Ok,
Most if not all you may not know of this - I suffer from 2 mental disabilities - Autism and Bi-Polar Disorder.
Now - I have been looking into various jobs at both indie and professional game companies. But I have not applied due to my disabilities.
I am just wondering if there is room in the game industry for disabled developers.
Thank you for your time -
Ben S.
Anyone can be a Developer/programmer the one good thing about this industry its not about who you are its about what you can do. What you bring to the table. If your skilled then it doesn’t matter…
Yup, what kingcharizard said. Ability is the key. Be up front, if accommodations need to made, most places (that I am familiar with) will certainly do so as long as your skills are what they need.
I work with / have worked with more than a few people with Bi-polar disorder. As an somewhat related example, a close friend of mine was art lead in one of our studios, and he is color-blind.
Good luck!
ZG
Zombie Gorilla and King Charazard - Thank you!
Both of you have really lifted my spirits 
Going to go to bed now
kingcharizard is correct but what you have to remember is the stigma of these disorders. Unfortunately you cannot get away from it. Most importantly will the employer, with the disability; the certain one of Bi-Polar Disorder, hire you? I do not think they would. This is not to say that it is because you may not be qualified or that your disability will detrimentally affect others around you; it is to say that with this certain disorder; as you are fully aware of it yourself, denotes a rapid if not instant change in mood.
Not only is this dangerous for others but it is dangerous for you. Why? Think for a second should your mood dip or switch when you hear something you don’t like, or you are told to do something which you disagree with; you become fatigued in mind, or your disorders natural way of enforcing it’s ways on you kicks in!
Again, this is not to say it will be a violent incident but whether you accept it or not aggression is a major part of Bi-Polar Disorder whether it takes form in a physical way or a verbal way. Why put yourself in this environment where you would only stress yourself?
Sometimes being disabled and not able to work due to Mental Health problems is a positive and not a negative. Even with your disabilities. Why? What is stopping you becoming self employed? You work your own hours, you are your own boss and you take shit from no one.
The other good thing about it is if you do not want to deal with the every day generals of self employment via your own company there is a plethora of help out there to aid you. For instance: Dealing with TAX, Filing documents etc and general business duties you would have.
Do not take this though as something you should do. Seek advice first, there is a lot of it around.
What you should do, and this is the most important thing, is make sure you look after yourself and not to put yourself in situations where your disorder becomes aggravated, or that would put you in danger; cause problems for yourself or others.
Believe it or not you have the right to chill and be at ease with yourself. You do not owe anybody any work, you do not have to do any work and not working, in your case, does not make you a bad person. In fact with your disabilities it is an entitlement for you to rest and be well.
If your leg is broken you can still get on with things. If you have one arm you can still get on with things. If your Brain though is not functioning to what is considered the norm or functioning to a capacity where disorders like these do not emerge, everything is broken.
You deserve to rest; do not be ashamed of it or embarrassed by it. I applaud your courage.
Hey Thank you Amon for your input and I would like to clarify a few things about me.
I am the most Mellow / chilled out person you will ever meet.
On top of that my Autism is considered an extremely mild case however Not mild enough to be considered Asperger syndrome.
I am very intelligent when it comes to computers and 3D Applications (3DS Max, Unity3D, UDK, etc.). Which I pride myself in. I guess you could call it my “Talent”.
But yeah - I am off to bed now
I will answer any other questions in the morning or after noon.
Do what you do. It’s about what you do.
If you had no hands I’d be a little worried about your chances though.
The question isn’t so much are you disabled but can you do the work:
Are you reliable?
Can you communicate well with boss/co-workers?
Can you produce a good quality product?
That is what I’d specifically want to know from someone with your conditions.
Depending on the country you live in, you may want to check out the employment laws.
Social ability is more important than talent to be honest, particularly the ability to go out for drinks after a long day (especially at indie studios/ if boss drinks or if your in a ‘drinking problem’ country). I know a very talented and social artist with severe autism and he pretends he is normal so it doesn’t affect him and I’ve never seen him unemployed (“mind over matter” he tells me).
Yep, in America its technically illegal to not-hire someone for a job due to a disability . But here’s the thing, theirs no way to no the reason someone DID NOT hire you . I even had an interview with a company that has a “We call you even if we decide on a different candidate”. That was more then 2 months ago , no call at all .
Honestly getting a job in the game industry isn’t all that its cracked up to be . Disabilities aside this really isn’t a fun business. But with Unity you have all the tools you need to make awesome games solo or with a small team .
It’s not carte blanche - they can still deny you the job if they can prove that hiring you would result in an undue cost to them. There’s also simple things like no longer being able to do the job, where if you’ve been in the position long enough for FMLA to apply - that when FMLA expires…so does your employment. Generally speaking though, in those cases - you’re likely to end up on some form of disability.
OR they can just not hire you . Its very hard to prove it was due to a disability .
I think a little authism is not a disadvantage, but might even be an advantage. Being socially awkward is kinda accepted among game developers, but having a great knowledge about computers and technical stuff is a big plus.
Not sure about bipolar disorder though.
I have seen a guy making a game in Unity at Nordic Game Jam a few years back who could only move one finger… he had a helper pushing the CMD and ALT keys sometimes, that was it. He was the lead developer on his team, a really brilliant coder too, and when he needed to use the editor a lot he wrote editor scripts that did the things he needed
So when it comes to overcoming disabilities I’m quite the optimist as long as the person has the energy and willingness to fight his limitations (and we have limitations of various kinds anyway).
d.
Well, as far as the “in the US, they can’t refuse to hire you”, yeah, they really can. Again, its about ability. If they believe that your disability will prevent you from doing the job, they don’t have to hire you. If I need you to lift something, but you have no arms, I can’t hire you. Its the same as modeling companies not having to hire someone if they’re ugly (yes, being ugly is classified as a disability… hilarious).
On the other side of that, remember that Stephen Hawking has written dozens of books, and he’s quadriplegic. There are millions of other, more subtle examples as well. As others have said, if you can do the job, then do it.
Also, when did bi-polar become classified as a disability?
Wow, that guy is inspiring 
@OP Well, you see if you are good at your job then it doesn’t matter, unless you are having an adverse effect on other workers.
Another thing I wanna mention is you can take medication to help control these “Disabilities”, Not sure if anyone mentioned it but many people work and have very successful lives with BI-Polor disorder. I am not sure about Autism but I know someone probably made a medication to help control it. I have ADHD, something I don’t like to admit. It makes focusing hard but when I’m focused I can finish my work faster and better than others. I learn quicker. I am not currently on medications but I am seeking them. They help improve my ability to focus a lot. I’m mentioning this because it should help inspire you to know its possible…
While your disabilities suck and you probably wish you didn’t have them the fact is that you do. Now the question isn’t will your disabilities stop you, it’s will you let them stop you and hold you back. I know it might not be simple but its not impossible the choice is yours…
When I was a kid they wanted to put me on all kinds of meds, but I saw what those same drugs did to another kids, he became a zombie. I refused to take any meds and my mother respected that, so she never tried to make me take any. I didn’t give a damn what “disorder” they wanted to diagnose me with, I am me, I act the way I am and no I don’t ever want drugs to think or behave different than who I am. Some people are naturally different than others, it may make it difficult for you to perform in some ways the way others do but you can probably do things a lot of other people can’t as well also. The problem isn’t kids with autism, ADHD, Bi-Polar or restless leg syndrome, the problem is societies attitude towards people who are different from the norm.
EMBRACE YOUR GIFT!
I don’t personally like it when a lot of people blame things on their disabilities, I’ve seen people with autism that are one of the best programmers(infact,best) I’ve ever seen. Then I see people that blame autism on their “inability” to do work(I’m not saying you’re one). They were raised having their parents blame everything on their autism or their personality was just simply crap.
I was diagnosed with high functioning asperges when I was younger and people have never noticed an impairment in my social skills in real life at all. Although I am a bit weird 
and awkward(usually on purpose). I’d say it’s one of the reasons why i’m a programmer. I don’t personally play many games at all, I’ve clocked at maximum 10 hours in the past month(only when I was at a friends). Except I have a deep interest in programming and not much else to do with computers and I would rather be hanging out with friends than playing counter strike.
Disabilities/conditions are not always a bad thing ;), don’t think of it as one. I’m not embarassed of my condition and I don’t care if people know. I’m proud of it.
