Creating an Accessible Controller Set-Up | Storeroom Tour

Hi, my name’s Frankie and I’m an occupational therapist here at SpecialEffect.

In this video, we’re going to take a look at the range of equipment that we use here at SpecialEffect to create customised controller set-ups for people. We’re going to do this by having a little tour around our equipment storeroom.

So, obviously, the type of gamepad you’re going to need is going to be dictated by the platform that you’re playing on. And we do use standard controller gamepads a lot of the time.

So sometimes people can use one half of a standard controller. And if they can, we’ll use that within the set-up and we might build on top of that. But sometimes people need something completely different to the standard controller that came with their console.

One thing that we do a lot is we use light-force controllers. These are standard controllers, but what has been done to them is the joysticks and the buttons on them have been made much lighter to press and to use. So these are a really good option for people who have got maybe weakness in their fingers, not a lot of strength. And we can do this with Xbox controllers, we can do it with PlayStation controllers, and we can do it with some Nintendo Switch controllers as well. So we use these a lot with a lot of different people.

Another type of gamepad that we use a lot are made by a company called Evil and they make single-handed controllers.

Here is an example of a PlayStation 5 single-handed controller designed for right-handed use. So again, it looks very similar to just a standard PS5 controller, but what they’ve done is they’ve moved some of the buttons from the left over to the right side and popped them underneath. And they’ve put the left joystick in its own separate housing.

The aim of this is that you can put it somewhere else that you can more easily use it, such as maybe down by the foot or by your chin. And as I said, this is the right-handed version of it. They obviously do a left-handed version and you can get an Xbox version of it as well as well as a PlayStation 4.

Those are some of the ones that we use most frequently, but there’s also a variety of different third-party controllers on the market that might be suitable for you.

Just an example, this is a Nintendo Switch controller made by a company called 8BitDo. Again, it’s what we would call a low-force controller, so the buttons and joysticks are very light. The benefit of this controller is that everything is on top of the controller, so you don’t have to reach around the back for any buttons.

It might be worth looking at slightly different controllers because there’s a variety out there that are slightly different shapes, slightly different sizes that might suit your hands slightly better.

So, the next thing we’re going to look at are controller interfaces. These are devices that we use to plug in things like accessibility switches and joysticks and get them working on the consoles. One that we use a lot at the moment is called the Catch 22. There is a PlayStation version of this, which is this device, and there’s also a Nintendo Switch version as well. What it’s got is jack plugs for accessibility switches for every button on the controller. It’s also got USBs for your joysticks as well.

So, as I mentioned, we use the Nintendo Switch version of that a lot, but the Nintendo Switch has also got a device called the Hori Flex, which is made by a company called Hori. This has got some physical buttons on the top, which you might be able to use. It’s also got the 3.5 mm plugs for your accessibility switches. It’s also got USB ports for your joysticks that you can plug in.

There are two other interfaces that we use a lot. The first one that we’ll look at is the Xbox Adaptive Controller. So, this is made by Microsoft. And like the others, it’s got the 3.5mm jacks for your accessibility switches. You can also plug in joysticks with a 3.5mm jack as well, but you can also plug in USB joysticks. The nice thing about this is it’s made by Microsoft, so it works natively on the console. You don’t need any additional adapters or anything to get it working. You can also remap the buttons and do sort of various other bits in the Xbox accessories app.

Sony have also made their own controller interface called the Access controller. It’s a bit different to the Xbox Adaptive Controller in that it actually comes with an inbuilt joystick and buttons. It does come with some 3.5mm jacks. But it only has four, so you can use two of them together which could potentially give you eight inputs for buttons or potentially joysticks.

Moving on from controller interfaces, we’ll go over and look at accessibility switches, which we can also call buttons. The first one that we’ll look at are buddy buttons. So, buddy buttons are palm-shaped, palm-size switches. You can have as many of these on a tray as you can manage. They come in different colours. And the thing that’s nice with them is you can use any part of your hand. You can use your elbow. You can put them by head.  We put them on the floor by people’s feet as well.

The next size sort of down from buddy buttons are spec switches. These require a similar amount of pressure that buddy buttons do. The benefit of these over the buddy buttons is they’re smaller so you can fit more on a tray potentially or into a smaller space, but you need to just be a little bit more accurate with pressing them.

If we go to the other end of the spectrum, we’ve got ultra-light switches. These are very lightweight buttons. So these are for people who have got limited strength in their fingers. We do sometimes put these on trays sort of in a row or whatever orientation works for you. The other thing that you can do with these because they’re small is you can actually Velcro them to the controller.

It would also be worth mentioning the Logitech Adaptive Gaming Kit that comes with a variety of different switches, buttons inside. Some of the main ones that we use from this kit are the Logitech light switch. These are a similar size to the ultra-light switches, but they’re not as lightweight as the ultra-light switch is. They’re great if you want a small switch, but not necessarily that lightweight. They also have a small button which is the same sort of size as a spec switch and they have a medium  button which is the same size as a buddy button.

If we’re getting a little bit more specialist with the switches, we sometimes use what’s called a sip-puff switch. This is basically a tube that sits in the mouth and if you blow on the tube it will activate one button. If you suck on it, it will activate another one. There are different switches as well. There are wobble switches, bite switches, lever switches… but these are the main ones that we use here.

Moving on from the switches, we’re now going to look at some of the joysticks that we use. We’ll start off by looking at the smaller sort of thumb-stick style joysticks.

A company called Celtic Magic make a variety of different joysticks that we use here. This is a J2 joystick and they also make a J3 version. The joysticks are very similar, but the J2 has just got a bigger base than the J3 and the J3 is at a slight angle. Both of these joysticks come in standard force, which would feel like a joystick on a standard controller, but they also have a low-force version as well.

So again, if you had sort of limited strength in your fingers, you might want to go for a low-force version of these joysticks. Sticking with the Celtic Magic joysticks, they’ve recently brought out a very low-force joystick, which again looks similar to the other ones, but it’s lower force than the low-force version of the joysticks I just showed you.

And then even lighter force, Celtic Magic also make a feather joystick. So, as far as we’re aware, this is the lightest joystick available. It’s very, very low force. It only needs a tiny little bit of movement to move. And you can get this as a mouse version and as a joystick for use in the Xbox Adaptive Controller and things like that.

Moving on to bigger joysticks. These types of joysticks are good for people who have got good gross movement who find fine motor a bit tricky. OneSwitch make a Zik-Zak joystick. This is the Zik-Zak metal version and it’s got a nice big base, which means it’s nice and secure when it’s on a tray. The joystick looks and feels very much like a joystick on a wheelchair. And it comes with some different toppers which might suit you better.

If you want this joystick with a slightly smaller base, there’s also the Zik-Zak Mini, which looks like this.

We also from OneSwitch buy their UltraStik joystick. Some people might sort of put buttons on this as well, if you wanted a button that was very close to the top of the joystick. But again, you can request a golf ball top or a U-shaped top with these. And one thing I should add is that the joysticks I’ve shown, these bigger joysticks are all USB.

Just thought it’d be good to mention this Xbox adaptive joystick. This is made by Microsoft and it is a joystick that comes with six buttons as well that you can remap. You can plug it directly into the Xbox or you can use it through the Xbox Adaptive Controller, and you can remap the buttons and things in the Xbox accessories app.

There are also some sort of PC versions of these joysticks as well. So, there’s mouse joysticks, WSD joysticks,you can get thumb-stick style and the bigger style joysticks as well. If you’re a PC gamer, there are also some options out there for that.

Moving on from joysticks, we’ll have a look at mounting because it’s important that if you go out and buy joysticks and buttons and controllers and things, you might need to actually secure them and position them in a way that you can use them more easily. So, starting off, we have a variety of different sized trays, from very small to medium to bigger trays.

These flat trays are very good for sitting on a desk or a table, or if you’ve got a wheelchair tray in situ. And you can kind of position your joysticks and buttons on top of those. If you want something to go directly on your lap, we use these Trabasack trays. You’ve got a padded bottom and the top is flat. And you can attach Velcro to this. So again, you just Velcro your buttons and your joysticks onto this tray.

The Logitech Adaptive Gaming Kit that I mentioned earlier comes with a variety of buttons, but it also comes with a couple of different trays. So, it comes with one of these sort of firm, small flat trays. It also comes with this flexible tray, which can be really useful if you, say, for example, wanted to put a button on the arm of a chair or a joystick on the arm of a chair, or if you sort of wanted it on your lap or over a leg or something. It’s just a little bit more secure than having a flat tray that wobbles, so these are really useful.

For slightly heavier duty mounting options, we have these Manfrotto Variable Friction Arms. These are adjustable and they have a clamp which you would clamp to a table or the person’s chair or some sort of solid item of furniture. And it means that you can then really precisely position equipment for the person. So, they’re really good if you want a very solid option, but also if you want positioning that’s a little bit more delicate. If it needs to be in a more specific position for the person, you might want to think about using one of these instead.

One thing that we use all the time is Velcro. We use Velcro on the bottom of switches. We use Velcro on the bottom of joysticks because it holds them really securely, but it means that you can also move them.

Another thing that we use a lot is called Dual Lock. We use it a lot on mounting plates if we’re going to attach a joystick to it, because it just holds the joystick more securely than standard Velcro might.

So, the last thing that we’re going to talk about are games. The type of game that you’re going to play is going to massively impact the sort of set-up you’re going to need. Some games are very complicated and they need two joysticks and every button on the controller, where some games you might only need one joystick and one button, for example. It’s going to really determine the amount of additional equipment you’re going to need.

The other thing that we spend a lot of our time doing with games is actually looking at the inbuilt setting that the game has itself. Because a lot of games have things built in that might make the gameplay a bit easier, might reduce the amount of controls that you need. So, it’s always worth having a look in the settings of the game.

One game that we use a lot here is EAFC. It’s got a one- and a two-button mode in it, which means that you can basically play the game with just one joystick and one button or one joystick and two buttons. So, it just means that if someone can’t access a whole controller that they most likely will be able to play this game completely independently.

Another example are the Forza games. For example, you can put the  accelerating and braking all onto the left joystick, which means that you could completely control the car steering, accelerating, just with one joystick, which means that if you can only use one joystick, you can actually fully drive the car around in-game.

Thank you for watching this video. We hope you found it helpful to see some of the range of equipment that we use here at Special Effect.

If you’d like more information, we have a range of videos that talk about some of the equipment that we use on the current generation of consoles in a bit more detail. The links to these are in the description below.