Twitch is continuing its tradition of teaming up with popular streamer Benjamin “DrLupo” Lupo to make big donations to various charities. Today, the company gave $1 million to AbleGamers, an organization dedicated to improving accessibility and enabling people with disabilities in the video game space.
This was done live during the platform’s online-only GlitchCon event that replaced the usual TwitchCon, which was canceled earlier this year due to concerns surrounding COVID-19.
Twitch co-founder and CEO Emmett Shear and DrLupo surprised AbleGamers COO Steven Spohn with the announcement earlier today, with Lupo confirming that Twitch would be sending Spohn and his team the donation to continue pushing for improved accessibility and enabling gamers everywhere.
This ties into Spohn’s goal for the year, as back in September, he announced that for his 40th birthday, he wanted to raise $1 million for AbleGamers to ensure it can continue operating long into the future. He also was very vocal in saying Lupo’s previous work with charities, including St. Jude’s, was a big reason he made such a lofty goal in the first place.
Prior to Lupo giving Spohn the news, he asked how much money he had raised since announcing his goal in September, with Spohn confirming that he had already raised nearly $200,000 in that span. And as Spohn was left speechless by the donation, Lupo dug into why he and Twitch wanted to make this happen.
“I know there’s a lot of stuff going on around even GlitchCon and Twitch and everything, just look at social media, it’s a mess,” Lupo said. “I want to remind people that the goal here is gaming and the goal is bringing people in, like what [AbleGamers] do is super important.”
This also gave Spohn and AbleGamers a chance to shoutout the first annual Video Game Accessibility Awards, which will air on Nov. 15 at 10pm CT on the AbleGamers Twitch channel. Spohn and host Alanah Pearce will celebrate the games that have helped make the medium more accessible to everyone.
