PlayStation Access Controller Review - Access-Ability

[@JuliaBirks]

Brilliant review, thanks so much for sharing your really thorough insight into what this controller is capable of.

[@disabledcable685]

It is clear as day to me that this thing was made with a design focus in mind, aka form over function and it pisses me off as a gd cripple w/1 arm. I'm happy for the ppl it might help, but as you pointed out, until the big three actually work together on this huge problem, most of us disabled gamers will never be happy. Maybe there is no one perfect solution but w/o 3rd party support for specific peripherals and no pc functionality this thing is basically useless for me. Xbox AC works on everything and with almost anything you can dream up, it might require the most setup, but ease of use only counts for actual gaming imho. Idgaf if I have to use a knife to open the box I just wanna play games and forget imma gd cripple for a few hours.... The ironic thing is something you showed throughout is that you could play Street Fighter w/ only 1 of those new controllers. I mainly play on pc w/mmo mouse and a 4 button footboard and I can literally play everything but fighting games(racing games I use a G27 when I can be assed to hook it up), it is somewhat doable on my switch w/ an 8BitDo 1handed controller, which also works great on Steam(thanks Valve!) Sorry for the messy mini essay, I felt the need to rant a bit, I wanted to thank you for this review and also say Fuck You to Sony, next time ask for help instead of being so dead set on a defined look!

[@LauraKBuzz]

No appology needed for the mini essay, and thanks for sharing. Yeah, I was a fair bit more harsh on some of these points in my preview, as that felt more like the right place to talk broadly about hypothetical use cases others might come up against that didn't personally impact me, but my core issue with this controller is that it didn't need to be this limited in scope. I genuinely believe a version of this controller with 20 3.5mm ports and a couple of USB inputs would have been the best of both worlds, a device that works out the box without external inputs for a subset of users, but for others it could still function as a hub for external inputs to customise setups. Literally, the only reason I see not to include more 3.5mm ports it arrogance, a belief they didn't need to, the device was so revolutionary ion design the ports "wouldn't be needed". The end result is a device that is an elegant solution if it works for someone like me, reducing barriers between myself and its use, but that does so at the extent of anyone for whom the buttons are too stiff, or close together, or not spread out and custom enough. I tried to keep my review more on my own use case generally, but even then, I used up all four 3.5mm ports just trying to add a D-Pad. That kind of limitation was so unecessary. I am sorry this isn't going to be a good fit for you, I understand that frustration, and hope some day a revision with more ports releases that makes this something useful for you.

[@atomicred7766]

Thank you for this review. This is the first review I've seen that came out and showed a way to deal with only one stick that still works. I'm a gamer with severely limited use of my right hand, so this could be quite helpful, but I don't really want to use 2 units. I appreciate you discussing layouts that work. Sometimes total customization feels very daunting

[@nothingisawesome]

awesome review, games requiring camera movement have been my biggest question with the controller. appreciate the info

[@jonahdza]

I'm seriously considering to buy this controller, not because of disability, but because it seems like a nice official alternative to fighting games controllers. But I haven't seen any fighting games channel cover it. I'm glad to hear that it does feel like an arcade controller. That's kind of like what I'm looking for.

[@davidharraway8131]

Thanks for the honest review! there are a couple of options now if people do need lower force or want to use their own existing joysticks alongside the Access Controller. For low force joysticks - Celtic Magic in the UK make their J2 and J3 models which plug in via the E1-E4 switch ports and are detected ok by the game in the setups. For using your own USB joystick you need to get a big fancier and grab a version of the open source project HID Remapper. This is essentially a wired hub that you can assign functions to which also connects to the Access Controller E1-E4 ports....it isn't detected as a cheat like some of the other commercial grade interface boxes are as it's a wired solution. Really Sony as a mega Corporation with multi billion dollar profits should have included usb ports as gamers have strong preferences and needs - they are a bit cheeky saying this is a truly accessible controller when it has the kinds of limitations you identify. Just great that someone in the community has already figured out a workaround- I hope this continues to be possible.

[@RannekoPlays]

It would be great if it was possible to have a whole range of accessibility controllers across all platforms. The problems, such as they are with the PlayStation Access Controller, would be significantly mitigated if both it and the xbox accessibility controller were cross platform.

[@OneSwitch]

Excellent review. Learned a lot from this, thank you. Do you know if you can map the PS/Home button to any input? And, is that right that you can't remap the Profile button to one of the 3.5mm switch/joystick sockets? Are there cross-headed screws on the bottom of the Access controller? Wondering how easy to pull apart. I would think the Titan Two will need an update to recognise the Access controller.

[@selishady2307]

Thank you for the video. Could you explain exactly what you did to quickly set the camera behind your character without changing profiles? I can't seem to figure it out

[@youtubeuniversity3638]

Imagine if the access controller became the default controller that games were built around.

[@zozihn8047]

This would be ideal. It just makes sense.

[@Crappytextan]

@@zozihn8047 wtf

[@webdeveloper4742]

Do you need two of these to play 3d immesive games? Very imformative review, answered my questions too.

[@mikedaddy316]

can you add a second joystick for cam angles through the 3.5 jack?

[@youtubeuniversity3638]

I wonder what kinda port setups people are gonna do for challenges instead of for accessability.

[@ImmortalCrabman]

Does anyone know if the access controller can be used in combination with the PSVR2?

[@zozihn8047]

Thanks for the review. I'd like to point out that the 8BitDo Ultimate Software for my Pro 2 allows me to swap the Dpad and Left Stick. The fact that this new access controller cannot do that is annoying to hear, to say the least. I don't even use that specific functionality, the principle of it is just annoying. I have a Lite SE and Pro 2 G Classic (different Dpad than other colors). The resistance levels on the Pro 2 is my absolute physical limit for comfort and fatigue. As a PC player, it seems I will be staying with 8BitDo and looking into the XAC. Maybe if the industry moves further towards this style of controller 8BitDo will make their own version that works on everything.

[@MrJgame22]

Hello Laura, Apologies that this comment has nothing to do with the video, but I didn't know of a more appropriate place to reach out to you regarding this. In Splatoon 3, there has been a recent new season update to the game that has added new weapons. Among these new weapons includes a new Special called the Splattercolour Screen. It's intended to function as a sort of smokescreen. However, those hit by it have their screen greyed out. Currently in the Splatoon 3 community, some disabled gamers have been experiencing pain due to its effects, as well as being disproportionately more difficult on colourblind players, to the point where there is debate in the competitive scene to ban the Splattercolour for the sake of accessibility. While I'm a Splatoon player, I struggle to understand why it would be so problematic for disabled gamers. I would very much appreciate if you could look into this and make a video to raise awareness on the issue. Thank you very much.

[@yourboyphil]

Hi, I had a question for you. So I had a stroke on my right side Eat right hand I can only play with my My left hand do you think there's a controller with help or what I need both hands still to play it

[@danielisbell]

Honestly, if you can find a decent left hand or ambi flight stick with 4 buttons, that plus a hub solution like the XBox one for foot controls might give you the best versatility. I don't know if the XBox hub allows you to toggle the joystick between left & right stick on the fly, but it might. They have good documentation of its capabilities on the website. Note, I have no personal experience with accessibility focused controllers. I've just looked into it out of curiosity.

[@yourboyphil]

I forgot to say that I really only wanted to play Call of Duty. So do you think this would be a good bye

[@meander112]

Review for the review throne!

[@DisFooTV93]

I wish an actual quadriplegic or someone with limited hand function. Could do a review on these. It’s not the same when someone’s reviewing it can move their fingers or doesn’t come off disabled in that sense. No offense to the reviewer.

[@MrTheTROLL1323]

I’m a quadriplegic with the access controller. It’s a great effort but not really very practical.

[@yourboyphil]

Could you play call of duty the new one and tell me if it's able to play with one hand and I will watch it please

[@babylonianhell306]

i want to test them too...instead of normal controller and like an old joyboard...but the i realized that you need two of them...lol

[@yunuhenivanochoacarrillo2551]

Hello what abaut warzone.?

[@Ruby_Mullz]

I’m just visually impaired, so this controller doesn’t really have a use for me. But I’m glad this has finally been released, cheers for the review though!

[@TheStarBot]

Godbless Close Captioning, your voice is waaaay to soft and shaky at times

[@LauraKBuzz]

I recorded this after a week long battle with illness, including a cough which made speech very difficult for several days after other symptoms had passed. The fact this video got made required coming back to work before I really should have, as best I could, to get the video ready in time for embargo.

[@Crappytextan]

why are u wearing a face mask at your tv? are u mentally ok?