Three years ago at the annual internal hackathon, a modest team of designers created the first Microsoft Adaptive Controller for Xbox intended for people with disabilities. A lot of Microsoft employees showed interest in building a gamepad that will allow people with limited mobility to play video games.

Before Xbox Adaptive Controller, there basically wasn’t any gaming company that offers consoles for people with disabilities, although some thought about developing consoles. This inspired Mark Barlet to found organization AbleGamers which is dedicated in making gaming accessible to people with disabilities. Based on their information, there are over 30 million disabled gamers in the US and they have a hard time playing games that require the use of standard controllers let alone those with more complicated controls which require a combination of several buttons.

Before Xbox Adaptive Controller, people with a disability used so-called switches which are operated with several parts of the body. These devices are expensive, look like medical devices and tend to be large. Other than that, those who can’t afford switches learned to manage differently like, for example, Michael Philip Begum who used his cheek and tongue to play Street Fighter competitively. With 2010, 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, companies are obliged by law to make devices that are suitable for people with disabilities as well. Thus Sony upgraded accessibility settings on PlayStation 4 and EA released sports video game Madden 17 which had color-blind graphics support.

But it was in 2016 that Xbox had the opportunity with the help from AbleGamers to start the work on the development of the first controller for people with disabilities. The developers based their work on feedback from disabled gamers who gave insight on the pros and cons of using switches and standard controllers. These gamers were also privy on the first drafts and prototypes which helped even more in the development phase.

Today, Xbox Adaptive Controller is in the market and is available for people with limited mobility even those with spinal cord injuries. It costs $100 and works with titles on Windows 10 as well. It can be connected to QuadStick which allows quadriplegic gamers to play a game via sip or puff. It is also adaptable to accommodate functioning parts of the body and features the Shift mode as well which is intended for a change of function of the button during the game.

This device is far from perfect and there is still a way to go to create a controller that will cover most if not all disability groups. But until then, this is a small victory that certainly changed the gaming experience for gamers with disabilities. And the best thing about all this is that other companies are working on their adaptive controllers as well, like Sony and Nintendo.