Inclusion Unlocked: The Power of Adaptive Gaming
For many children today, video games are an essential part of their leisure activities and interaction with others. But they are often not accessible for children with disabilities. New game controllers that adapt to children’s special capabilities provide a remedy.
Playing is the primary occupation during childhood and adolescence and playing with others is one of the best ways to get to know new people and to allow exchange between and within cultures. In other words, playing keeps the world together. However, for children and adolescents with disabilities, it can be challenging to play traditional games and therefore to interact with their normal developing peers.
In the last decades, children over the world went from playing with their peers in the street, to playing videogames at home. This development has opened a new world of possibilities for children with disabilities. But often the controllers or input devices are not designed for them.
Our latest projects’ goal is to enable participation of children with motor disabilities affecting the upper extremities in the newly developing gaming community. There, we use the Xbox Adaptive Controller, a device designed to make gaming accessible, where external devices such as buttons, mounts, and joysticks enable an entirely tailored gaming experience. Since this equipment is relatively new and the functional limitations on the upper extremities vary greatly, a single solution will not work for all. Therefore, we are trying to understand how to individually tailor the Xbox Adaptive Controller to make children’s abilities and game requirements match so that children with disabilities can use the technology and play videogames by themselves and play against friends and siblings in equal conditions.
In our booth, you will be able to see and play with the Xbox Adaptive Controller in an adaptive manner, with some examples of real cases from our clinic.
