How do you possibly honor a man like Brandon Cole? Honestly, I don’t have the words today, but today I have to say something. Brandon was one of those men who, even if you didn’t know him personally, you felt his impact everywhere in the game accessibility space. I had the opportunity to meet and get to know him a handful of times over the past decade. Although we were never the closest of friends, my respect for him was immense.
It is perhaps a cliché to talk about a disabled person’s sense of humor, but Brandon was a seriously funny man. Unlike many others, he made his points with a gentleness and self-deprecating wit that will be missed in the community. The one thing that stuck out to me most when we interacted was his humility. There are people out there trying to drive accessibility forward with the whips of guilt and the scourge of entitlement. But not Brandon. Brandon was a passionate yet gentle leader in our space. Always one to answer questions and, to my knowledge, never dismissive of people who didn’t appreciate accessibility as much as he did.
My only regret is that our paths did not cross more. Unfortunately, like many today, I’m left admiring Brandon Cole from a distance. He was a colleague, he was a leader in the movement, and he was an unapologetic force for change. When a person of that magnitude leaves us, it is the responsibility of those left behind not to hide in our grief or succumb to hopelessness. We have to keep moving forward, keep pushing the boundaries, and keep advocating for change.
Nothing about us without us
Brandon understood that the fight for accessibility was not simply about making it so that people could play video games. I think he saw the fight for video game accessibility as a gateway into broader areas of disability rights. Every time I can remember hearing one of Brandon’s presentations, he would end with the old rallying cry for the disability rights movement in America: “Nothing about us without us.” That is what I will remember most about my friend and colleague Brandon Cole: A Pioneer who always knew that the fight wasn’t just about video games. It was about improving the quality of life for disabled people everywhere. And that is a charge that each of us should remember in our grief today.
He would expect us to continue the fight after he was gone, and that’s what I encourage us all to do. Keep pushing for better accessibility, and better disability rights. Not just to honor Brandon’s memory, but to bring about the change in the world that he fought for so passionately.
All of us at CIPT send our condolences to Misty and the rest of Brandon’s family.
