Sony’s Access controller for the PlayStation 5.Photo:Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP
Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP
Sony has announced a breakthrough in gaming accessibility.
On Thursday, the company revealed its latest customizable controller for the PlayStation 5, designed to make gaming more accessible for people with disabilities.
“Introducing the Access controller, a versatile controller kit that can be customized to meet players’ diverse needs, designed in close collaboration with the accessibility community to help players with disabilities play more comfortably for longer,” PlayStationannounced.
The Access controller, which will be available globally on Dec. 6 and costs $90 in the U.S., features swappable buttons and sticks that allow players to arrange the controller to best suit their individual needs.
Paul Amadeus Lane uses a Sony Access controller.Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP
“As someone who’s disabled, you’re given tons of accessible equipment that feels medical; it feels like something that’s from the hospital,” accessibility consultant Cesar Flores told the outlet. “If you look closely on each of those buttons, there’s tiny X’s, squares, triangles — that’s so special. That’s the difference right there, because that really makes it so I feel like I’m just going to game.”
Sony Interactive Entertainment’s senior technical program manager Alvin Daniel added that accessibility with a controller is important if games and consoles are accessible as well. “Our PlayStation Studios have done an amazing job with each title and really pushing the boundaries as far as accessible gaming,” he said. “The critical link in that chain is the controller.”
Speaking to theAssociated Press, Daniel explained that the controller was designed with three principles to make it “broadly applicable" — it doesn’t need to be held, buttons are easier to press, and its thumbsticks can be configured.
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Sony’s latest controller arrives five years after Microsoft dropped itsAdaptive Controller, which gave Xbox players a customizable way to take on their favorite titles, too. In a statement to the AP, Microsoft shared that it was “heartening to see others in the industry apply a similar approach to include more players in their work through a focus on accessibility.”
Paul Lane, who served as a consultant on Sony’s latest invention alongside Flores and others, spoke about the controller to theAssociated Press.
“I game kind of weird, so it’s comfortable for me to be able to use both of my hands when I game,” he said. “So I need to position the controllers away enough so that I can be able to to use them without clunking into each other. Being able to maneuver the controllers has been awesome, but also the fact that this controller can come out of the box and ready to work.”
Mark Barlet, the founder of nonprofit AbleGamers, added that the expansion of the accessibility movement in gaming in the last five years has been “breathtaking.”
“Show me a person with multiple sclerosis and I’ll show you a person who can be hard of hearing, I can show someone who has a visual impairment or a motor impairment,” he told the AP. “So thinking on the label of a disability is not the approach to take. It’s about the experience that players need to bridge that gap between a game and a controller that’s not designed for their unique presentation in the world.”
source: people.com
