Client : Parasports Québec
Date: January to March 2021
Type: Coordination and research project
“The past year has brought its share of challenges to Quebec athletes. Some para-athletes, who are more fragile, have been even more affected by the sanitary measures implemented to counter COVID-19. In order to break the isolation, Parasports Quebec is entering the electronic sports arena with the launch of a pilot project with the game Rocket League, offered to its powerchair soccer athletes.
Press Release: http://www.parasportsquebec.com/accueil.php?L=fr&N=1746
Although my initial involvement was limited to free consultation, we quickly realized that there would be greater challenges in a facet that the vast majority of event organizers, including myself, take for granted… accessibility. Usually in a tournament or LAN, providing a keyboard and mouse (or controller) for the person to play is never an issue. But here, each powerchair athlete has a unique reality that makes me wonder and research issues I’ve never had to do before. It’s honestly a whole new facet of electronic sports that I’m discovering right now.
With this in mind, I have been directly helping Parasports Quebec to meet these challenges. Moreover, since the Canada Research Chair on Digital Education (UdeM) has closed, I decided to take over and do the research myself with an ethics certificate from UQAM.
The project consisted of four practices, a tournament, and then a lot of coaching and adaptation.
