Health professionals recommend gaming as positive outlet for people with motor neurone disease

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Video games can be fun and socially rewarding - all while involving low energy. The peak body for motor neurone disease says it’s a great outlet for people with the progressive condition. They want more health professionals to recommend gaming as a positive activity for people with disability.

Transcript

00:00Rob Taylor has been an avid gamer since he was a teenager, a passion he now shares with his son.

00:08And now that he's all grown up and has a family of his own and you know he works night shift,

00:13it's good just to be able to hop online without him as to physically go anywhere and we can catch up.

00:18The 56 year old has motor neurone disease, adaptive controllers keeping him in the game.

00:24I can use my feet to play, I can use my mouth to play, so yeah as my hands deteriorate I can keep adapting the system to my needs.

00:33We were surprised actually by how many people with MND found gaming to be a very important pastime.

00:41MND Queensland has teamed up with MND Australia to develop a free online guide for people with the condition

00:48and they want allied health professionals to join their quest.

00:51What we know with MND is that treatment is fairly meagre in its effect, so what we want to do is really preserve quality of life.

01:00Gaming is going to keep being more and more of a part of family life, there's multiple reasons for that.

01:04We've got a generation of parents that grew up playing.

01:07He says many of the bigger titles are investing more into accessibility.

01:11I think really that's about recognising that there's an audience that's being left out and that there's no real reason for that.

01:17An investment already playing out.

01:19Even though it's an avatar on screen, it's still connecting with community and in particular I use it to connect with my son.

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