Hello all, my older brother and I play video games together every night if we can. I love the quality time him and I get to spend together in all these different worlds. We have been playing for 5 years now and he’s come up with a ways to play and he not the one to complain. But I know it’s hard on him amd frustrating. Is there any ideas we could try for him that may make it easier? He’s not a fan of the quadstick plus it’s very expensive. I’ll try to attach a video of him playing so you can see what we are working with.
Sorry for the long message, but my brother is my hero and I just wanted to do something for him to make his life easier.
38 Comments
How much use of his legs? Are foot pedals on option at all for the buttons he uses with right hand often?
[https://www.xbox.com/en-US/accessories#assistive](https://www.xbox.com/en-US/accessories#assistive) I suppose you’ve seen all these things then.
So the technology is still in development but mouthpad is something really cool that’s designed for paraplegics and people with less mobility, idk if it would help on the game but hopefully the technology gets improved to help people like your brother navigate the internet easier
Can’t really contribute – I just wanna wish your brother all luck and fun he Can get in his future online games!!
I kind of hate Musk, but his neurolink technology was made for applications like this. Maybe in a decade or so we will have this problem solved. I’m pulling for ya. You and your bro seem to be close.
You should try and look at the [Tobii Eye Tracker](https://gaming.tobii.com/games/), might be worth using ontop any other solutions that appear?
There’s a streamer that I’ve seen play call of duty and he just had a contraption that he uses with his head. Uses his mouth and tongue and head movements for the controls because he’s disabled. No clue what it’s called but I’m sure if you googled something along those lines it’d show up
Well met my PUBG brethren! Is your brother able to tense up his fist easily, or not really?
PlayStation cam out with PS5 access controller. I would also recommend to check out.
They have the eye motion tech
IDK if this is a viable option but here is a link [https://www.playstation.com/en-us/accessories/access-controller/](https://www.playstation.com/en-us/accessories/access-controller/)
Honestly he is unlikely to ever have a good ktd in cod but have you tried slower paced games turn based strategies for rpgs for example. If he enjoys them that’s gonna but a lot easier for him to get into
Hello there, my girlfriend and I live with/take care of Quadcapable – Charlie Merritt, he is the FOUNDER AND CEO of the non-profit called “Stand up for me” and he helps people with disabilities get the equipment they need to make their lives easier! Including gaming perioherals!
Charlie HIMSELF is a complete quadriplegic, unable to move from the top of the shoulders down, no arm movement, and glhe games with what’s called a “Quad-Stick”, it is a Sip and Puff controller on an axis, and it takes a few minutes to get used to, but has helped MANYYY people get into gaming/aboe to use their personal computers with limited mobility functions.
I HIGHLY suggest you contact him, he is veryyyy good and he can at least guide you in the right direction depending on his abilites. Companies work with him/us to test products and to make people with disabilities lives EASIER.
You can find it here! Peace and love!
https://standupforme.org/
Well if it’s just ideas let’s try to regroup them; to be able to utilize all his available range of motions would be perfect :
Head tracking (Infra red like track IR) for big camera movements, can simply map that as a joystick
Eye tracking for small and precise inputs (tobii/talon)
Mouth : the tongue thingy (mouthpad looks cool), and voice for PC navigation
Elbows could be used on big buttons and mapped for frequent usages (copy+paste, alt-tab for desktop, jump crouch running in games)
Wrists movements look precise so adding a big scroll wheel on the side for volume controls ?
I’d recommend buying a small 3D printer they are getting cheap, learning simple 3D modeling and soldering can be a huge help for him ! You could make him custom controllers !
This charity in the UK
https://www.specialeffect.org.uk/
I’ve donated to these guy’s, gamers gotta help each other play 👍.
They might be worth contacting.
I don’t know if there’s a similar organisation where you are?
When I played Elite Dangerous, I used software called [VoiceAttack](https://voiceattack.com/) to control my ship. Once you set up the configs, you can play games by talking to your computer. This software has a following in the space sim genre, because it’s essentially mimicking an A.I-controlled autopilot, so using it doesn’t break immersion.
Plugged in to VoiceAttack, I ran a few voicepack themes from [HCS Voicepacks](https://www.hcsvoicepacks.com/pages/whats-a-voice-pack) – It’s like having different A.I personalities run your ship. They can even interact with each other. A lot of famous people from the sci fi entertainment scene have provided voices, or you can just go simple and have a ship’s cat to purr and miao while you play. Up to the user.
Specific games have more tailored support than others, but there are options for first person shooters as well as simulations, or you can just run your regular non-gaming computer stuff with your voice.
Someone needs to 3d print a blown out controller. If they could turn the right joystick into two similar joysticks like on a controller then moving and aiming would be easier. He can also compress a lot of buttons down to much fewer that he has to press. Make those buttons modular so he can have big buttons to press with the forearms or be able to hit with less accuracy required. He will also get the aim assist of a controller as well.
Bonus points if someone can create a mouth piece for the right trigger.
Something that could work for his right hand aiming would be one of those flight sim joysticks, they’re huge and should have the right ergonomics for him to push and pull on, plus usually work with the same outputs as the right thumb stick in a controller
If you want, introduce him to flightsims.
He **may** be very comfortable with a joystick/yoke and a calm flight sim experience.
PM me absolutely anytime if you need ANY help. I work with sims, and teach aerospace, so might be able to make it more comfortable.
I saw a video of somebody playing a videogame with their brain recently via some head piece. Maybe you could find something like that?
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[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBYY3D1gkQ0&t=22s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBYY3D1gkQ0&t=22s)
Xbox adaptive controller
This is both Awesome and Wholesome. Good on you for going the extra mile for lil broski.
Just a random suggestion, but have you thought of approaching the people who design their own keyboards etc? Seen some people on the mech keyboard sub that make weird and wonderful designs. They might be able to work something out that can simply be 3D printed and hooked up for him to use.
Maybe have a look at Xbox and PlayStation adaptive controllers. They’ve been quite well reviewed
I think the Xbox controllers may be a bit better with PC compatibility.
I would suggest reaching out to AbleGamers. They help create specific personalized gaming configurations to help people with disabilities play games! They are incredible!
[https://ablegamers.org/](https://ablegamers.org/)
Also, you can donate to them (I do it through work and then they double my donation).
Maybe with some keys binding you could try about her roller for the movement side. And if his calf muscles work (sorry if not) racing pedals with more key binding.
Biiiiiiiiiiig Touchpad Like those ON Laptops but giant
My mum is also quadrapelgic. She’s able to control her wheelchair using a handle bar in the shape of an American football post things (I’m British idk what egg ball fans call them)
She’s able to control foresaid wheelchair in 360 degrees. I think the same idea could work for your brother however shoulder movement and tiredness could be a big factor
If he can grip you could make some sort of button he could hold with his hands and squeeze and some “3d” keyboard for control. Like a cube(or other shape) without one side where he could put is hand and press against one side for x command. Some 3d printing and arduino or other Mpu would do the trick
r/DisabledGamers is an entire sub about just game accessibility, I recommend it.
It could be a stupid idea (and a costly and difficult one), but there are some of those EEG controllers that seem really cool… Maybe not practical enough though
Try contacting The AbleGamers Foundation. I contacted them a couple of years ago and they assisted me in obtaining gaming gear to assist with my difficulties. They’ll ask you multiple questions about your functionality and what you feel they can do to assist. I can’t recommend them enough.
Best of luck. Best of health. Game on!
Xbox adaptive controller looks promising (I’m paralyzed myself and pondering getting one)
You think he can use a normal drawing tablet i think it would be the best option
I’m a quad and play quite similarly. Something I would try is learning auto hotkey and binding stuff like holding W. A strategy I’ve tried that works somewhat well is binding walk forward and shoot to the same key. It is somewhat unintuitive at first but given how bad it is to shoot and stand still it’s better than nothing. I would love to chat with him to see what he does that I could learn from him too.
https://preview.redd.it/h2wus2x6f8gc1.jpeg?width=2592&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=33b834fd7518e65eaca9a738f5caa3f10f813c3c
Ben Heck would be a good person to contact. He’s been making custom controllers for disabled people for more than 10 years.
Don’t remember the name buts there’s a company that will custom build controllers for gaming for people with disabilities
I have no hands so maybe I can offer what I use.
I have the same Kensington trackball mouse.
I also have a Microsoft adaptive joystick mounted in loc-line (flexible modular hose) that I use with my mouth to get a few more inputs available to me. The adaptive joystick/button plus accompanying hub is fairly cheap. Has 8 directions you can program with the accessory center.
If you messaged me I could probably give slightly more details of how I use the stuff.