Young neurology patients meet video game creators

This weekend, the Quebec Video Game Guild invited around thirty young neurology patients from the CHUL to the YMCA Saint-Roch for a very fun afternoon. On site, seven video game studios were waiting for the guests for a special meeting which is very likely to be repeated.

Throughout Saturday afternoon, young people were able to play video games, attend conferences and discuss a common passion with creators who are themselves disabled.

It was the CHUL that approached us and asked us to do an inspiring event with themexplains Émilien Roscanu, senior director of communications and operations at the Quebec Video Game Guild. We answered the call.

For people with disabilities, it’s very inspiring to see role models […] who are successful and who live from their passionhe said, deploring in the same breath that models are very often absent from public space.

We have two people who are stars in the small video game industry in Quebec, who themselves suffer from different types of disabilities linked to neurology.

Ambition and accessibility

These two stars are Daniel Carmichael, born with Kniest syndrome, which affects the bones, and Frédéric McNamara, who lives with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

The first is co-founder of FIKA Productions, a studio in Quebec, and the second is at the origin of Studios Shishi.

Distinguished guests, both presented a conference for the occasion.

To have the chance to speak to young people who don’t have the same opportunities as others, it touches me a lot because that’s a bit of what I experiencedconfides to Radio-Canada Daniel Carmichael. I think there is something special about my journey that I can share and maybe inspire someone to do something good.

I hope I have made them want to explore this area. Because I think it’s super accessible for everyone… It should be, anyway.

Similar story from Frédéric McNamara, for whom ambition rhymes with accessibility.

I like to demonstrate that, when you want to succeed, it is possibleand this, despite the barrierslet go of the one who has somehow made accessibility his hobby horse. Two years in a row, for example, he organized an evening in Montreal to promote accessible games.

When he was invited to take part in this weekend’s event, I couldn’t say no!

Me and Fred, we are two people who have a fairly unique background, and I think we are really lucky, today, to be able to talk about itadds Mr. Carmichael. There really aren’t many people in our situation.

Whether designed in a small or large studio, Since my childhood, I have loved video gamessaid Nathaniel Blouin-Losier, who was one of around thirty young guests.

Days like the one organized on Saturday, and conferences like those of Daniel Carmichael and Frédéric McNamara, it inspires me, it lets me know that everything is possible, no matter our differenceshe said.

Although he never really wanted to work in the video game industry, Nathaniel does not rule out the idea of ​​creating a game in his spare time, of making it a project personal, but not to create a studioFor example.

Sharing and enrichment

These children we follow, we find them very resilientsays Dr. Nicholas Chrestian, pediatric neurologist at CHUL. We wanted to give them something in return.

While medical examinations can be a source of stress for young people, the wish of Dr. Chrestian and Catherine Michaud-Gosselin, nurse practitioner in pediatric neurology at CHUL, was to turn things around by focusing on pleasure.

The reaction of the young people to this first meeting is beyond our expectationslaunches the latter, adding that parents are happy to create bonds between them, too.

There are children who have never met other young people with the same condition as them. It allows you to network… Both parents and children!

Agreeing with his colleague, Dr. Chrestian notes sharing and enrichment in terms of the fallout from a day like Saturday. It allows us to meet all the families, brothers, sisters, that we have never seen, parents that we have never had the opportunity [de rencontrer].

For him, it also allows us to show that we are able to come together in a community and that, probably, we are able to grow in this community.

In the eyes of Ms. Michaud-Gosselin, presenting young people with role models inspiring certainly has a positive impact on some children [qui] may have more difficulty projecting themselves into the future. It really fits into our vision.

This is an event that we will probably want to try to repeat.

A wish that Émilien Roscanu of the Quebec Video Game Guild certainly shares: We hope to be able to reproduce the experience here in Quebec with the CHUL, but also elsewhere, in Montreal and, why not, in other regions.

With information from Gabrielle Morissette