What does engagement look like? For NIU Esports, engagement means working together with units across NIU to better serve students and community members with disabilities.
In November and December of 2023, the NIU Esports Arena purchased two accessible controllers to make it easier for NIU students with disabilities to play video games. The new controllers are one more way for NIU Esports, in the Division of Outreach, Engagement and Regional Development, to bring to life the program’s vision of an inclusive space for students and community members to play video games and have fun together.
“Since NIU Esports was founded in 2018, our goal has been to bring together players of all backgrounds, abilities and skill levels – and that includes players who have disabilities,” says Conner Vagle, NIU Esports director. “We’re thrilled to offer these new controllers so that all NIU students who are interested in video games can find a home and a community in the NIU Esports Arena.”
Two people, in particular, worked behind the scenes to make the new controllers a reality and to help NIU more fully live its mission of inclusion: Katy Whitelaw, NIU’s Information Technology Accessibility Officer, and Pizza Salinas, an NIU senior majoring in Rehabilitation and Disability Services, who is also a video game player and a student worker in the NIU Esports Arena. The purchase was also supported by NIU Associate Professor of Rehabilitation Counseling Bryan Dallas and his Huskies BELONG program, which was created in partnership with NIU STEAM, with funding from the Illinois Community College Board. The program, designed for high school students with disabilities who intend to go to college, includes both academic studies and social activities such as playing video games together.
“NIU strives to be inclusive of all kinds of diversity, and disability is definitely a part of diversity,” Whitelaw says. “The disability community is a group that any of us may belong to, regardless of race, age, gender, or ethnicity, and we might join it at any time, temporarily or permanently. It is at the core of who NIU is to be accessible.”
For Salinas, the chance to work with Whitelaw and the NIU Esports staff to research accessible controllers brought together two of their core interests: video gaming and rehabilitation and disability services. Salinas is a senior majoring in Rehabilitation and Disability Services at NIU, with a double minor in Addiction Counseling and LGBT Studies. They’ve been working in the NIU Esports Arena for about three years. After graduating this month, Salinas hopes to work as an advocate or case worker for an organization assisting people with disabilities.
“Adaptable controllers were not a mainstream thing until very recently,” Salinas says, “so for two of the major companies to develop accessible controllers is great news.”
Learn more about NIU Esports’ accessible controllers in this article from NIU Today.
