In an era where more and more people want to share in the joys of gaming, there have been some truly great developments in the space of accessibility. Games are being made to accommodate different disabilities at a pace faster than ever before. And hardware and controls are being made much easier to use in specialized situations as well. One of the current frontrunners in the gaming field in this area belongs to Microsoft with their Adaptive controller. Designed as a simple means for people with different disabilities to access gaming through basic controls, people have taken it to a whole new level in the last couple of years. The basic shell of the Adaptive controller can be augmented with an array of input devices, with the base acting as a passthrough which translates inputs.
Modders, gamers and anyone with a passion for getting more people into games have taken the Xbox Adaptive controller and made some very interesting and useful creations. One dad in the UK has taken it to a new and adorable level though. Using the Xbox Adaptive controller as a base, he modified the setup to work with the Nintendo Switch. And by adding a variety of extra inputs and some specialized bits, now his daughter can enjoy one of her favorite games like never before.
“Finished! Ava gives my homemade #accessibility controller V1.0 the thumbs up. She can play #BreathoftheWild on her #switch like her friends now. All thanks to ? #adaptiveController”
It’s some rather impressive work all on it’s own, but what many are also pointing to as a win for accessibility is that Microsoft and Nintendo designed their products to work in this kind of specialized use-case. This would not have been possible had the Switch not been able to support such modified controller inputs. As the aforementioned awesome dad puts it, “So rare in this day and age to see a big corporations release this type gold to the world without boundaries. Love #Halo love #Zelda and love my #PSVR. Now so will my daughter and son thanks to [Xbox Adaptive controller]”
Xbox boss Phil Spencer is impressed with the results. He retweeted Steel’s work and called it “incredible,” so that’s a pretty strong endorsement.
