes barriers and makes gaming writ large “more inclusive so that everyone feels like they are welcome and that they belong.”
Kym Jordan echoed sentiments similar to Panattoni. In an interview concurrent to Panattoni’s, Jordan, Special Olympics’ senior director of global strategic partnerships and special events, told me the partnership with Xbox is a “powerful example” of how organizations can come together and leverage their respective strengths to meet an urgent need like more inclusiveness in video games. She added Special Olympics and Xbox’s ethos are aligned in terms of sending a “positive, powerful message that seeks to unite people through the power of sports.”
“Skills learned by playing sports transcend the playing field. We believe skills like teamwork and communication can be built through esports,” Jordan said of the lessoned learning from sports. “Together [with Xbox], we can build a more accepting and inclusive world by bringing more people with and without intellectual disabilities together.”
Jordan’s colleague, interim chief information officer Nathan Cook, seconded her sentiments.
“As we focus on our future, we understand the importance of digitizing our movement for our athletes and removing barriers to inclusion and expanding our reach through digital technology and our digital footprint. Our work impacts people with and without intellectual disabilities around the world, and accessibility and assistive technology can help reach audiences that have been previously inaccessible to us,” he said. “Our partnership with Microsoft and Xbox continues to empower our athletes through technology by continuously offering solutions and opportunities to utilize technology for everyday life and create communities with other Special Olympics athletes around the world.”
Panattoni said the Gaming for Inclusion event is hotly anticipated, saying “people are so excited to see this.” The excitement reaches the upper echelon of Microsoft ranks, with Panattoni telling me Xbox boss Phil Spencer tells her often the Gaming Inclusion event is one of his most favorite corporate partnerships. In addition, told me “people’s eyes light up” every time when she talks to them about the tournament is brought to life. For her part personally, Panattoni said her favorite aspect of putting together the tournament is spending time talking with the athletes to partake in the so-called “Casters Course” at Microsoft’s Experience Center in preparation of the festivities. ”It was incredible to see just how excited they were and how they leaned right in to learning the ins and outs of shoutcasting,” she said of her experience. “I’m excited to see their training put to action during the tournament in November.”
Both Jordan and Cook were equally enthusiastic.
“As we all know, gaming is an extremely fast-growing passion and lifestyle of many different audiences and this is no different for people with intellectual disabilities. Yet esports is another field of play where people with intellectual disabilities are sometimes underestimated, and Special Olympics athletes are on a mission to change that misperception. While oftentimes you don’t know the real players in esports and gaming, events like Gaming for Inclusion gives us the opportunity for the world to meet our athletes and for them to meet other passionate gamers,” Jordan said. “Xbox, Microsoft and Special Olympics are helping to make the online world of esports more welcoming and inclusive. Aligned with our strategic plan to drastically scale our reach through technology, we knew esports provided a unique and timely opportunity. Leveraging the expertise of Microsoft and Xbox, we approached the Gaming for Inclusion tournament as an opportunity to design and activate our own esports event envisioning a future that offers inclusive esports on an international stage.”
Said Cook: “Gaming for Inclusion has set the stage for future Special Olympics esports events and the bar for inclusion in the gaming industry. Just as importantly, it provides our athletes with a critical platform to connect, socialize, and play when they need it most. As we look to build out the future of esports at Special Olympics, we will continue to approach this environment in a careful, data-driven manner that is integrated authentically into our initiatives in sport, health, education and leadership. For us, this means taking an approach where people with and without intellectual disabilities are collaborating to make the esports industry inclusive for all.”
Looking towards the future, Panattoni said it’s both an organizational and a personal wish to see the work with Special Olympics to “go on forever.” It’s been a “dream” to watch the Gaming for Inclusion event grow from its earliest days at the 2018 USA Games on the University of Washington campus to where it stands today at three years old.
“If I could tell Past Jenn that that tournament would become such a focus for Special Olympics and a large part of our social impact and inclusion strategy, she would be so thrilled,” Panattoni said.
For Special Olympics, more inclusive gaming is another barrier broken.
“As Special Olympics continues to chip away at stereotypes and limiting beliefs surrounding people with intellectual disabilities, an expansion from in-person sports to esports is organic. Reaching new audiences by way of events like Gaming for Inclusion is critical to bringing more people with and without intellectual disabilities together for meaningful and inclusive experiences while also introducing them to the resources and services provided by Special Olympics. We are building unified teams of athletes with and without intellectual disabilities and creating experiences like Gaming for Inclusion to demonstrate that people with intellectual disabilities can and are competing at the highest levels,” Jordan said of the significance of Gaming for Inclusion. “We are an organization that doesn’t speak for our population of people with intellectual disabilities. We speak alongside them. We want our athletes to lead the discussion on creating more inclusive play opportunities for those with intellectual disability. We want our athletes to have a seat at the table and continue to change attitudes and perceptions about their abilities. Gaming for Inclusion is a step in that direction.”
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