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UK games charity SpecialEffect to receive the prestigious BAFTA Special Award

The award is given to those who make “outstanding contributions to film, games or television”

UK games charity SpecialEffect to receive the prestigious BAFTA Special Award

UK gaming charity SpecialEffect will be presented with the Special Award at the 20th BAFTA Games Awards.

The charity, which was founded 17 years ago, will receive the prestigious award at the ceremony on April 11.

Since it was set up by former teacher Mick Donegan in 2007, SpecialEffect has focused on helping physically disabled people, especially children, play video games.

The charity works with developers and peripheral manufacturers to create special modified controllers and eye-tracking sensors, to help make games more accessible to everyone.

The Special Award, which is one of the highest accolades offered by BAFTA, recognises “outstanding contributions to film, games or television”.

Previous recipients of the Special Award at the BAFTA Games Awards have included GTA’s Sam Houser and Leslie Benzies, Uncharted creator Amy Hennig, designer Brenda Romero and former SCEE president Chris Deering.

Past recipients in TV and film have included Idris Elba, John Motson, Steven Moffat, Ray Harryhausen, the Monty Python team, Aardman Animations, Coronation Street, Spike Lee, Billy Connolly and Dolby Laboratories.

In a statement, BAFTA executive director of awards and content Emma Baehr said: “SpecialEffect’s work is essential to the games world and is hugely deserving of a BAFTA Special Award.

“Their innovative and supportive approach to making games accessible drives progress within the industry, collaborating with developers and studios on new technologies to make games within reach to more people.”

SpecialEffect founder and CEO Mick Donegan added: “With a background in special education, I realised how much people with severe physical disabilities were missing out by not being able to play. I started SpecialEffect not only to help individuals to play video games but also to collaborate with the games industry to make their games more accessible ‘at source’.

“Since then, we have been privileged to be invited to share our ideas with more and more developers all over the world. Now, 17 years since SpecialEffect began, it’s an absolute honour for SpecialEffect’s work to be recognised by BAFTA.”