How a small team is helping to move accessibility forward, one thumbstick at a time
"It's a no-brainer."
What's the state of accessibility in games at the moment? When it comes to console platform holders, two of the three main players have made serious contributions. The release of the PlayStation Access Controller in 2023 was a thoughtful response to at least some of the barriers presented by the Sony's controllers, allowing players to remap buttons to better suit their needs. And since 2018, Microsoft's Xbox Adaptive Controller has allowed players to customise inputs with remarkable granularity.
This has made me think deeply about accessibility over the past few months, specifically about what other approaches might provide real advancements for players with disabilities. Maybe it's less a question of the advancements but who might be making them. Is progress still reliant on a radical shift in thinking by corporate giants, or is there room for innovations from smaller organisations, third-parties and start-ups?
Crucially, is there more that can be done to transform the experience of using the standard controllers that consoles already come with? Taking Sony as an example, the current PlayStation controller cannot be adapted out of the box. Many disabled players without the Access Controller will be stuck if they struggle to use the DualSense, due to the shape and size of it, or if they lack the muscle strength to move the sticks or physically press a button.
But this area is exactly where a handful of companies like Thumb Soldiers are making a difference. Last year I sat down with David Chapman, an inventor and the founder of Thumb Soldiers, to talk about his work, and the solution he offers for the lack of control many disabled players face with their own out-of-the-box gaming setups.
Thumb Soldiers wants to disrupt what it sees as the current "one size fits all" mentality in controller design. Rather than creating full adaptive controllers that allow for button remapping, it seeks to empower players to modify their own controllers to suit the games they're playing and their physical abilities.
The team does this by exploring a hidden niche in accessibility: controller adaptations for the sticks, equipping players with a new range of tools to allow them to play their way. I can't help but believe that thinking like this, and products that emerge from it, should be the first port of call for disabled players who require assistance. After all, it's stressful and disheartening to face accessibility issues preventing you from enjoying a beloved hobby.
I always measure the level of compassion in my interviewees with the question: Why is accessibility important to you? "It's a no-brainer," Chapman tells me when we chat. "If you can [do something about it], why wouldn't you? It's not from being disabled myself or having a sibling who requires accessibility products, it's just something that's obvious to me. As soon as the idea for the product was born, one of my first thoughts was, 'How can this be used to help gamers who need assistance with their gaming?' I wanted to help those that may struggle to enjoy the things I enjoy."
I ask Chapman if Thumb Soldiers initially set out to enter the gaming accessibility industry. The answer is: not exactly. "The very first design was the steering wheel [attachment]," he explains. This is, like all Thumb Soldiers creations, a device that clips onto the analogue sticks of a controller to give the player more options and control. "It was not necessarily intended as an assistive product." Chapman sees Thumb Soldiers as being unique in the accessibility space for this reason: "We are not solely an accessibility product, nor are we a non-accessibility product," he explains. "We simply have an inclusive product range...to suit a user's requirements best."
That Racer kit is a case in point. With its mounted ring attachment, It's useful for racing games in general, and it's advantageous to many gamers due to the security it provides by allowing the user to insert their thumb into the ring element and therefore prevent the thumb from slipping off the thumbstick. "Likewise," Chapman says, "the sticks [attachments], though designed for gamers with limited dexterity, also allows gamers to interact with the controller like a retro joystick, or for games requiring controlled inputs."
The Racer kit is now joined by other product lines such as precision attachments for the likes of FPS games, and the wonderfully named Shrooms kit, which provides a bigger surface area to the sticks for players with conditions like multiple sclerosis, arthritis and cerebral palsy. I would have benefitted from using stick extensions or differently shaped attachments like this when I first detected issues with gaming when I was younger. It's a reminder that struggling to play games when you love the artform can make for a lonely and depressing time. You can feel like the world is against you.
Accessibility products require collaboration and testing, which is where gaming charities such as Special Effect or Everyone Can often come in, offering vital knowledge and experience and feedback. I ask Chapman whether experts like this have been of use. "We contacted Special Effect early in the development of the products," he says. "As soon as we had trial kits to send out, Special Effect was one of the first to receive them, and the feedback we received was overwhelming. It was so important to get that feedback from those guys." It sounds like it went well. "To hear how positively they referred to what we were doing, how well the product works, the quality of the product, we knew we were absolutely onto something special."
The controller adaptation field is currently in its infancy, but it has the scope to improve gaming for disabled gamers. While Thumb Soldiers can provide stick attachments already, being able to adapt buttons or triggers would clearly be the next step, and is one that other teams are already experimenting with. And the accessibility space will still require the aid of gaming charities such as Special Effect for serious adaptations such as soft-press buttons. Still, Thumb Soldiers would be a great way for a disabled player to enter the realm of accessibility and find some semblance of hope again.
As I look over Thumb Soldier's line-up, I realise that, ultimately, accessibility innovations don't have to be radical. Innovation can come from someone at home playing a video game who happens to have a small idea. And it can often be these small ideas, which may be considered simple to some, that can provide the greatest result.