Unlimited possibilities. How, what and what do people with disabilities play?

From dedicated controllers to specific genres.

It seems to many that there is nothing easier than playing video games. Like, this is passive entertainment that does not require any effort at all: just know yourself staring at the screen and press the buttons. But for someone, even squeezing the trigger on a gamepad may not be easier than conquering Everest. So far, little has been written about this in our country, but people with disabilities and developmental disabilities also want to play – no matter what it takes.

Alternative controllers

The availability of video games is a big issue that few people think about until they see the world through the eyes of a person with a disability. It is enough to break your arm for most of your favorite games to suddenly become unavailable. After all, they require not only a good reaction or the ability to make quick decisions – for the hero of the shooter to run, squat, recharge and look around at the same time, the player is forced to press several buttons on the gamepad or keyboard at once, rotate the sticks or move the mouse. This requires absolutely elementary, seemingly, things: two hands and a full set of fingers with normal mobility. Something is missing? Well, then go play quests and turn-based strategies – it’s also interesting there.

Ken Worrell, a completely paralyzed gamer

However, often even an ordinary mouse with additional buttons can become a pass into the world of quite dynamic virtual entertainment. Models like Razer Naga or Logitech G604 allow you to comfortably play MMO or diabloids with one hand: all functions are comfortably placed under the thumb. There are also whole manipulators with “mouse” capabilities, such as 3DConnexion SpaceMousewhich looks like the control panel of a small starship.

But, first of all, these are non-specialized solutions designed primarily for people without disabilities. Secondly, such manipulators are most often designed for right-handers. Thirdly, they only work fully with a PC. Fortunately, there are many devices that can give a pass to virtual worlds and people with special needs. What if the person is unable to even move the mouse cursor? Play anyway!

All you need for full-fledged gaming is an individual gamepad

For example, a Canadian company Compusult For many years it has been producing various devices for people with disabilities and developmental disabilities: add-ons for wheelchairs, protectors for tablets, accessories for smartphones. But the most interesting of her products is Jouse, a controller that allows you to control your computer without hands. It is enough to put a mouthpiece in your mouth, and you can move the cursor with your tongue, and inhale and exhale will be responsible for pressing the mouse keys.

True, for Jouse they ask for almost one and a half thousand dollars, so not everyone can afford it. But there are also more affordable alternatives: say, QuadStick it costs almost three times cheaper, and is also compatible not only with PC, but also with Android, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch (special adapters are provided for Xbox consoles). Of course, in order not just to control the computer, but to play a conditional Call of duty on an equal footing with other players, training is needed. But if there is desire and perseverance, everything is possible.

Custom controller from Hackaday

Often, gamers with disabilities need more personalized solutions: some need larger keys, some need foot pedals, voice control, eye-catching systems, or even a mental interface. Moreover, all these technologies already exist and work. Even the latter, no matter how fantastic the concept sounds, is not so far from being realized. Chances are high that in a few years, the degree of physical mobility of the user will no longer matter much for games. In the meantime, craftsmen create a wide variety of equipment for gamers with special needs.

And they do it like special offices like SpecialEffectwhose slogan “It’s everyone’s turn to play” speaks for itself, and large corporations. Take at least Xbox Adaptive Controllerthat looks like the love fruit of a fighting game controller and a DJ console.

Xbox Adaptive Controller

Logitech Adaptive Gaming Kit

Other peripheral manufacturers have devices similar in functionality. And if Hori flex repeats, in essence, the concept of a gadget Microsoft (large controller with convenient enlarged buttons and the ability to connect external devices), then Logitech Adaptive Gaming Kit not even their own building. There is only a rug and a set of controls: large and small buttons and triggers, which are attached to this rug with Velcro. It is enough to arrange everything as it is convenient for you, and you can go to save the world. The issue price is only one hundred dollars: a little more than a standard gamepad.

Not all people with disabilities need special devices for games. Say, Matthew Fink, having neither arms nor legs, copes well with Starcraft 2 using a regular mouse and keyboard

However, more often than not, these units are more expensive than a new console – you cannot afford such entertainment on a Russian disability pension. In addition, manufacturers of universal devices simply cannot provide for the individual needs of each player. Yes, craftsmen create very interesting devices: for example, gamepads that allow you to play shooters with one hand, or universal combo controllers for people with muscular dystrophy. But this is, at best, small-scale, or even just piece, handicraft production.

However, even in this form, these controllers do their job: they allow you to play. And video games can be an excellent means of rehabilitation: there are many touching stories on the Internet. Actually, there is at least one behind each of the gadgets described above.

Minsk resident Alexander Zenko has cerebral palsy, but he plays without hands – with the help of a chin and a regular mouse. Even as hardcore as Super Meat Boy Forever

Video games reduce phantom pain. They are used to restore mental activity after a stroke. They improve the quality of life of children with autism. They are used to try to treat schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, and in general everything in the world – from asthma to stuttering. Yes, a person with quadriplegia is unlikely to be able to play Beat saber… However, the ability to breathe in the mountain air of Skyrim, albeit with virtual lungs, is already a lot for a person who does not leave home on his own. Achieving a result, of course, is not easy, but it is quite possible. Moreover, special video games are often not needed here – it is much more difficult when the player has not the peculiarities of the motor apparatus, but of perception.

Developing games for people with cognitive impairments requires a special approach. Motion sickness, visual overload, or dyslexia are just as much of a problem as awkward controls

Games you haven’t heard of

As you know, a person has as many as five senses. However, most games, for obvious reasons, use only two channels of information transfer: sight and hearing. With projects for people with hearing impairments, everything is more or less clear: there are subtitles and visual signals, and most of the “calm” genres like quests, puzzles or classic RPGs can be played without sound. But what about people who cannot see?

Главная героиня Perception, кажется, видит лишь немногим хуже зрячих

main character Perceptionseems to see only slightly worse than sighted

Blindness in general is not a new topic for game development: people with visual impairments often become the main characters of games. True, most of these projects are quite graphic. Blind, Devil’s Tuning Fork, Perception, Lurking, Blind Drive – they all imitate a person’s blindness with the help of a picture. And the sad irony here is that people with visual disabilities themselves often cannot play them. Another thing is video games invented especially for them.

In this context, even the very word “video games” sounds a little absurd: it would be more correct to call them audio games. There are absolutely no graphs in them – most often projects of this kind manage with a black screen, and sound is responsible for the transmission of key information. Let’s say binaural recording allows you to locate objects in three-dimensional space depending on where they sound from. But often even troubles with binaural sound or multichannel systems are not necessary at all – a normal stereo and good headphones are enough. Well, and the appropriate sound design, of course.

Thematic documentary

And this is where the problems begin for ordinary titles. Developers rarely think that all gameplay events receive proper soundtrack. Let’s say in some World of warcraft you can run in place for at least an hour, buried in a wall – the game itself will not lead an eyebrow. And not to say that the situation has improved from year to year. Although for games it is quite possible to use special software and hardware: screen readers (voice generators) and tactile displays, which will be discussed below. You can play some MUD and text quests in general without a graphical shell. But it’s still a little different – and this is where audio games come into play.

Among them there are very simple projects: for example, in BBBeat you need to catch a bee by ear, and Sonification game – these are five mini-games in the spirit of “smash the piñata” or “hit the target” (of course, also on sound, although there are still graphics here). But there are also more complex things. For example, a console audio adventure Real Sound: Kaze no Regret or stealth dilogy Papa sangre…

Blind Adventurer, a blind streamer from Khabarovsk, on his channel, not only kicks asses of sighted players in Mortal kombat, but also advises games available to people with visual impairments

On the site “Computer technologies for the blind and visually impaired” a considerable section is devoted to games of this format, and the Blind Games portal is completely dedicated to them. For the most part, completely free projects are placed here, the purpose of which is not to make money, but to give the player a little joy. Moreover, among audio games you can find not only some quests or chess, but also shooters, car simulators, strategies and RPGs.

Talking about how it all works is difficult, long and, in general, pointless. Just run A hero’s call or A blind legend, put on your headphones, close your eyes and play. Get a lot of new sensations, I guarantee.

A Blind Legend mobile version is free, but in Steam already have to pay. However, her price is nonsense

But don’t think that blind players were locked up in some kind of ghetto with a bunch of indie crafts. In fact, visually impaired gamers also successfully play graphic projects from RPGs to fighting games, and even stream walkthroughs and fights on YouTube or Twitch. Here we need to say thanks to the correct work with sound: if the authors do everything properly and bring the accessibility of the game to mind, everyone can enjoy it.

Visually impaired people perfectly perceive information by ear, and their memory is stronger than that of sighted people. Therefore, they are quite capable of navigating by sound in games – and the mechanical voice of the narrator, which for most of us merges into a metal mess, is absolutely understandable for the blind. He reads all the inscriptions on the screen several times faster than normal speech – in terms of speed, this method of obtaining information, of course, is inferior to sight, but it allows you to quite calmly use the Internet, find out the names of the game menu items, or even read computer code. Yes, blind people not only play, but write games themselves!

Тактильный дисплей Брайля. Чем больше мест под символы, тем выше, по сути, «разрешение». А с помощью клавиш сверху можно вводить свой текст

Tactile braille display. The more spaces for symbols, the higher, in fact, the “resolution”. And using the keys above you can enter your text

The tactile display is even more interesting: it is a device that transmits text using braille, that is, raised points. Six (or eight – depending on the system) such points, arranged in a special way in two columns, encode a letter, number or punctuation mark. You need to read it with your hands, like ordinary books for the blind. In fact, the fingers completely replace the eyes here.

There are also more advanced systems: for example, eye implants (yes, cyberpunk is already here) or domestic “sound vision” devices, which actually replace visual information with auditory information, creating an analogue of a black and white image in the user’s brain. True, they require training and are not yet very well suited for games – but the trouble is the beginning.

Accessibility often makes video games more convenient for people without disabilities

Of course, most games still offer gamers with special needs more torture than entertainment. But the world – albeit gradually – is still changing. We are not yet able to completely drop all the limitations of our physical bodies and go into the matrix, but to give people with disabilities maximum opportunities to enjoy their favorite hobby is quite. And that’s already something, right?

To get through completely The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, it took a blind gamer five years. Patience and work, patience and work

Alternative controllers

Games you haven’t heard of

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