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2020 One Show - Health, Wellness & Pharma

Changing the Game

Agency McCann / New York + Microsoft / Seattle

Client Microsoft
BACK TO RESULTS

Annual ID

OS_HW20_028G

About the Work

Video games provide incredible emotional and mental health benefits and can be a great way to connect to others. But some didn’t have access to those benefits. The video game industry has long ignored the 33 million gamers in America with limited mobility. As a result, gamers with limited mobility would either hack together hodgepodge tools and homemade controllers or had to spend a lot of money on a custom controller. For most, gaming was impossible. A group of gamers with disabilities approached Microsoft and asked them to address the challenges they had playing with traditional Xbox controllers. The Xbox Adaptive Controller originated from a company-wide hackathon. Engineers and designers then partnered with members of the accessibility community during the beta testing to help shape the design, functionality, and packaging of the Xbox Adaptive Controller. The design was chosen to accommodate as many people with limited motion disabilities as possible.