Global – Xbox manufacturer Microsoft is launching a new adaptive controller for its console that will enable users who are physically impaired to play.
The new controller will meet the mobility needs of disabled customers with features such as larger buttons, which can be operated using hands, elbows or feet, as well as a row of 19 ports for users to add more devices such as touch-sensitive pads.
‘The traditional Xbox controller makes a lot of assumptions. It assumes I have two hands to hold it, two thumbs to hit the analogue sticks, and the fine motor control to get at all the buttons. That’s a barrier,’ says Bryce Johnson, senior inclusive designer at Microsoft. ‘Throughout the design process of this device, we spoke to charities like the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, AbleGamers andSpecialEffectand to countless gamers with disabilities. We’ve designed a device that we think will empower them.’
For more on the shifting aesthetic of accessibility products, see our design direction Implicit Inclusivity.