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Sarasota special-needs mom goes viral on TikTok, sparks positive gamer movement

The Herald-Tribune - 9/18/2021

Sep. 18—A Sarasota mother and a dog food factory worker from Pennsylvania have teamed up to create a safe haven for children with disabilities to play video games online.

Fed up with her special-needs son being ignored, Linda Espada sparked the movement after a TikTok rant went viral.

Espada's 13-year old son, Jacob, couldn't get anyone to play video games with him.

Jacob has cerebral palsy, which makes it hard for other gamers to understand him when playing the wildly popular online game Fortnite, where players communicate over headsets.

Espada said Jacob would try to join a game, but as soon as the other players heard him speak, they would kick him off of their team. Jacob, who can play even though he struggles with communicating, couldn't understand why no one wanted him.

Espada took her frustration to TikTok, an online video social media site.

"If you hear that maybe they are a little louder, or their communication is jumbled, give them a chance," she pleaded. "My son plays so well... (Kids with special needs) are just like everybody else...Give them a chance."

The post went viral, with more than half a million likes and roughly 100,000 people responding.

More importantly, gamers around the country sprung into action to make sure people like Jacob aren't being left out.

One of those who responded was Tucker Fegley, a 22-year-old dog food factory worker from Pennsylvania who has never worked with children who have disabilities but has found some of his closest friendships through the online gaming community.

"You can go through your whole life thinking you don't have a good set of friends and then you get on this video game, and you have solid friends," Fegley said.

He volunteered to host a gaming session for Jacob on Twitch, a live-streaming gaming platform. Espada advertised the event on her newly popular TikTok account, and Fegley recruited friends to moderate the event to ensure everyone stayed positive.

(For those who aren't Twitch and TikTok savvy, this is essentially like putting up fliers all over the neighborhood saying come play basketball on Sunday, and recruiting friends to serve as referees.)

The response was overwhelming.

Fegley set up a four-person game, so he, Jacob and Jacob's brother would play consistently, and a fourth teammate would rotate in and out. Over eight hours of play, roughly 1,500 people watched, with hundreds waiting their turn to play with Jacob.

Twitch is known as a place where young gamers, usually boys, will curse and trash talk with one another. What Fegley was offering was a safe place to come and just make friends and have fun playing. It's not just for children with disabilities, Fegley said, it's for anyone who wants to play and is looking for kindness.

The moderators remove anyone from the session who types or says anything inappropriate.

"They are not going to be called names. There is no bullying. There is no hate," Espada said.

Jacob has made new friends through the experience, bonding in particular with Fegley and a girl named Sammy. Both treat Jacob as a regular friend, chatting with him about things like Batman over the headset and helping him when he gets stuck.

The Twitch sessions have become weekly events, something Jacob looks forward to as his online celebrity status grows with this particular crowd of gamers. Espada said he no longer stares at the television, wondering why he is the one person no one will play with.

"He is so much more affectionate since this happened," she said. "He knows he has more friends, and he is happier, it is like night and day for us."

It's a game changer for a kid like Jacob, and Espada marvels at the kindness of a stranger like Fegley, who changed her son's life.

"He is fantastic with Jacob, and Jacob loves him," Espada said. "Tucker is so good with these kids in the way he speaks to them and the way he interacts with them. Things like that I say you can't teach. That's just compassion and empathy and the ability to connect, and we're grateful."

Ryan McKinnon covers schools for the Herald-Tribune. Connect with him at ryan.mckinnon@heraldtribune.com or on Twitter: @JRMcKinnon. Support the Sarasota Herald-Tribune by subscribing today.

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