Shot by His Father and Left Blind—Now He’s a Hardcore Gamer

So how do you disrupt the decades of industry inertia? Lots of patience, says minor. He observes how other handicap activists have done so for generations before him: you smile a lot and explain the same thing again and again.

The first “work” of minor was on Madden NFL 18– He gave his comments on a controller rumble function and led a workshop. His name is not in the credits, and he received no money, only a visit to the offices and a signed copy of the game. (The developers asked him to do more advice, but he transmitted the concert to a friend; Minor does not care about football.) Although things have improved a bit, it is not unusual for industry. The game studios often hang “consultation” concerts among disabled players, only to sit with a controller, ask them questions for an hour, then send them on the way with a gift card. Minor says that once, an AAA game studio asked through the city in their offices to play a game, but the payment offered was so low that it would not even cover the Uber journey.

It is a delicate dance. Minor, as well as other disability defenders to whom I spoke – whether for blind or low vision players, those who have mobility or cognitive handicaps, or others – sometimes hesitate to call studios with whom they have had bad experiences. “There is a feeling that you shouldn’t bite your hand that feeds you,” said Minor. In other words, the concern is that if people with disabilities are considered to be “ungrateful” for what they have been “given”, companies will simply return their backs.

Beyond that, it is not enough to be just good in advice work. To continue to convince game studios that accessibility is a valid investment, you must also be a “defender”, and this means being a public figure. Or, in more relevant terms, an influencer.

This delicate landscape was something that one of Minor’s mentors was an expert in navigation. Brandon Cole, better known online under the name of Superblindman, was one of the best -known blind accessibility consultants in the industry. He made a name for himself not only relentlessly and optimistic but also phenomenal to his work. When Xbox announced that his flagship racing game Forza Motorsport Would be fully played by the blind players, no one was surprised that Cole was involved. Cole also worked on The last of us 2. He posted regularly on social networks, spoke out during events and broadcast on Twitch, all at the cause of awareness of the cause.

Cole died of cancer in 2024. Minor, like most of the community, was emptied. He had lost someone he considered a friend and a mentor. He also knew that he would be supposed to intervene and help to continue the work that Cole left.

I mentioned Is this minor funny? I know it’s a bit of a cliché to say it on a disabled person, but please please me here: Ross Minor is absolutely hilarious. While we come home from pizza, speaking with enthusiasm, I dodge under a tree branch. Minor … no. He feels directly in it. I feel terrible: I should have warned him. He shakes his head. “The only thing worse than being blind,” he says, spitting a real leaf, “is to be a Six feet two feet Alivé. My kind of favorite joke: the sharp and uncomfortable genre based on an experience that your audience Never to understand. The genre that I say occasionally in front of my white friends to watch them squirming, not knowing if they are allowed to laugh with me. I look at a minor: he gives me the same smile he gave the lady in the pedestrian’s passage. I finally broke out and laughing. Ross, you fuck.

Minor moved to Los Angeles three years ago, from Colorado, thinking that it could help his career. And he has – up to a point. “Things began to resume for me with regard to advice and the various concerts,” he said. “I feel like I really have traction.” But because a large part of its success is linked to its YouTube channel, other problems arise. “The video editing is not accessible,” he says. “Create miniatures – You know, they say it’s the hook, right? – This thing is not accessible.”