The release of the adaptive XBox controller might have been something you saw cross your news feed a while back. You may even have thought “damn that’s awesome, I wonder how OT’s are going to use this”. What you may not have known is that an OT was heavily involved in its development! Erik Johnson is that very OT and his story is phenomenal.
Some of you may remember Erik from his time in the Army when was known across the social media landscape as ArmyOTguy. Back then, like me, you might have been in awe of his amazing work with service men DURING his deployment to Afghanistan. For me it really opened up my mind about the potential for where OT’s could work. At the time he also inspired me to explore the use of Nintendo Wii in my own practice area.
Fast forward a few years and Erik retired from the Army. Since then he helped start Warfighter Engaged, a volunteer company that custom designs and sets up adaptive control centres for people with accessibility issues so they can engage in the occupation of gaming! Incredibly creative and inspiring work can be seen on the Warfighter Engaged website here: https://warfighterengaged.org/projects
I thoroughly enjoyed this chat with Erik and his rich experience and occupational focus was amazing and inspiring.
Check out the XBox adaptive controller here:
If you have the will and capacity to support Warfighter Engaged in the amazing work that they do than do check out their website for how you can support them.
If you want to find more about Erik you can find everything you could ever want to know about him on his website: http://www.erikunleashed.com/
Erik’s work also extends to Operation Supply Drop, an NFP organisation helping enhance service persons lives through community engagement https://weareosd.org/
Keep occupied