A new Xbox controller to make gaming accessible to more people with disabilities

This is amazing. Microsoft frequently does things that offer amazing new ways of interfacing AND are hackable enough to have flexible applications. I have fond memories of owning and "hacking" the Kinect and connecting it to my PC, to develop custom code to control media playback and stuff. I never owned one, but the Surface also looked quite unique.

However, I feel these products don't reach the level of "lovability" other such products enjoy. I wonder if this is an execution or PR problem?

Either way, hope the Adaptive Controller enables a lot of people to enjoy video games and we see some interesting unconventional applications of it soon.

I can only use one hand. I use to play video games all of the time but once game controllers started requiring two hands and shoulder buttons, I couldn't play most games. I could play some games with fighting controllers (https://www.amazon.com/HORI-Fighting-Commander-Officially-Li...)

I also tried one of these - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-Playstation-handed-Dragon-cont... - but could never get the hang of it.

I might try this. My son is very into video games and I would love to play with him again. The only games that I played with him when he was younger were fighting games like Tekken and Soul Calibur and a few simple beat em up games but the games he plays now are too complicated to play with one hand.

EDIT:

I'm still trying to figure out after watching the videos, how this works with one hand. They showed a guy who had cerebral palsy that affected his right side but they never went into details about how he adapts it.

Maybe they were just expecting the target market to know about assistive technologies? I've never used any so I don't know anything about them.

Fwiw, I'm mid build of a controller for a friend with one hand.

I'm riffing off the Ben Heck design https://www.benheck.com/controllers/ but I'm mounting the entire xbox controller on a $15 joystick and then wiring the analog 3dof sensor from the joystick into the xbox controller. So, with one hand, you have access to one origina thumbstick and tilt the entire controller to actuate the other thumbstick.

I've been eagerly awaiting this device from xbox. While it is great, it's just a breakout box, you still need to setup your inputs.

As a side note, are you aware of the class of devices such as the xim4 or the Venom X which comes with a mouse & nunchuck?

https://www.amazon.com/Tuact-Venom-Controller-Windows-PlaySt... (works with xbox)

I think it's entirety valid to be happy with the label "disabled" and to embrace that.

My background is as a carer for children with intellectual disabilities, and I'm always disappointed when the first thing somebody wants to know about a kid is their diagnosis. I'd much rather tell you that Terry likes Football than tell you he has Autism. People often get fixated on the disability however.

Person-first language, in my experience, encourages people to see and think about the person before they see the disability. It encourages then to consider that perhaps John is stroppy because he's a moody teenager, rather than adding it's being he has Autism.

Out of interest, have you heard of or tried this thing you can 3d print for the Switch? https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/8/16/16155858/3...