How accessible is being a gaming content creator?

Influencers and content creators have rapidly become one of the most visible aspects of the games industry. In courting them, publishers and studios can readily access vast audiences on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch, and guarantee coverage. For creators, this can lead to lucrative partnerships and, in some cases, celebrity in the games industry and beyond.

As appealing as this makes content creation as a career in gaming, and for all the ostensible benefits, top-earners highlight a lifestyle of stress, isolation, and constantly battling for relevancy. For disabled creators, these difficulties are magnified in a career beholden to algorithms and inaccessible platforms. Though content creation has become an accessible way for publishers to find undiscerning coverage, it remains inaccessible for users.

Mollie Evans is an EDI advocate who has been a content creator for six years. She tells GamesIndustry.biz that content creation should allow disabled influencers a way to work safely, from home, and to their own schedule. The reality, however, is less inclusive.

"The push for constant content can be difficult," Evans says. "A lot of disabled people cannot keep up."

That constancy takes the form of a grind to capture the attention of algorithms that govern what we see across social media. Frequency is the accepted method: posting often, in specific categories.

"Platforms like Twitch, Youtube, Twitter, and TikTok like to put your content in one singular box and serve it only to people they're confident that box applies to," says Laura Kate Dale, an accessibility critic and consultant who has been a full-time content creator for over a decade. Chasing these algorithmic whims, however, is often contrary to the needs of disabled creators. To the point that, Dale says, "for the longest time, I burned myself out as a disabled creator."

Skirting exhaustion, however, appears to be unavoidable for those seeking growth. This is true for nondisabled creators, but according to JazzAdeleGames, a streamer who specialises in horror and cutesy games, "trying to manage both your content creation and the real-life struggles that come with being disabled can be a nightmare."

The requisite regularity for growth becomes elusive. Schedules can be derailed by anything unexpected, from appointments to flare-ups. What we see on screen is often a fraction of the energy that goes into creating content and, for disabled creators, a single stream or video can represent a significant proportion of their energy and capability.

"I'm lucky if I get 20 working hours a week," says Kolo Jones, who streams under the moniker HelloItsKolo. Jones started streaming before becoming disabled and estimates this is a third of the capacity she had previously. These hours are given less mileage by preparing for, and even recovering from, a stream. "By the time I'm on camera, I've already had that fatigue," she says. "Keeping to a schedule is really tricky."

Evans says that this can be especially difficult for women and femme-presenting creators, thanks to expectations on how they will look on camera. Deviation from which can risk harassment and even a reduction in capability. As Evans details: "I know there is an expectation of being palatable in the way I look, and I simply don't have the energy to do my make-up every day, and it definitely stops me from streaming."

The draining nature of being a disabled content creator has a knock-on effect. Not only does not meeting the expectations of algorithms restrict growth, it can limit opportunities for partnerships as brands overlook disabled creators who are not as visible as nondisabled creators.

Quadz, a horror streamer and content creator for three years, has watched many nondisabled peers grow and secure lucrative opportunities. Though she celebrates their success, it's clear those opportunities aren't as open to her as a disabled creator.

"I find myself applying for the same things as able-bodied creators and not being accepted or getting the same outcome," she says.

"I find myself applying for the same things as able-bodied creators and not being accepted or getting the same outcome"Quadz

Some creators are dubious if most brands consider disabled creators at all. Those that do, Evans says, can be so worried about making mistakes to the point of inaction.

"They don't want to think about making their events accessible," she says. "They know that if they invite disabled creators, we may find it inaccessible and make it known it was."

Too often, disabled creators work against these norms for a semblance of momentum – spending an enormous amount of energy, time, and money to find safe ways to operate in an industry neither built for them nor keen to change. Trending games are rarely accessible for disabled creators to play, platforms lack the tools to keep them safe, and the accepted norms of streaming make for a painful, exhausting, and often unapproachable career. Many of the creators to whom GamesIndustry.biz spoke are concerned the chasm between what able-bodied creators and their disabled peers can access isn't wholly accidental.

It's not an unjustified view. As recently as 2020, leaked documents alleged that TikTok limited the reach of disabled creators. Other platforms are increasingly unsafe and inaccessible, while it remains difficult to find disability and accessibility-related content on most platforms. YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch did not respond to requests for comment on the concerns raised by disabled creators.

All of which, Dale says, platforms must take responsibility for if we are to see any change; especially to ensure disabled creators' content isn't, as testing suggests, suppressed.

"The number of times A/B testing the same video with different titles on YouTube has shown disabled people, alongside other minority groups such as trans people, will see their videos suppressed notably if they acknowledge their identity in a video title is ridiculous," she says, "and something that cannot be fixed until there is acknowledgement that a problem exists."

Neither TikTok or YouTube responded to requests for comment on these concerns. A Twitch spokesperson, however, said,

“Twitch is a diverse, inclusive and accessible space. We are constantly evolving our service using streamers and viewers feedback to foster inclusive communities. Twitch has a number of internal and external Initiatives to improve accessibility across the board. Our Creator Camp page covers in-platform tools and extensions to make our service a great place for everyone to consume and create content. Some of the kindest, most talented, and entertaining people have built their communities right here. We are constantly updating and improving Twitch, and we’re always looking for ways to highlight the many creators who’ve found a home on our service. We’re excited to continue building a platform for everyone.”

With Twitch’s August update that it would feature disabled creators as part of a rotating front page presence, this appears to hold weight. Though, the feature is yet to materialise and some disabled creators have reported being told the only way to request front page space is if they are conducting a charity stream.

Now, it appears an empty promise and, according to multiple creators, another sign that platforms need a more holistic consideration of disabled users beyond remembering they exist when optically convenient. As the current system doesn’t just inhibit disabled creators’ growth but also makes content creation a much more isolated endeavour.

To acknowledge these issues, however, requires platforms to have a more holistic consideration of disabled users beyond remembering they exist when optically convenient (such as during events such as Disability Pride Month), a concern every creator to whom GamesIndustry.biz spoke raised. Something that doesn't just inhibit disabled creators' growth but also makes it that much harder to come together.

"It's mostly a community effort to find and promote one another," says JazzAdeleGames. He couldn't recall one instance of finding other disabled creators through Twitch's recommendations. "The only times have been those awareness events that make [platforms] look progressive despite not actually putting in the effort throughout the rest of the year."

"[Minority groups] will see their videos suppressed notably if they acknowledge their identity in a video title [and that's] something that cannot be fixed until there is acknowledgement that a problem exists"Laura Kate Dale

It's opportunistic tokenising, says Dale, rather than a sincere dedication to helping disabled creators grow. "It's like any aspect of minority identity in the video game industry, given an acceptable and palatable spotlight during a designated pride or awareness month, then ignored the rest of the year," she adds.

This has broader ramifications on platforms. A failure to be inclusive and to be incisive for the benefit of all users means existing prejudices, which erect more barriers for disabled creators, can persist without challenge – even in the disabled community.

Like all groups, the disabled and accessibility community in gaming is a microcosm of wider society. It is neither united nor truly inclusive. This is especially apparent to multiply marginalised creators like JazzAdeleGames. Upon entering the disabled gaming community, he says, "you become excruciatingly aware of the issue of intersectionality in some parts of the disabled community."

He points to examples of transphobia, racism, and ableism he has experienced in the disabled community. Though he stresses this isn't limited to the disabled community, that harassment can come from all quarters exacts an enormous emotional, mental, and physical toll that only makes content creation less accessible.

"One thing you learn as a multiply marginalised person is that there's always some part of yourself that's not completely welcome in other communities that you frequent," he continues.

"One thing you learn as a multiply marginalised person is that there's always some part of yourself that's not completely welcome in other communities that you frequent"JazzAdeleGames

A strong community and mods can mitigate this in real-time, but harassment and slurs, according to multiple creators, remain common and platforms are not doing enough to ensure disabled creators' safety. Now can it be truly addressed, JazzAdeleGames suggests, unless platforms shift perspective when it comes to their disabled users, their communities, and their safety.

Indeed, the potential for community is one of the few things that makes content creation bearable for disabled creators. Being able to find others that share your interests is enormously beneficial for disabled peoples' wellbeing, and content creation, for all its issues, can facilitate that.

"Content creation is something I love with my whole heart," Evans says. "When I first started gaming I had no other friends that played games, and content creation gave me a space to make friends and to make connections with other players."

It's a career that empowers disabled people to work, to greater wellbeing and, despite the inherent inaccessibility, grants a career that remains more accessible than the vast majority of options. Quadz, in particular, makes clear just how powerful an influence content creation has had on her: she streams three days a week and, she says, "on those three days I feel empowered. I feel as if I'm able to accomplish anything I set my mind to, and I'm able to cater streaming days to my personal needs."

Increasingly, however, the significant benefits content creation can have for disabled people in the gaming space is paywalled behind unforgiving economic, emotional, and physical costs. It's an ecosystem in which those benefits are too often found in spite of platforms.

"It feels like the platforms are built in ways that fundamentally don't work unless you can fit into an intended creative output model that conflicts with the needs of disabled creators," Dale says.

Multiple creators pointed to the same solution: disabled people must be included in decision-making industrywide. Yes, in terms of making games accessible, but also in the development of platforms and the tools required to make them safe and accessible – in all of this and more, disabled people, and more broadly marginalised groups, must be consulted.

Accessibility is a long-term and evolving process, but it is also collaborative and continuing to foster inaccessible environments can only compound the issues that are already evident.

For, much as content creation has become perhaps the most visible aspect of promotion for publishers, it is also the most visible and damning indictment of how inaccessible the games industry remains. Yet, Jones suggests, it could, with a shift in perspective, become the most visible vehicle for change.

"If there's diverse people on the board, making the game, reviewing the game, working on socials, creating internal processes, writing the game, and making content about the game," she says, "the industry will be more diverse and more accessible."

Update: This article has been updated with a comment from a Twitch spokesperson