Meet Mike Luckett | Digital Accessibility. and Video Game Consultant

We had the good fortune of connecting with Mike Luckett and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Mike, can you share a quote or affirmation with us?
“When everyone can game, we all win.” My advocacy revolves around accessibility and inclusive design in video games. This mantra of having everyone gaming no matter their disability has been a driving factor throughout my mission. Gaming is meant to be fun, and everyone deserves to have fun.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’m a content creator that focuses on accessibility in gaming. I stream on Twitch and. have content showcasing adaptive gaming across multiple social platforms. The way our game is fairly unique, I use the Xbox adaptive controller which is copiloted with the Xbox Elite controller. As a C6 quadriplegic, I have no function in my fingers, so essentially I use my fists, or as I like to say ‘paws’ to play video games. The reason I started creating content was because, at the time, there were barely any videos out there showing quadriplegics gaming and how they game. So I took up the moniker MikeTheQuad. It was something easy for people to remember, and it showed that I wasn’t afraid to. say who I am. By the time I started, I knew nothing about branding and marketing myself and it has been a long journey to where I am today. I took classes on how to brand myself, scoured Youtube for branding videos specifically for streaming, and even took coaching courses to learn that streaming is a business.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
For food, I would take them to The Post Brewery because of their chicken selection. I’m a huge fan of chicken and waffles. A good brew always makes that even better. Birdcall would be a quick bite if we can’t make the Post. For the homies that are vegan, there is a nice brunch place called City O City. And of course, being a gamer, we would definitely hit up the 1up Arcade Bar before or after checking out a concert at the Fillmore. A lot of my friends love immersive experiences, so we. have to go to Meow Wolf, Denver, and get lost at the convergence station. And depending on the friends who love art, we might possibly get a memorable tattoo, and check out Lumenati, where they can skate, hang out. create art. and get a tattoo.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Two key people were the catalysts in creating and continuing my mission. Before, there was a time when I quit gaming because the adaptive equipment I was using was unreliable and produced more problems than solutions. My buddy Bobby Fecteau, also a quadriplegic and veteran, saw one of my social posts declaring my defeat and resignation from gaming. He reached out to me and introduced me to another individual who helped me get back into gaming, Ken Jones of Warfighter Engaged. Ken created Warfighter Engaged because he saw that there was a huge lapse in time from when a veteran would get assistive technology from the VA. Ken fixed my controller and I was able to game again. I wanted to do something like Ken, but in my own way, and that’s how I started my mission to get everyone gaming.

Website: https://mikethequad.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mikethequad/?theme=dark

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikethequad

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/mikethequad

Other: https://linktr.ee/mikethequad

Image Credits
Kaila Muggli, Craig Hospital, OscarMike, Warfighter Engaged