
A new Xbox controller to make gaming accessible to more people with disabilities - lamchob
https://news.microsoft.com/stories/xbox-adaptive-controller/
======
dalbasal
Disabilities may be some sort of a starting point, but this sort of
product/feature doesn't necessarily begin and end there.

A controller is a UI paradigm, like the keyboard & mouse "desktop" paradigm.
Serving a userbase that can't use a standard UI will lead to invention of new
ones. This could easily lead to mass market products/features that people will
want regardless of disabilities.

Particularly interesting (to me) are paradigms being developed for the blind,
because they can't rely on displays. This is the same sort of problem as
amazon echo, driving mode phones UIs and other products that need paradigms.

The key though, the key is that blind people are a "captive" market. They
can't just use the display UI every time the voice UI sucks. This gives
developer the opportunity to keep improving it until the number of use cases
where voice UIs work better than display gets big enough.

~~~
elefantastisch
> Everyone has abilities, and limits to those abilities. Designing for people
> with permanent disabilities actually results in designs that benefit people
> universally. Constraints are a beautiful thing.

[https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/design/inclusive](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/design/inclusive)

~~~
scoggs
I was thinking how awesome it is when developers think of all sorts of players
from the very start by ensuring that their entire game, game system, and
controller systems are configured for full customization from the start.

It's something that I think every dev, that is capable, should be striving to
do in everything they can (even outside of gaming specifically) but as you
indicated above it's really awesome for EVERY kind of person, even if I'm not
differently abled at all and all I want to do is swap shoot and reload's
buttons because of my own personal (even it it's stupid and/or annoying)
preference.

~~~
WorldMaker
One of the things that Microsoft's Inclusive Design efforts have made really
usefully clear is that everyone is "differently abled" circumstantially/over-
the-course of a day.

It's a silly example: but if I'm eating a sandwich one hand and trying to use
a computer, in that moment I'm a one-handed computer user, and can benefit
from many of the same one-handed benefits of someone using a computer one-
handed for more permanent reasons.

But as silly as that example is, there are so many tiny moments in your day
like that that maybe you dismiss them or you don't appreciate how differently
abled you are at different points in the day.

It's a bit like thinking through the classic riddle of the sphinx ("what
creature walks on four legs in the morning, two during the day, and three in
the evening?"). Our "ableness" is never a static constant, and its so useful
to think of all the more transient states we live in every day. The more we
include everyone, sometimes the better we include ourselves, too.

~~~
scoggs
True, you are right and I've never thought of it that way. We all have our
strengths and weaknesses and surely without everyone being "classified" as
something we are all incapable or terrible at doing certain things while we
are tremendous at others. It's like the fish climbing a tree versus certain
types of animals swimming. I love that saying. If you test them at what they
were meant to do they'll pass with flying colors. Problem is it's impossible
to classify humans in such a visual / species type of way. We are too
indistinguishable.

------
scarface74
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...](https://www.amazon.com/HORI-Fighting-Commander-Officially-Licensed-
Microsoft/dp/B01MSEPQ55))

I also tried one of these - [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-Playstation-handed-
Dragon-cont...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-Playstation-handed-Dragon-
controller/dp/B005EQTSLC) \- 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.

~~~
morsch
Consider PC gaming. Lots of games work perfectly well with just the mouse.

~~~
freeflight
And there are lots of options in mouse selection, MMO mice can have dozens of
buttons, the Roccat Nyth even allows replacing of the side-buttons with custom
molds.

~~~
Cthulhu_
Also MMO keyboards / controllers and one-handed keyboards (like the Maltron)

~~~
scarface74
I couldn't bring myself to pay $479 for a keyboard and then have to relearn
how to type after spending close to forty years typing with one hand on a
regular QWERTY keyboard. Last time I checked, I can type at about 50 wpm but
since most of my typing is coding, as long as my typing speed can keep up with
my thinking speed (with autocomplete), it's not the bottleneck.

This is my favorite keyboard:

[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VRC6U2C/ref=oh_aui_sear...](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VRC6U2C/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

I can reach from the Q to the P with one hand and can touch type on it.

------
myth_drannon
There is also a personal angle to Microsoft involvement with these type of
initiatives. The CEO has two children with disabilities and it looks like he
is pushing for an inclusive company more than any other CEO. There is also
Gobabygo which is an open source organization that modifies toy cars for
children with disabilities
[http://sites.udel.edu/gobabygo/](http://sites.udel.edu/gobabygo/)

~~~
kelukelugames
I work on accessibility. Apple has always been the recognized leader.

~~~
jrs95
I think we all know that, but that doesn't necessarily mean Satya isn't
putting in the effort. Apple has kept accessibility in mind for a lot long
than he has been CEO of Microsoft.

~~~
jdietrich
Accessibility is a much harder problem for the Windows and Android platforms,
because they're dealing with a bigger and more open ecosystem with a lot of
legacy baggage. Apple's very tight APIs make it much easier for software to be
accessible by default.

~~~
maccard
I know you're talking about windows, but remember this controller is targetted
at xbox, which is even more locked down than any of Apple's platforms.

~~~
WorldMaker
This controller is targeted at gaming on both Xbox and Windows. (Because Xbox
is Windows, locked down or not, and Xbox design is Windows 10 design, and all
Xbox One controllers are Windows 10 controllers.)

------
namanyayg
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.

~~~
balls187
Mostly because the majority of users aren't interested in hackability of
devices.

Kinect didn't have much in the way of software, and the OTS stuff was clunky.
It also followed on after the Wii, which also featured clunky software, also
had tremendous 1st party support to keep it viable.

------
vanderZwan
All of the four controllers shown seem to be great, but it's funny that the
joystick is basically just the Wii nunchuck. That's not a dig against
Microsoft, I suspect Nintendo just really hit it out of the park with their
Wii-mote design and that there isn't much else to improve.

I'm left-handed, and I remember realising that without thinking, I had
switched to using my right hand for the analog joystick instead of the left
one. This was months after I got a Wii - it was so natural that I hadn't even
noticed. I don't recall anyone ever giving Nintendo credit for this, but their
nunchuck-controller was pretty much the first mainstream controller for a
console that was fully ambidextrous.

~~~
wang_li
>the first mainstream controller for a console that was fully ambidextrous.

While it's not a console as such, the Atari Lynx in the 1990s could be flipped
over so that the joypad was on the other side.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Lynx](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Lynx)

------
donatj
This is a very heart warming development for me.

My dad has one hand, and only one finger on the hand he does have. He LOVED
playing Atari 2600 and NES when I was a kid and I have very fond memories of
playing games with him.

After the SNES though he completely stopped playing games out of frustration,
angry about why they needed so many buttons. I don’t think he ever even
attempted to play our N64, let alone later consoles.

I really hope the price point is accessible, I’d love to play games with my
dad again.

~~~
vingiesel
> I don’t think he ever even attempted to play our N64

Understandable, since the n64 controller was designed for people with 3 hands.

------
discussedbefore
I recently learned two XBox controllers can function as one, an ease of access
feature called Copilot.

[https://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-
one/accessories/copilot](https://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-
one/accessories/copilot)

~~~
WorldMaker
It's mentioned in this article, as well, because Copilot was partly built to
enable someone with one of these Adaptive Controllers to keep using the Xbox
controller inputs they are comfortable with and extend them with this
controller for the more uncomfortable ones. Then the designers realized there
are plenty of other reasons people might want to pair controllers and there
was no reason not to release it as a general feature for everyone.

------
sgtmas2006
This controller is going to be wonderful for far more than just disabled
people, I can't wait to use it for more interactive possibilities.

~~~
fredley
Good products "for people with disabilities" are often just good products full
stop.

Take for example Good Grips[1], a brand of cookware and kitchen tools.
Initially designed as specifically for the elderly and people who otherwise
have trouble gripping conventional kitchen utensils, it's become a bestselling
brand in its own right (I own several things) because the products are just
that much more ergonomic and sturdy than anything else.

[1]: [https://www.oxouk.com/](https://www.oxouk.com/)

~~~
WorldMaker
Some other recent HN article did an interesting presentation on the reason so
many Infomercials for products seem so weird is that the only way to sell some
of these products designed specifically to help the differently enabled have
to be sold as if they were for particularly lazy fully capable humans. In
order to try to get the product to market at all, they have to market to the
weird/lazy/strange mainstream target market you see in Infomercial pitches,
and often you miss that little bit of "originally built to help my elderly
friends or invented to help someone after a stroke".

------
iicc
>$99.99

That's incredible :)

It's USB, so this is going to end up being used for far more than gaming.

~~~
radiorental
Here, let me save you $50. It's the same principle, just a USB breakout box.
But one better - capacitive input instead of just switches (of course,
switches work too)

[https://makeymakey.com/](https://makeymakey.com/)

~~~
wolrah
Except that doesn't work with an Xbox.

There are definitely dozens of existing solutions for PC use, but the console
world has long been protective of their gamepads and generally don't allow
arbitrary custom devices to be connected unless they're built by hacking up a
"certified" device.

This is, to my knowledge, the first time any major console has officially
supported custom input devices. It's annoying that it requires a proprietary
bridge device rather than just getting rid of their artificial limits on HID
input devices that work fine on Windows 10 on their Windows 10 powered
appliance, but I guess it is still progress.

~~~
opencl
The PS3 worked with standard USB HID gamepads out of the box. Too bad Sony
dropped this support in the PS4. Oddly though Sony has allowed developers to
ship their own custom USB HID drivers in PS4 games, which some fighting games
have done to allow people to use their old PS3 fight sticks.

------
zaarn
It's good to see people working on stuff, this type of inclusive development
really makes me excited!

------
dragontamer
Storytime.

I had an online acquaintance who I practiced with in a fighting game called
Blazblue. Said friend was also a martial-artist who also did live-steel
fights. Dangerous, yes, but apparently there were rules about what weapons you
could bring in, "first blood" and other such rules to try and keep things non-
deadly.

Anyway, one of his opponents used poison as his weapon, and now his hands were
permanently F'd up due to that one poison fight.

Long story short: I didn't see him online much after that. Its difficult for
disabled people to get controllers that work well for them.

And its not just arbitrary fights where people can lose the fine motor control
of their hands. I know people who lost fine control after a bad car accident.
(Fortunately, this one was temporary and after about a year, she got most of
her motor control back into her hands).

So any research into allowing injured people to better play video games (a
hobby I'm very much like), is a win in my eyes. I've got at least two people
who've I've personally met who would benefit. Even with today's advanced
medicine, its not guaranteed that motor control will return back to your hands
if you are injured.

And injuries can really happen to anybody.

~~~
InitialLastName
It doesn't even have to be injories; a stroke can easily cause pretty much
unpredictable amounts of fine motor control loss in one hand or the other, and
that can happen to anyone at any time.

------
phaedrus
When I was in junior high or highschool I made an SNES controller for my
friend's mom who had limited hand movement due to a stroke. I made her a
joystick from a piece of PVC pipe, two plastic spools, and a plastic case
about the size of a cigar box for the base. The way the mechanism worked was I
used strips of packing foam to center the PVC pipe inside the hole in the
spools, and mounted 4 microswitches in a collar facing the PVC pipe. Instead
of a big movement like a traditional joystick, it required only 1/8 inch
"twitch" movements to close the microswitches, but was surprisingly precise &
responsive considering it was made out of scraps and hot glue. (But then again
I designed it to work with the limits of the materials I had access to, and
"tuned" the placement of the switches as I built up the device.)

~~~
rhcom2
Awesome. Which games did she like?

~~~
phaedrus
I can't remember well now, but I think she mainly played Super Mario World,
and perhaps an SNES racing game. I never got the chance to actually play
with/against her, but my friend told me that she did use it.

------
tryonqc
as someone with a visual impairment I am always amazed at how little we
talk/learn about accessibility and its lack of inclusion in the tests of new
products.

I like this "inclusive desing" term better though. (even though its the method
to achieve accessibility)

~~~
Cthulhu_
It's market optimization. 99% of any new product's potential initial userbase
does not have accessibility issues. Especially startups need to focus on
getting the highest return on investment initially, before proceeding to
smaller groups of potential customers. This is also why most new products are
launched in the US first - huge market, no borders - instead of Europe where
people have to deal with a few dozen languages and local laws.

------
staticelf
Really great move by Microsoft. People often worry for things like IE support
but people with disabilities often falls between the chairs.

------
eksemplar
I find it amazing that Microsoft can be doing this sort of thing, mean while,
at the windows team they decided to change that windows taskbar sound control
tool so that you now need to do “start->control panel->soundoptions” to change
your primary source, rather than just right clicking the damn icon. One in a
long range of terrible designs for windows.

How can a company simultaneously be so great and so terrible at usability?

~~~
emptyfile
Not sure what you mean, but you can change your primary audio source by
clicking the right corner arrow on the little window that pops out when you
click the speaker icon. EDIT: PIC [https://www.howtogeek.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/09/img_57d...](https://www.howtogeek.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/09/img_57d5d5cf71711.png)

Also this literally doesn't have anything to do with the subject of this
thread.

~~~
eksemplar
Hmm, well I guess my stuff is broken, because I only have the option to buy a
headset when I do that - disabled btw.

But then, my windows still keeps turning down the brightness automatically
unless I reboot after logging on the first time, so maybe it’s just a little
incompatibility with my old ass laptop.

------
thomasfedb
Can we swap "disabled people" for "people with disabilities" please?

~~~
sterlind
I'm okay calling myself a disabled person, personally. I have some pretty
severe disabilities, in spite of which I stay employed and productive. I find
identifying as disabled empowering, since it acknowledges the constant effort
I put into my health and mobility.

I respect that others don't like the phrase "disabled people," since it's
something they have rather than something they are. But there's not a
consensus on what phrase to use.

~~~
thomasfedb
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.

