Liz Achanta
Can I Play That is an editorial website about accessibility in gaming with reviews, news, educational reference guides, and commentary. They registered the domain CanIPlayThat.gay to show the site’s dedication to intersectional representation, visibility, and inclusion.
We got in touch with co-founder Courtney Craven (they/them) to learn more about their work and about why accessibility is an essential requirement for inclusivity. Read on for the full #DotGayQAndA!
Tell us about Can I Play That: what do you do, and how did this resource come to be?
We're a media outlet focused solely on accessibility in the games industry. We started as a resource for disabled gamers and grew into an educational hub for developers as well.
We started as a joke, to be honest. My partner, who was Deaf, always used to ask upon the release of a new game, "Can I play it?" and the answer was usually "Probably not" (due to poor subtitling practices) so we launched as a joke and our joke has grown in readership by 11,000% in 2.5 years.
What happens when technology companies (like game developers or social networks) don't consider accessibility in their products?
When tech and gaming companies don't consider accessibility from the start, they launch products that alienate disabled people either entirely or until they can add in accessibility which only serves to further "other" us. We're left out of the hot new thing (like Deaf/hoh people and Clubhouse) while the rest of the world is talking about it and making social and professional connections through it.
Tell us about the intersection of accessibility and LGBTQIA+ equality. How can these communities best work together for change?
For me the two identities go hand in hand because they're so similar. I've always been queer, I just didn't have a term for it until I was 14 and Ellen came out.
I've always been disabled/chronically ill, I just didn't really know it until I met others living similarly. So there's so much in terms of shared experiences, from marriage equality to simply being visible and accepted by society. I think there's so much to be learned from the successes and failures of the fight for equal rights in each group that working together would make us quite a force when it comes to gaining rights and access that we deserve (though MANY of us are both LGBTQIA+ and disabled).
Why did you choose to register CanIPlayThat.gay, and how does your .gay domain complement your existing .com website?
Because I'm petty, haha. I registered it to make a statement. From time to time we get a member of the CIPT community that gets angry at us for putting politics into our reviews and features, and they yammer on about how being disabled doesn't mean you're progressive by default and that the disabled identity isn't a political one (I beg to differ). So I registered CanIPlayThat.gay to show both that queer people are (and always have been) a central part of the CIPT community, and also to subtly tell people who disagree that they should get their accessibility news and reviews elsewhere.
Why is it important to you to help create a safer (and more accessible) internet for LGBTQIA+ people specifically?
Because we need to be able to connect and have a safe place to do it. We're still dealing with hate and violence daily in the LGBTQIA+ community, so if the physical world isn't safe for us, where can we go and be unapologetically and un-cautiously, for lack of a better word, ourselves? The internet. We can learn about others and ourselves (I learned nonbinary was an identity and that I AM nonbinary thanks to friends I met through Twitter) and that's such an essential part of being marginalized: having community and making connections with people you may never meet otherwise.
Elizabeth Achanta
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