Nintendo's Revolution offers hope for disabled gamers

by James Ransom-Wiley { Jan 30th 2006 at 1:30PM }

With the possibility that many Revolution titles will be controllable with one hand, comes hope from disabled gamers like Travis Taft. Taft, who suffered a spinal-cord injury while body surfing, retains strong use of his right hand, but he is unable to use a standard two-handed gamepad because of his left. Taft is confident that when the Revolution is introduced into the market (presumably later this year), he'll be able to resume his lifelong passion for gaming.

[Thanks, JaSoN]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Nintendo @ Feb 20th 2006 12:25AM

i think the revolution will work well in that situation. It would be nice if developers payed more attenion to deaf and blind gamers too.

Kevin @ Mar 7th 2006 1:52AM

I'd like to comment on Rob Merritt' post there.

I don't know why, but it's always seemed to me like Nintendo has always been the only game company that genuinely cared about it's customers. I've owned all their systems and have had virtually no bad experiences with them. Microsoft, on the other hand, has had the defective systems/ $100 repair fee deal going on, and Sony... well, like it was pointed out, Sony just seems to ignore people (Maybe that's why Everquest 2 turned out to be worse than the first one...).

Anyways, it seems like the only explanation is that Nintendo comes straight out of a country that ISN'T Capitalist. Oddly enough, I used to think that Sony worked on the same principles, being under the impression that they were originally from Japan also. So basically, I'd like to take a moment off of my gaming to say thanks to Nintendo, for caring about giving their systems durability, comfort, and generally superior quality even amid their success as a business.

David @ Jan 30th 2006 1:38PM

Hey thats cool for Taft, must be a shame not to be able to play games because of sometihng like that.

KEvin @ Jan 30th 2006 1:52PM

this is why i like this controller a lot, its innovative and now everyone can play a videogame handicapped or not .

Draco @ Jan 30th 2006 1:52PM

This is good news for Travis, however I am afraid it may be a false hope he's falling into, because what happenes when developpers start demanding players use the nunchuck controls to play almost every game? then he will be in the same place he is now, but with a taste of what he's been missing

also you guys should remove the "s" at the end of gamers and make it gamer, brings the story closer to homoe

Gareth @ Jan 30th 2006 2:03PM

"its innovative and now everyone can play a videogame handicapped or not."

People who can't control either arm or who have lost both hands will be pleased to know that.

Mike Street @ Jan 30th 2006 2:06PM

Well even if he's not able to play EVERY title there should be titles he can play. Gaming should be for everyone. But we will have to wait and see how it all pans out. I'm sure there are disable peeps out there rocking mad points on pac man with just a joystick and the love for gaming.

James @ Jan 30th 2006 2:10PM

This is good news for people like Taft, definitely. But I would say for myself this is bad news. I have incredibly poor dexterity and am begining to suffer a little from Tremors (and Hell, I'm only 22), so subtle motions are really hard for me. I can do anything digitial, but analog motions (anything where I have to slightly tilt a control stick, for instance) start to give me trouble. Suffice to say I thoroughly suck at any FPS (actually, it's not too bad if I can use a mouse and brace my arm against something). It's a minor annoyance (though it'll probably get worse through the years), but the thought of having a controller dependent on subtle motions is not pleasant for me. And similarly, it can't be good for older gamers that also have dexterity trouble.

Michael K @ Jan 30th 2006 2:10PM

Always nice to hear a bit of news like this. Little things increasing peoples quality of life beats "New FIFA game announced!" any day.

Tyler J. Smith @ Jan 30th 2006 2:11PM

Eh, this can be looked at from a different perspective as well. While it might provide hope for *some* of us with disabilities, it's rather disheartening for others. I've been meaning to write something up about this in a blog post, but just haven't gotten around to it.

I have Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and am 21. Meaning, for the most part, my mobility is quite limited to the extent that while I retain control of my hands and wrists for the moment, that might not always be true. But, with advancements in mouse technology, I can adjust the sensitivity and even the weight of the mouse itself.

The thing that concerns me is that if the 'future' of gaming is bound to go the route of the Revolution controller, those of us who have restricted movement might be left without a way to game ourselves. Much like I can't use the Eye Toy for the PS2, similarly, I won't be able to use the motion sensitive Revolution controller.

It should be interesting. Perhaps the next step after this is actually placing our minds into the physical framework of the games. That would be a treat :)

DCSimian @ Jan 30th 2006 2:27PM

There is never going to be a controller that everyone in the world can use, unless tapping directly into the brain, and even that may not work in some cases. But it is cool that Travis has a shot at playing more games again. Kind of an unsung issue. I'm sure Nintendo didn't design it for that population in mind, but it seems to be a nice added bonus.

Lee @ Jan 30th 2006 2:49PM

I to have Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy i use 1 hand on all my pads i buy every console but im dreading the rev controller the game companies dont give a shit about us

Matthew @ Jan 30th 2006 2:51PM

I think something important to remember is that Nintendo has stated they are trying to give flexibility of the control schemes. In other words, you could potentially have a setup of Twighlight Princess with a standard GC Controller, a Rev Controller with the attachment, or the Rev Controller exclusively. This might help in alleviating the concerns of those who use a controller now but couldn't use the wand, or vice versa. Also, we haven't seen a working copy of , so we don't know how configurable the new Rev controller will be. You might be able to set it to scale for the amount of mobility and precision (or lack thereof) the end user needs.
Since the people here are bloggers, I assume that you don't mind a little typing. Something I can say about software development is that ideas are best implemented early. I've seen this article several times today so it appears to be generating some industry buzz. If I were in your shoes, I would make sure to let the major developers(especially the ones that make games you like) know as early as possible what control schemes will work for you along with what currently doesn't. Make sure you make it a business case though. You want them to understand they can increase their sales by including the functionality, that's always better than an emotional plea. You never know, you could be the start of another kind of 'revolution' where the industry starts catering to your needs because they know it can mean bigger sales and higher profits.

Paul @ Jan 30th 2006 3:21PM

this says nothing of waht one handed gaming could do for the pornography market.

lop_posse @ Jan 30th 2006 3:50PM

I work in a home for persons with disabilities. One of the tenants is paralyzed on one side of his body due to him pushing a kid out of the way of a moving car and getting hit himself. He is always interested in video games and was excited when I told him Nintendo was coming out with a controller that could be used with one hand.

Jed Merrill @ Jan 30th 2006 4:00PM

Could a third party hardware manufacturer create modified controllers you can control with your feet or teeth or other disabled styles? I am not disabled, but I would like to see this. I think disabled people have a lot to contribute to society and ought to be rewarded as well.

Jed Merrill @ Jan 30th 2006 5:26PM

The other big story with this controller is its appropriateness for left handed people. You can always reverse the order of the controller and nunchuck attachment if you are left instead of right handed! 100% ambidextrous. :)

jopojelly @ Jan 30th 2006 6:28PM

Actually, a few months ago I sliced my finger almost off, and my arm was in a cast, so I was thinking, "cool, one handed gaming!". My finger already healed, but I still cant use the L button as i use to.

soco @ Jan 30th 2006 7:42PM

i think it's going to alienate more disabled gamers than it'll help simply because of the range of motion needed to perform some of the actions. i've met a few people with various types paralysis or immobility of some sort, and none of them could use it. a few could use older controllers because they had fewer buttons and didn't need anything beyond basic finger mobility.

J Fish @ Jan 30th 2006 11:58PM

I kinda felt really happy when the ipod shuffle was first introduced for pretty much the same reasons. My nephew is nearly blind but loves music. I thought the shuffle was perfect for him because he doesnt need a screen and menus would be too complicated to navigate. I got hima shuffle. He loves it. I hope Travis finds joy in the Revolution.

Bowser @ Jan 31st 2006 7:34AM

On the NES Nintendo made a controller for parapelegics..... u like blew into the controller and bit a certain part to control it I believe......

Rob Merritt @ Jan 31st 2006 9:01AM

I'm disabled and a life long gamer. My disability is my right is is 60 to 95% paralyzed for the most part.

Damage to one hand is the number one disability in the US. Mostly from an accident on the job or stroke. Mine was from a stroke suffered shortly after birth during an operation to work on my defective heart. The percentage in adult males is 15%. This is a selfish point of view, but I think targeting a male population that is unable to game to remove barriers to gaming would be profitable.

I don't think that a special controller is even really required. Though making available for purchase a nonstandard controller that duplicated buttion function on the front and back would probably be benifical to both abled and disabled gamers alike. There are a few things that could be done with little effort or cost that could improve things dramaticaly.

Make the controller completely programmable. For the 360, I imagine a dash board add on would be the best option for the 360. I don't mean just a few control schemes to pick from because often, they suck. If I want to make the x buttion take the L2 function, let me chose that. I don't care if I lose the ability to have an analog function, if I can't reach L2, its ability to do analog means nothing to me. Its much easier for me to cope with having to tap X for finer control that to get to an analog button that means I'll lose the ability to control my character. There was a controller for the Xbox that allowed amazing control programmablity. It was the ThrustMaster Firestorm. You could even program the analog sticks with button functions if you wanted to. It had a habit of braking, it was larger than the original xbox controller, and thrustmaser dropped it from their line up fairly quickly.

The default use of analog sticks generally annoy me to no end. I can really only control one at a time. If game companies really want me to use the triggers to fire, here is my suggetion: Make it so I can set the left analog stick to be (forward - back - turn right - turn left). I know how important straffing is but really, I can work around it. I played dozens if not hundreds of PC fps and third person shooters without hardly ever strafing

Another useful feature would be to adjust the sensitivity of the controller. Some have limited use of a hand but lack some fine motor controls. They find that often the game with do something they didn't want because they accident fit a buttion of nudged an analog stick slightly when they were trying to use another fuction. Or on the other side, they might have problems with gross motor controls so having the sensitivty jacked up would allow them to perform functions that might just be out of their range.

Oddly enough, for the 360, Quake 4 does all this within game. So kudos to ID.

Anyways, I decided to contact the three major gaming companies to express my general concerns about disabilities and gaming in general.

Microsoft - I recieved several nice emails from different people at Microsoft. The over all feeling I got was they couldn't do anything to improve the 360 experience at this time. I figured some sort of blade on the dashboard could be used to configure the controller but apparently the logic communicating with the controller is deeper that that. I'm not sure if that was BS or not because you can turn controllers to "southpaw" mode from dashboard. They said that a third party controller that allowed some reprogramming is in development but they said they couldn't give me details but keep my eyes open.

Nintendo - I got a phone call from Nintendo of America. They have a small staff that deals just with ability issues. We talked about what they could do with the gamecube. I can handle the gamecube controller well enough. We talked off the record about the Revolution controller. All I'm going to say is I must own a Revolution. Range of motion is probably going to be less of an issue than people think.

Sony -

Thats right. Nothing. Not even a generic automatically generated PR message. I imagine I haven't found the right point of contact yet. At least thats what I hope is happening.

So I think if you are disabled, the nintendo system should be the system to watch.

Tim Childree @ Jan 31st 2006 12:30PM

I actually have a neighbour who lost his left hand in a car accident about ten years ago. He was and is an avid gamer, and he refused to allow the loss of his hand to stop him. He has taught himself to play effectively with one hand, and he can hold his own in Halo, Forza Motorsport, and Street Fighter III, just to name a few games. He also carries a Game-Boy Advance SP to work with him every night to play during down-time.

Could controllers be made to better accomodate his disability? Absolutely, but just because he has lost the use of one hand doesn't mean he has to quit gaming.