A Prominent Accessibility Advocate Worked With Studios and Inspired Change. But She Never Actually Existed.
A Prominent Accessibility Advocate Worked With Studios and Inspired Change. But She Never Actually Existed.
In the years since the alleged death of beloved accessibility advocate Susan Banks, mounting evidence and accounts from those close to her work suggest that she was not the person she claimed to be. In fact, some are convinced that Banks may never have existed at all.
Weirdest gaming story I've heard this year
A gay, deaf, muslim that didn't have a tumblr account? Huge red flag.
I’m not Muslim but I am gay, deaf, and feeling called out enough to consider screenshotting this to tumblr
Well this certainly sums up 2024, doesn't? Everythings made up, and the points don't matter.
Within months of Craven’s introduction of Banks, Craven claimed Banks had been hospitalized after dropping a KitchenAid mixer on her foot, according to both an anonymous former business associate of Craven's I spoke to, and my own past conversations with Craven. Several hours later, her leg was allegedly amputated, and nearly 48 hours after the first operation, her other leg was amputated as well.
How did nobody realize this person was lying or fake? Double amputation from a broken foot?
It can happen if there's an infection. Or a blood clot could end up in the other leg.
Also a gay muslim lol. Pretty sure being a muslim forbids that by default.
I mean, Christianity kinda does, too, but gay Christians definitely exist. Islam and its interpretations/practices aren't monolithic.
That's not to say that I think she actually exists - all evidence seems to point to Coty Craven being a con artist - but "gay muslim" isn't necessarily a red flag.
Religion is often not a choice. For example you are gay, and also born in a muslim house, maybe your famiky decided that you are more important to them then the homophobia, and so, you are gay and a muslim because nothing pushed you to detach from your default religion.
Wow that was a great piece of journalism. Seeing it all aggregated like that I don't think there can be any doubt that this guy was full of shit, even if what he was doing could be argued to be positive. He used marginalized communities to enrich himself, even if what he made had value, and that is just such a sad and horrible way to get there.
Why did he even feel the need to do so if he had something valuable to give back? This whole thing honestly makes me think of some catfish episodes over the years. The ones where people create such a complex web of fake profiles and don't know how to stop.
Wild fucking read. Was thinking maybe his first girlfriend was using a pseudonym (Turkish-born named Susan Banks?), but conveniently no one has met all 3 of his activist girlfriends. The last bit about the guy deleting all his social media posts AND his last "girlfriend" doing the same after IGN reached out is glaringly suspicious.
(Copying my own comment from the beehaw post)
Blimey, and they say IGN only does 9/10 reviews nowadays! Fascinating article, very keen to hear if it develops any further.
What was this guy's motivation? Playing the long game to get rich selling his kick-started ventures? Just for the glory of everyone telling him how great he is? Real altruism in a really weird way? Did he actually help improve accessibility enough in games for the ends to justify the means?
Hard to really say, but I would venture that the best way to tell was from what he did with the attention.
I doubt it's as simple as 'He did it for the money' or 'He did it for the clicks' etc. I'm guessing he did it for all the attention/money/influence it got him. I think as we confront a world where AI can be used to fabricate people with incredible ease, the lesson is that people need to occasionally meet in person if we want to guarantee that they have a physical personhood.
This story is just wild. This man killed off three supposed women in a close knit community and disappeared a third and nobody thought to look into it? Seems like the people who hired the PI should have at least reported him for fraud. Interesting that his name is Craven.
and nobody thought to look into it?
Anything accessibility related is merely glanced over at best to drum up good press for these corporations. They love to put it in promo material and act like they're at the spearfront, but almost every step to make games more accessible are first taken by indenpendent developers, modders and hobby engineers.
Simply put, it's not as important to them as they claim it is.
Maybe the real accessibility advocacy was the friends we made along the way.