How Video Games Advocate for People with Autism
How Overwatch helped people like Samuel cope with diagnosis
For Samuel Hookham, Symmetra’s character made him welcome and accepted in his game community.
Samuel made a YouTube video soon after receiving his letter from Kaplan. In this video, he shared with the world just how excited he was when he got the confirmation that Symmetra has autism too. Because so many people reject kids with autism, finding out that his favorite video game character shared this diagnosis made him very emotional. He had to fight back tears in his video as he expressed how wonderful it was to be treated like a normal person for once in his life.
Sam also posted the letter he got back from Mr. Kaplan on his personal Tumblr account and touched the hearts of almost a million people. Fans on Reddit exploded with posts, sharing their own positive thoughts on autism and how important it is to stop bullying. Another player with autism, XeernOfTheLight, posted a response thread on Reddit expressing how grateful he was for Symmetra’s character. He said that he looked at Symmetra as a role model for how he wanted to live his life – refusing to allow a diagnose stand in the way of achieving his dreams.
References
https://www.wired.com/story/the-sleeper-autistic-hero-transforming-video-games/
