Taking Control

Video games are a funny thing. If I were to ask the average young gamer if gaming was an accessible hobby they would probably say 'definitely' or 'what does accessible mean?'. And I'm not talking about cost, I'm talking about the simple matter of 'can anyone play video games?'. Sadly, the answer is not the simple 'yes' I'd like it to be. The fact is that anyone who is deaf, color blind, or has some limitation to their motor skills is going to have a very hard time picking up most video games.



Check out this story at the escapist: Click Here For Story



It's so sad to me that an 'old person' got into gaming only to be stopped by disease and crap controllers (damn you N64, we all hated that thing). To me gaming kept me alive as I moved across the country, spending year after year in new schools. If I hadn't had Mario, Zelda and a host of other favorites to play I probably would never have had any medium for making friends. Most kids aren't big readers.




But I digress, I've always felt that the best thing about gaming is that no matter who you are, where you are, or what you do - you can always pick up a controller to play. Yes, cost is a limiting factor but pretty much anyone with a job in a developed country can afford a gaming system and a couple games. We can tackle poverty and world hunger next week.



Not long after that article was printed in the Escapist the NY Times posted this article: You May Need to Sign Up




Of course the motive may be a bit different than 'developing for disabled people', but old people are sort of disabled by default right? (don't kill me, mom). Anyway, if hardware developers are taking a look at targeting a wider audience, hopefully disabled people will fall under the canopy of their attention.


There are so many things in this world that disabled people can't do. Video games just shouldn't be one of them.