Sony unveils new video game controller for disabled gamers

(12 Oct 2023)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4458054
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
San Mateo, California - 28 September 2023
1. New Sony PlayStation Access controller
HEADLINE: Sony unveils new controller for disabled gamers
2. Various gamer trying out Access Controller
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3. SOUNDBITE (English) Alvin Daniel, Senior Technical Program Manager, PlayStation:
"First of all, you don't have to hold the control to use it. It's designed to lay flat on a table, a wheelchair tray on a lap board. It can be mounted with a lot of different mounting options. A tripod, for example. The second principles will make it much easier to press the buttons. It's a controller kit, so there's lots of different button caps in different sizes and shapes and textures that you can free form experiment and physically reconfigure the controller. And the third is the thumbsticks. So the thumbsticks, if you use two access controllers, for example, with the collaborative use feature, you can separate the thumbsticks as far apart, as close together, different levels, different heights, just way more repositioning ability of the thumbsticks."
4. Gamer Paul Lane playing with Access Controller
5. Access controller in box
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6. SOUNDBITE (English) Paul Lane, Accessibility Consultant, PlayStation:
"To be able to have this come out of the box and work and it looks like a controller. You have a stick. You have the different buttons. The button sizes are really huge. I game with the side of my hands and my hands are pretty big. So me being able to space off the buttons, I'll be able to press the buttons in a way where I'm not hitting two buttons at a time."
7. Various more Lane playing
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Paul Lane, Accessibility Consultant, PlayStation:
"Having gaming and having an opportunity to game at a very high level, to be able to do it again, it feels like a reunion that I had lost a close companion and being able to reunite with that person again."
9. Various PlayStation Accessibility Consultant Cesar Flores play
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10. SOUNDBITE (English) Cesar Flores, Accessibility Consultant, PlayStation:
"It's probably the greatest gift that I've been given a long time. The reason being is my fingerprint, along with everyone else who's a part of this, our fingerprints are all over this. It just allows me to do self-therapy. It's one of those things that gives me
the ability to feel like, Hey, I'm still me."
11. Close up of Access Controller
CAPTION: The Sony PlayStation Access controller goes on sale in the U.S. on December 6 at a price of $89.99.
STORYLINE:
Playing video games has long been a challenge for many people with disabilities, since the traditional controllers for the PlayStation, Xbox or Nintendo can be difficult or even impossible to maneuver when a person has limited mobility.
Losing the ability to play doesn't just mean the loss of a favorite pastime. It can also exasperate social isolation for a community that already experiences it at a far higher rate than the general population.
Sony's new Access Controller, developed with input from accessibility consultants aims to change that.
It's a round, customizable gadget that can rest on a table or wheelchair tray and can be configured in a myriad ways depending on what the user needs, including switching buttons and thumbsticks, programming special controls and pairing two controllers to be used as one.
Disabled gamers have been working with Sony since 2018 to help design the Access controller.
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