Good Monday everyone!

In this week's QAuDHD I'll be talking about the importance of downing tools taking some time for yourself (and why that's a concept that many of us spicy-brained folk struggle with), and also explaining (because apparently it's still something some people don't understand) why "cruch" is bad!

I hope you enjoy this week's issue and, as always: please share, drop in comments and let me know your thoughts/suggestions for future topics. Thank you for reading/listening! ❤️

#videogames #qa #gamequality #autism #adhd #audhd #qaudhd #crunch

P.S I am continuing to plug the Sprint course I'm running for IntoGames in October: https://www.intogames.courses/course/qa-testing-david-jenkins-oct⁠

Trigger Warning: Reference to fictional violence/death (in a videogame)

This week's QAuDHD is about accessible marketing and game demos.

But first, as a newcomer to the games accessibility advocacy space, I wanted to address the upsetting and confusing events that have taken place in the last few days.

I won't go into detail on any of it, I just wanted to stress the importance of allyship and support at a time like this. People with disabilities are marginalised enough as it is, and already struggle (as I've covered in previous issues) with the concept of being "disabled enough" to receive the help they need. Sadly, I've no doubt there will be an element of society that will use these events to further marginalise an already highly vulnerable group of people (who make up a fifth of the global gaming population, a disproportionately high number), so I'm asking everyone in my network to please lend a hand in keeping the disabled gamer community strong as it processes what's been happening.

For a full breakdown, check out Grant Stoner's amazing article on IGN.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this week's issue and, as always: please share, drop in comments and let me know your thoughts/suggestions for future topics. Thank you for reading/listening! ❤️

#videogames #qa #gamequality #autism #adhd #audhd #qaudhd #accessibility #a11y 'demos

P.S I am continuing to plug the Sprint course I'm running for IntoGames in October: https://www.intogames.courses/course/qa-testing-david-jenkins-oct⁠

Discount Code (valid until the end of August 2024): DAVIDQALAUNCH

I've got a new job (don't worry, I'll still be doing QAuDHD)!

As part of my onboarding, my manager was asking about how I work best, types of communication that suit me and so on, and it brought me back to a topic I've touched on previously: communication. I've then coupled that with a follow-on from last-weeks section on representation in games, with a quick breakdown of some accessibility best practices.

As always: please share, drop in comments and let me know your thoughts/suggestions for future topics. Thank you for reading/listening! ❤️

P.S I also briefly plug the Sprint course I'm running for IntoGames in October: https://www.intogames.courses/course/qa-testing-david-jenkins-oct⁠

Discount Code (valid until the end of August 2024): DAVIDQALAUNCH

The UK and USA are having a particularly bad time of it at the moment, especially when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion. Or at least, people's perception of it.

With equal representation of male & female athletes at the Olympics, you might think this is indicative of increasing equity between these two genders, but sadly that's still very much not the case. So called "gender debates" are still aggressively targeting trans women (even though there aren't any taking part - there is a trans man and at least one NB person, but nobody seems to care about that), and gender bias is potentially depriving millions of neurodiverse women around the world of the support they deserve (and need).

The latter is the first topic I'm covering this week, with representation in games (particularly for LGBT+ people) being the second.

As always: please share, drop in comments and let me know your thoughts/suggestions for future topics. Thank you for reading/listening! ❤️

#videogames #qa #autism #adhd #audhd #gamesquality #gamesqa #qaudhd #diversity #edi

Given how hot it's been lately, this latest QAuDHD episode feels especially appropriate.

The main spicy topic this week is about burn-out and why it hits us harder than most. The other topic (less of a link this time around, sorry everyone) is about some additional considerations that often seemed to get overlooked when test planning.

This week, I discuss my personal experiences as someone who supposedly can't do empathy, but in reality empathises too much, and ask the question: are videogames "art"?

Although, spoiler alert, I don't have a good answer!

This week I discuss two deeply philosophical questions that I've had people ask me recently: how neurodivergent is neurodivergent enough and what is “fun”?

Ten episodes! 🥳🎉 Thank you so much to all my readers, listeners and subscribers.

For this exciting milestone I thought it was high time that I actually explained what neurodivergence and QA (in the games industry at least) actually ARE.