The Daily Populous Saturday August 24th, 2024 evening edition
Authored by nordic.ign.com and submitted by YouAreNotMeLiar

On March 4, 2019, the accessibility community mourned a prominent advocate: Susan Banks. Banks’ partner, Coty Craven, announced her passing on social media platforms such as Twitter/X. The industry lamented the loss of an individual that helped raise awareness for accessibility in games, particularly for Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals.

Banks’ death marked a significant loss for the video game accessibility community. She regularly interacted with developers from studios like Ubisoft and The Coalition, pushing for better options and designs. She helped to revolutionize games journalism through the creation of Can I Play That, a site dedicated to the coverage of accessibility and the disabled perspective. An award was even named after her posthumously, to be given to disabled individuals in games that uplift their communities and educate others on the importance of accessibility.

However, in the years since Banks’ alleged death, mounting evidence and accounts from those close to her work suggest that she was not the person she claimed to be. In fact, some are convinced that Banks may never have existed at all.

Banks first appeared in the gaming industry in August 2015. An X/Twitter account called ‘ OneOddGamerGirl ’ appeared to share the perspective of a “Deaf, Muslim, queer, disabled, gamer nerd” through accessibility reviews and interactions with varying studios and advocates. These posts regularly explored topics like Deaf and hard-of-hearing accessibility in games, living with mental health-related disabilities like schizophrenia, racism, and being in a queer relationship.

Prior to Banks’ introduction to the gaming industry, she allegedly escaped oppression and emigrated from Turkey with her sister and established herself in Chicago, building a life around her interests and disabilities, according to a former business associate of Craven's. Her various jobs are said to have included being a professional model, an asset manager at a financial firm, and a professor of Deaf Studies at Gallaudet University, the leading university for Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals in the United States, all before the age of 30. IGN reached out to Gallaudet University’s Deaf Studies program for comment, and they replied stating that nobody by the name of Susan Banks was ever employed at the University.

Image Source: X/Twitter @OneOddGamerGirl, via Wayback Machine

In addition to the posts on X/Twitter, a now defunct site purported to belong to Banks included accessibility reviews that were featured in profile and community pieces across multiple publications. These posts, which argued for more inclusive design and accessible features, soon attracted the attention of developers like Ubisoft and The Coalition. These articles, interviews , and social media posts became a fixture within the then-relatively small accessibility community.

It’s during this time that founder and executive director of AbleGamers Mark Barlet notes that Banks’ advocacy, particularly on social media, made them cross paths. “Susan came on our radar in 2017. We were introduced to her on Twitter. We have some hashtags that we always follow, and her work started popping up.”

According to an AbleGamers employee, Banks would regularly reply to conversations posted by individual members of the charity, as well as the main organization account. At the time, the accessibility community was intimately aware of those within it due to the select number of consultants and representatives. And as awareness grew along with the accessibility community, Banks became a prominent advocate within the space.

Banks was never alone with her work. While in Chicago she allegedly met Coty Craven, who she originally hired to walk her dog, according to private messages between myself and Craven. Shortly after their introduction, Craven announced to friends and family on social media that the two had entered a romantic relationship.

Within months of Craven’s introduction of Banks, Craven claimed Banks had been hospitalized after dropping a KitchenAid mixer on her foot, according to both an anonymous former business associate of Craven's I spoke to, and my own past conversations with Craven. Several hours later, her leg was allegedly amputated, and nearly 48 hours after the first operation, her other leg was amputated as well. The anonymous source mentioned above claims they then contacted West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, Illinois where Banks was said to be recovering according to the source who saw this information on social media. When they contacted the hospital to send flowers, the hospital said there was no patient by that name. This resulted in the source seeking a third-party opinion due to fears of Craven allegedly misrepresenting himself and taking advantage of clients through sympathy.

“[Craven’s] work affected me personally, and for me to continue any form of a working relationship with [Craven], I needed to feel comfortable that I was right in my assumption about his storytelling,” they said. “I knew I couldn’t find proof. I had searched for all the ways I knew to look for the existence of a woman named Susan Banks and her sister, Tubi Hamid, and couldn’t find anything. To secure my business and make sure my interactions were aboveboard, I wanted to bring in a professional to tell me whether I was right in my hunch.”

According to the source, Craven allegedly received gifts and consistent praise and attention every time he would post about Bank's ailments or recoveries. In order to prevent any legal ramifications, particularly if Craven was misleading clients, the source hired a private investigator, a retired Chicago police officer, who previously worked with an associate of the source. The goal of the investigation was to find concrete proof of Banks’ existence. Several days later, the investigator returned with no information. No immigration record, address, employment record, marriage license, or birth certificate was found. Banks, according to the investigator, was not a real person. IGN received the receipt of the investigation and can confirm the source was billed for these services.

Years after this event, Banks and Craven entered the gaming space with relative success. Banks’ advocacy became the subject of numerous stories. From stories in Digital Trends , to a spotlight posted by AbleGamers , all interviews with Banks were conducted the same way – through email or private messages on X/Twitter or facilitated by Craven. According to AbleGamers Senior Director of Development, Steven Spohn, most interactions with Banks were on X/Twitter, except when sending her interview questions for the spotlight piece through email or emails connecting her with others in the industry.

“I never spoke to either [Banks or Craven],” Spohn said. “It did not seem odd at the time because I have many Deaf friends who also like to avoid Zoom calls if possible because texting is easier. And because other people were interacting with them, I assumed they were real. There are many people I have met on Twitter that I have never met anywhere else.”

Spohn sent IGN several emails of his interactions with Banks, with one of them including her stating “I’m available via email or Twitter DM, whichever you prefer.” These behaviors are identical to her interactions with everyone else we spoke to or observed. Communicating over text or emails is common for Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals. Platforms like Discord don't offer captions, and many services' captions can be difficult to read based on aspects like accents, Internet connections, and even microphone levels. It's not suspicious for somebody with alleged disabilities like Banks’ to request these accommodations. However, throughout all conversations, reactions, interviews, or posts, no one had ever seen or heard Banks by herself outside of her social media profile or with Craven. IGN also reached out to the author of the Digital Trends story, and he confirmed that he had conducted the interview through email, explaining that Banks stated it was the easiest form of communication.

In 2019, Craven announced that Banks had died, shocking the accessibility community . In a private conversation between myself and Craven before I began reporting on this story, Craven claimed that Banks died while playing games from a stroke. In another private text conversation with a different individual viewed by IGN, Craven claimed she died while streaming, and that at least one other person had a clip of her death. But IGN could not find evidence of any streams or video footage containing Banks. One day after her death, Craven acknowledged her passing by mentioning the dozens of notifications Banks' account was receiving. No obituary was uncovered for a person fitting the description of Susan Banks in Oak Park, Illinois.

From a memorial post created by AbleGamers , to a dedication of her work at the Game Accessibility Conference , the industry mourned the loss of a member of an already intimate community. And with the precarious nature and health predicaments of disabled individuals, seemingly losing someone to a sudden cause like a stroke caused immense feelings of grief, especially for an individual as impactful as Banks . Even years after her death, the industry continued to mourn her loss and celebrate her work and impact, something Craven frequently and publicly acknowledged for years, thus attracting the attention of developers across studios .

On February 11, 2019, several weeks before Banks’ apparent death, Craven created a GoFundMe for the launch of Can I Play That, a website dedicated to reviewing games and analyzing the industry from an accessibility lens, which was announced on both their social media account and the one allegedly managed by Banks. After Craven announced that Banks had died, organizations like AbleGamers directly shared the GoFundMe campaign, encouraging others to donate in her memory. According to Mark Barlet, the decision to share the campaign link on social media was due to what he believed to be Banks’ work and dedication on behalf of the accessibility community. “If we tweeted this, it’s because we thought we were supporting someone who we genuinely had spent time elevating and supporting the work that they were doing,” Barlet said.

Craven used the sympathy generated by Banks’ death to push himself into the spotlight. For years, he continually posted on social media about her passing, her legacy, and her impact on the industry. These conversations continued through numerous recognition profiles about Craven. He even had the opportunity to publish stories about his experience with grief , especially pertaining to Banks’ death.

In 2021, the Game Accessibility Conference presented an award titled the “Susan Banks Advocacy Award” to an individual who upholds the accessible mission and uplifts disabled voices. In 2022, the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) received an email from an anonymous source questioning whether Banks had ever actually existed.

“My thoughts were that someone seemed concerned about our community being taken advantage of, and that they wanted to let me know,” remembers IGDA executive director Dr. Jakin Vela. “After processing the conversation, it seemed to me the worst-case scenario was an individual was perhaps progressing accessibility initiatives in conjunction with a pseudonym. I did not see much of a concern there considering how often people receive hate and harassment for advocating for DEI issues in the games industry.”

An IGDA volunteer familiar with the situation explains that when informed of the incident, Craven claimed the questioning was affecting his mental health, and wanted to simply remove Banks’ name from the award. Even when offered legal support, Craven wished to forget the situation. In December 2022, the award honoring Susan Banks became the “Advocacy Award,” and any mention of Banks ceased.

Since Banks’ death, Craven has posted about two similar romantic relationships with fellow games accessibility advocates: Tubi Hamid and Damaris ‘Deb’ Burrell-Vaughan. Both have also had their existence questioned.

Like Banks, Hamid’s first mention was on Craven’s social media pages in 2012. Every story or post of Craven’s would include responses from both Banks and Hamid. And like the anonymous business associate explained about Banks, nobody ever saw Hamid outside of profiles on social media. IGN’s source also notes the same private investigation of Banks failed to uncover any evidence of Hamid’s existence.

Image Source: X/Twitter @TugBoatHamid via Wayback Machine

Approximately two years after Banks’s alleged death, Hamid was introduced to the industry through posts on the now deleted @TugBoatHamid X/Twitter account and a Medium page. The archived X posts discussed Hamid’s apparent relationship with Craven, game accessibility, and experiencing the industry through the lens of a person of color.

But Why Tho co-founder Kate Sánchez recalls what it was like to interact with Hamid’s account through private messages with Craven and other conversations (Disclosure: Sánchez contributed to extensive research for this story).

“I had interactions with Tubi quite a bit on Twitter, always around race and disability, as well,” Sánchez said. “I’ve been very vocal about the importance of including non-white people in the disability and accessibility space, and Tubi would often have the same views or echo them. Beyond Twitter, Craven would relay messages between me and Tubi, usually around race and disability.”

In 2021, Can I Play That ran a story with Hamid’s byline, published and edited by Craven, detailing her experience as a deaf person of color in the gaming industry. The story details her connection with Banks, and even advertises Craven’s work and business ventures. That year, her story was nominated for the “Best Journalism” award by the Game Accessibility Conference. Throughout this time, Craven also acted as a judge for the Conference Awards. However, during this period, Hamid suddenly disappeared, deactivating her social media accounts and leaving the industry.

Image Source: Game Content Triggers Database Discord

Craven’s alleged third partner was introduced to the public in 2023, once again on social media platforms like X/Twitter. Unlike Banks and Hamid, Deborah (Deb) Vaughan has no Twitter account of her own, instead updating people through self-published stories on Medium, as well as anecdotes given by Craven. According to private conversations between myself and Craven, Vaughan was allegedly a close family friend of Banks, and the two reconnected after Banks’ death in 2019 before entering a romantic relationship in 2023.

Similar to Banks and Hamid, there are no pictures of Craven and Vaughan together. Instead, Craven posted on X/Twitter screenshots of alleged text conversations between the two. Each post provides a glimpse into their alleged relationship, but without showcasing any physical interactions. The profile picture of Vaughan within these screenshots appears to be a photoshopped stock image from 2015 .

Vaughan was instrumental with the creation of Craven's latest venture, the Game Content Triggers Database , a source that volunteers and developers can use to display potentially triggering themes, scenes, or objects in games. Her presence in the industry is relatively isolated to her Medium page and activity within the Database Discord server. Like the previous two partners, stories about representation were crucial to Vaughan’s work in the industry.

According to Vaughan’s introductory post within the Discord server, as well as an article published on the Database by Craven, she is a registered therapist specializing in PTSD and trauma. She has “a long background in psychology and mental health,” and is also “Deaf so I know a bit about ableism.” Her posts extensively explore topics like mental health themes in games, racism, the disabled experience as a Deaf person of color, and more recently, experiencing life while receiving intense cancer treatments for stage IIIB colorectal cancer . And much like Banks and Hamid, IGN was unable to find any individual who had seen her in-person or on a video call. IGN was also unable to find a registered therapist by the name of Deborah Vaughan or Damaris Burrell-Vaughan fitting her description in Michigan, Illinois, or her supposed home state of Missouri.

According to Sánchez, Vaughan’s presence in the industry is intrinsically tied to her race:

“I knew specifically that Coty had messaged me asking for non-white people to be involved because per Coty’s words, it was only white people who volunteered their time,” Sánchez said. “I wanted to provide the depth and exploration at least for my identity, which is Latina. I only found out that Coty had a partner named Deb after I joined the Database and tried having conversations about race there. Coty had messaged me that Deb was his new partner and was going to be central in diversifying who was contributing to the Database.”

Craven claims he was in talks to sell the Database to companies like Amazon based on messages between Kate Sánchez and Craven. No further conversations about an acquisition occurred after that message. Amazon declined to comment for this story.

Aside from the Database, Vaughan’s stories on her Medium page openly discuss sensitive topics like the death of a child, intense racial violence, and proper representation in games. One story, Feeling Seen — Finally — in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, published on October 26, 2023, five days before the creation of her Discord account, extensively acknowledges and praises Miles Morales and his girlfriend, Hailey Cooper. Vaughan recognized their importance as being role models for Black, disabled individuals, namely young children. Her story recounts what is described as her own experience as a disabled, Black woman, noting that Hailey made her fall in love with games. This story attracted the attention of a senior designer at Insomniac Games who worked on the creation of Hailey and wanted to show his appreciation by leaving a comment.

“I'm a Senior Designer here at Insomniac and your article was just shared with myself and others here who worked on Hailey,” he said “Reading your article brought literal tears to my eyes. I'm so glad that you felt seen. When we were creating Hailey, it was always from a perspective of ‘You know what, she needs her shine too! How can we show that she too is a superhero in her own way.’ So just reading through your article just now and knowing that you felt seen is one of the crowning achievements in my career! I hope your kids enjoy the rest of the game and have a great day!”

Through this story, Medium’s gaming-centered publication Crossplay , created and owned by Sean Berry, invited Vaughan to become a writer. According to a comment left by the owner of the site, he immensely enjoyed her story and wanted her to become a frequent contributor. He also notes that one of Craven’s stories was also featured on his site. Approximately one month later, he received a reply stating “I would love to have it included in your publication and I really appreciate you taking the time to read it!”

Shortly after, Vaughan was listed as a writer for Crossplay, but only for her Spider-Man 2 piece.

Despite not having a social media account like Craven's previous partners, Vaughan's alleged life and family drew the attention of thousands through Craven's personal social media account. On May 13, 2023, Craven published a post on X/Twitter about a 96-year-old woman named Bess, who he claimed was Vaughan’s mother. Roughly one month later, Craven updated his social media to explain to others that Bess fell in love with gaming, especially The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, sharing a screenshot from a supposed conversation between the two detailing the elderly woman’s fascination with playing the game. The post received approximately 596,000 views, 12,000 likes, roughly 3000 reposts, and 23 comments. Several hours later, Craven shared an essay published on Crossplay about playing Breath of the Wild with Bess.

Months after the original post, on February 15, 2024, Craven announced that Bess had passed away in her sleep at the age of 97 . That same post also advertised the essay he published months prior. The announcement of Bess’s death received approximately 3000 likes on X/Twitter. Vaughan’s introductory interview published by Craven on the Database website explicitly mentions Craven’s relationship with Bess, citing it as integral to the founding of the site. IGN was unable to find an obituary for a woman fitting the description of Bess in Missouri during the alleged time of her death.

Vaughan's mentions on Craven's social media and activity within the Database Discord have largely ceased since March. Her last message to the server noted that both her and Craven were incredibly busy with work, and had not abandoned the project. However, their involvement with the Database has yet to be seen. As of June, she was still active on her Medium page, publishing an article exploring EMDR therapy, but no longer interacts with the gaming industry outside of her personal publication.

IGN reached out to Craven ahead of publication via email. He responded, requesting that we not publish the piece but forcefully declining to comment further. Shortly after that, he began deleting his presence on social media. Currently, his X/Twitter, LinkedIn, the Game Content Triggers Database, the Database’s associated Discord server, and Vaughan's Medium page have been removed.

Reporting on these allegations is no small task, especially when this story highlights multiple prominent advocates within the accessibility and disabled community. For months, myself, IGN editors, Kate Sánchez, and Matt Donahue cross-referenced multiple conversations between ourselves and Craven, conducted extensive interviews with multiple sources, and spent dozens of hours analyzing social media profiles, as well as Discord messages. To even posit the notion that three advocates are allegedly fake is admittedly hard to believe.

And speaking as a disabled individual, writing a story like this is no easy feat. The disabled community is incredibly close. We defend each other's work, and especially our existence within the greater gaming industry. To bring forth a story like this required immense dedication, determination, and an understanding that the accessibility and disabled community will ultimately need to heal from such a piece. However, after countless hours and weeks, we truly believe this is a story worth reporting, not only to highlight the unique nature of this case, but also to allow the varying impacted communities time to process and rebuild.

Each of Craven’s partners embedded themselves into varying marginalized communities, with each allegedly being Deaf, a person of color, queer, and having some form of major health episodes like cancer. And through Craven’s varying social media accounts and presence in the industry, he was able to ensure each partner remained visible. Their work, whether written or through social media advocacy, reached thousands. From AAA studios to different community spaces, Banks, Hamid, and Vaughan entrenched themselves into the gaming industry.

For approximately 10 years, the gaming industry has consistently supported Craven and his three partners. From awards, to recognition, to funds shared for alleged partners, Craven has cemented himself as an authority within the accessibility space. Yet, no evidence proves their existence. And for a community that consists of numerous marginalized identities, losing trust in prominent figures because of alleged lies is harmful to the overall support and acceptance of these groups in games.

Grant Stoner is a disabled journalist covering accessibility and the disabled perspective in video games. When not writing, he is usually screaming about Pokémon or his cat, Goomba on Twitter.

Toastlove on August 24th, 2024 at 17:32 UTC »

I know there's a very loud minority but I didn't expect that minority to be the same person

orange_jooze on August 24th, 2024 at 12:30 UTC »

That’s one hell of a story. And unfortunately one that’s not unique in online spaces as of recent years.

What strikes me about this whole thing is how blatantly fake and by-the-numbers so many of these purportedly “real” posts and conversations are, but how understandably awkward it would be for anyone at the time to go “hey, this reads like a load of BS”. Gotta give props on the social engineering skills to this Coty character.

Also, the guy’s name is literally “Craven”? That’s some /r/NominativeDeterminism material right there.