Riley Rose Frazy

This weeks guest

Riley was born with optic nerve hypoplasia which makes her brain not tell her eyes what it is seeing making her light perception blind. She hasn't been an advocate for long time but vows to never stop! You might also know her as Accessibility4Gamers.

My name is Riley Rose Frazy and I am 35 years of age. I was born with optic nerve hypoplasia which makes my brain not tell my eye what it is seeing. That is why I am light perception blind. All that I can see is light and dark in a room. I went to public school just like my sighted Brothers did. I was not treated any differently because I was blind. My brothers had me running around the yard with them, riding for wheelers and bikes, Etc... that even included playing video games. My brothers did not let my vision loss get in my way. They were not having it at all. Of course, they had to pull a brotherly prank on me, though. They wanted to mess with me a little bit.

One day, my brothers came to me and asked me if I wanted to fight. Of course, I took it as though they meant wrestling in the front yard. No, they meant they wanted me to play Mortal Kombat on the Super Nintendo. I thought that they were going to play with me on the super Nintendo but again I was dead wrong. They had me play against the computer. My character at that time was none other than Miss Sonya Blade. She was my girl growing up because at that time she was the only female. I had to play as a female character since I was a girl. That’s how I saw it. Then, they wanted me to play as a boy because of course, they’re boys. I played as her husband Johnny cage. That was how I got into gaming in the first place. Getting into game accessibility, on the other hand, was a whole different ball game.

I wanted to be an advocate for a long time but never had the courage to follow through with it. I am a person that lacks confidence in myself. I know it’s sad to say but it’s true. I didn’t have the confidence to do it. I knew I had it in me but just wasn’t confident. March 20, on the other hand, was the day I finally took the plunge. Earlier that week, we lost a great friend and advocate named Susan. She was such an inspiration to me, and I never got the chance to tell her this. The day she passed away was rough. I cried all night. I knew I had to do something in Susan‘s memory but I didn’t know quite what I wanted to do yet. Then it occurred to me. Why don’t I step up and be an advocate? It has been wonderful ever since. I have been at this for a little over three months and have been loving every minute of it. Having my podcast, all of the support I’ve had on Twitter, etc. People have just been surrounding me with so much support and I’ve only just begun in this field.

Game accessibility is something I’ve been struggling for a long time. I am so excited to be a part of such a wonderful thing. It is very rewarding to me to have an opportunity to assist developers in making their games accessible. It humbles me to be a part of advocating for accessibility. It is something I’m never going to let go of. I’m going to strive for this goal for a long time. I’m here in this field to stay. I love what I’m doing now and I’m never gonna give up no matter what.

Riley Rose