Accessibility is an important step in the game design process. When designing a video game, one should keep in mind that no one person is the same, and some might be at a mental, physical, or biological disadvantage to those that play your game as an average consumer. One needs to think about what kind of limitations there could be when playing through your game, what if the player needs a guide to help them through the game like waypoints and quest markers on a compass? Sometimes the issue might rely with hardware. Standard game controllers require two hands with two thumbs and two index fingers in order to play a game, however, what if the player was missing a digit? What if hey were missing an entire hand?

To solve this issue, in 2009, the charity AbleGamers worked alongside Evil Controllers, a custom game controller manufacturer to design one of the first adaptive controllers to simulate a Dualshock 3 and a 360 Gamepad. The result was the Adroit Switchblade, a small black box complete with 3.5mm ports mapped to every input of the controller. AbleGamers state on their page “Our efforts would lead to a big push in the community for accessibility as gamers with severe muscular and physical disabilities, such as muscular dystrophy, would be able to play video games for the first time…”.

In May 17, 2018, Microsoft would unveil their new “Xbox Adaptive Controller” (XAC), announced on Global Accessibility Awareness Day. The Xbox Adaptive Controller works with both PC and Xbox One and uses the same 3.5mm jack system as the Adriot Switchblade, the difference being now the Xbox Adaptive Controller has two touchpads that can be mapped to any input. The device also includes a switch for three custom profiles that could be set for different games to allow for easier inputs with some depending on the type of game and their controls. The price of the device is $100, making it 1/3 cheaper than the Adriot Switchblade. The Xbox Adaptive Controller to-date is the most innovative and cost-effective method for hardware accessibility in games to-date.

Source: https://ablegamers.org/xbox-adaptive-controller-the-evolution-of-accessibility/