Spectrum Gaming: Our Story

Text by Andy Smith, Founder. Video by Members of Spectrum Gaming

One interesting thing about Spectrum Gaming, is that it was never supposed to become as big as it did. But I think its rapid growth shows how essential it is that autistic young people can have spaces where they can be themselves and connect with others who understand them.We have worked together with young people and parents to make a short film (19 minutes) about autism and our journey so far. We hope you enjoy it.

Spectrum Gaming is an online community for autistic young people which has three main intended outcomes:
 

1) Building Friendships – A lot of autistic young people are lonely, isolated and struggle with friendships. We wanted to create a community where autistic young people feel comfortable and can make strong friendships in a safe way. Our main provision is our online community, that anyone from across the UK can access. We also run meet ups for young people who live in the Greater Manchester area.
 

2) Increasing Self-Acceptance – Because of how much people misunderstand autism and the way it is diagnosed, unfortunately many autstic people hate their diagnosis or feel ashamed of being autistic. We want to make sure as many autistic people as possible are able to accept their differences and live the happiest lives they can.
 

3) Advocacy – We don’t just want to be a community that enables autistic young people to develop meaningful friendships and develop a more positive perspective of autism. We want to create a movement that will have a positive influence on society through advocacy, and enable strategical change to ensure the needs of autistic young people are met across the UK. We have created a platform where young people can share their voices through content, talks and more. You can see some examples of content we produce on our YouTube channel.

This video was republished with the kind permission of the authors.

To see the original on YouTube.

Spectrum Gaming can be found on Facebook, YouTube, TwitchTV and Twitter

They also have their own website.