Using special adaptive controllers, IndependenceFirst has devised a gaming system that allows people with a wide range of disabilities to enjoy the thrill of entering video game worlds, everything from the sci-fi first-person shooter game Halo to a more mellow experience playing Abzû, a game that lets you swim along to explore the ocean. The controls allow more than one person to participate in playing the game at the same time. The benefits of game time are many, as Off the Cuff learned when we sat down with IndependenceFirst’s Christopher Hege, youth leadership coordinator, and Gerald Hay, Independent Living Services program manager.

Tell us more about this special game system.

C.H.: We’ve developed an adaptive gaming program to address the needs of anyone that wants to join in gaming. The typical controller needs both hands, full dexterity of all your fingers. What’s nice is Microsoft released the adaptive controller which teases out all the different buttons, all the different functions, so we can isolate them.

We worked with Microsoft and used our existing assistive technology library. We explored ways we can support people that have different abilities. People that are just utilizing their upper body, we’ve isolated controls where they can engage in video gaming, grip grasp, fine motor concerns. We’ve identified games that are good for low vision, low hearing, no hearing and no vision.

G.H.: This is kind of a nice way to highlight what we’re trying to do to show assistive technology doesn’t have to be stigmatized, it can be fun. It’s opening doors, so by using this we’re educating people that there are tools for anything you might want to do.

How is video gaming beneficial to people with disabilities?

C.H.: The greatest resource I see is the access to social capital. The idea that there’s a whole community that I can hop online and in two minutes be interacting with someone who is on the other side of the country or the world and get visibility too—like on Twitch, which is a video streaming service of gameplay, which can increase visibility massively.

E-sports are huge. Marquette just announced their Tier 1 e-sports league, so we have it at college level but also participant level. E-sports are amazing, it’s scheduled to double in size by the end of this year, so people with disabilities can access that platform for visibility and participation. There’re opportunities for tuition and higher education, there’s opportunities for personal growth and participating in community.

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G.H.: Having that “I can achieve something, I can have this set level of success,” whether it’s calming or just that sense of leisure or recreation, if you think about the things that make you you, yeah the work you do is important, but the way you express, or deal with stress is, too. You can express yourself and a lot of the limitations or barriers you might face in your day-to-day life aren’t going to found here.

We do a lot of social learning here, teamwork, problem solving. Video games let people win and not to be too dark or morbid here, you can die over and over in a video game until you succeed. In the real world, you don’t have those opportunities. If you fail, you’re done, whereas in this world you can build emotional resiliency. “I can fail and it’s ok.” It’s not just about video games—it’s about a tool that allows you to do other things.

For more information on IndependenceFirst’s open houses and video game open play nights, email gaming@independencefirst.org and check out their website, independencefirst.org, to make a donation.