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Windows Central

Technology

Cole Martin

Xbox highlights International Day of Persons with Disabilities by furthering its commitment to video game accessibility

Xbox Best Buy Call of Duty HP

Image mockup of enamel pins on a denim background depicting various disabilities and aides, including a prosthetic leg, service dog, and gaming controllers alongside the Xbox logo.

What you need to know

The International Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) is observed annually on December 3, with this year's theme focusing on amplifying leadership of persons with disabilities.
Xbox has announced ahead of IDPD that the gaming company is furthering its commitments to the disabled gaming community.
Xbox principal firmware engineer Stan Adermann shared a statement on their own lived experience with disability and how that catalyzed the development of new controller remapping features.
The team also highlighted recent accessibility announcements in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Diablo IV, plus a fundraiser to benefit CureDuchenne via World of Warcraft.

In recent years, accessibility has become a growing segment of gaming. As developers and manufacturers increase their awareness of gamers with disabilities in their communities, new ways to overcome the obstacles those community members face have become more prevalent.

In observation of International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Xbox has announced new improvements to button mapping, while also highlighting recent advances in improved accessibility for certain games.

Additionally, Xbox has added a cosmetic for World of Warcraft that benefits CureDechenne, a nonprofit leader in research and patient care innovation for individuals living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Among the latest innovations in accessibility, the team at Xbox has announced new additions to button mapping options for the Xbox Adaptive Controller and Elite Series 2. Remapping gives players the freedom to change the default function of a specific key on their input device, be it a controller, mouse, or keyboard. This puts the power in the hands of the player to determine the best way to interact with games, allowing them to tackle gaming roadblocks like missing digits or limbs and joint fatigue.

“My own disability is mild Essential Tremor, along with pain in my hands from years of software development,” said Adermann. “Playing certain games on PC was aggravating my pain issues, so I dug in to see what could make the use of controllers on PC even easier for players with similar pain issues, or those who simply wanted more options that allow them to customize their gameplay. Mapping mouse movements to controllers and toggle holds were a start. Mapping joystick movements to buttons or keyboard keys was also critical.”

Players can find the following remapping options in the Xbox Accessories app for the Elite Series 2 controller and the Xbox Adaptive Controller:

Toggle holds: Players who struggle to hold long button presses can opt toggle any button or port on the Xbox Adaptive Controller, Xbox Adaptive Joystick, or Series 2 Controller. This renders the button as "held" with just a single press until it is pressed again to release.
Map stick movement to button presses: Directional movement (up, down, left, right) on the Elite Series 2 thumb sticks or external joysticks can be mapped instead to button or keyboard presses.
Map mouse inputs to controller: Mouse and keyboard inputs can now be mapped to thumb stick and joystick movement, giving players more control to use their controllers like keyboard and mouse inputs. This can be helpful not just in gaming scenarios but for general PC usage, as well.
Map hat switch to alternate joystick: Some external joysticks feature hat switches, and those players can now map the hat switch to operate as the opposite stick when attached to the Xbox Adaptive controller.

In-game accessibility updates

While systemwide accessibility options are quite beneficial, game developers are also making efforts to implement innovative and intuitive measures for improved accessibility at the individual game level. Xbox's commitment to accessibility can be seen in recent updates for Diablo IV and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. An update in October introduced new accessibility features for Diablo IV that focused primarily on players with vision impairments.

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Auto-Pins now add a map pin for the destination of selected quests, while Audio Navigation Assistance provides spatial audio pings that direct players toward their placed pin on the overworld map. These two features paired together allow players to navigate quest content while tracking their destination through audio navigation. A new Compass feature enables an on-screen HUD element that circles around the player, pointing them toward the place in-world pin.

Call of Duty has had an ongoing commitment to accessibility. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 implemented a host of accessibility features following its launch, and those have all carried over into Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 along with new improvements, including a high-contrast mode, updated settings menu, and asymmetrical hearing compensation. It may seem surprising that a highly-competitive first-person shooter like Black Ops 6 could be seen as accessible. However, the Call of Duty team's efforts to implement useful and functional accessibility settings have earned the franchise a nomination for Innovation in Accessibility at 2024's The Game Awards.

Playing certain games on PC was aggravating my pain issues, so I dug in to see what could make the use of controllers on PC even easier for players with similar pain issues, or those who simply wanted more options that allow them to customize their gameplay.

Stan Adermann, Xbox

Many of these features start their life out as workarounds for obstacles encountered by players with disabilities. However, they go on to prove beneficial not just for those with disabilities but for all players in a broader sense. One such example is the wide use of subtitles. Rebellion, the studio behind titles like Sniper Elite, Zombie Army, and the upcoming Atomfall, has previously shared that subtitles were utilized by as much as 90% of its player base.

Gaming for a cause

Despite the popularity of accessibility features, Xbox's engineering teams notably had an uphill battle with getting the Adaptive Controller into the hands of players due to the potential for a negative return on investment. Microsoft and Team Xbox committed to the product, anyway, and have further invested in advancing accessibility across gaming.

Team Xbox has also invited players to get involved in supporting accessible gameplay by adding a new companion to World of Warcraft — the proceeds from which will go to support CureDuchenne.

CureDuchenne is a global nonprofit leader in research, patient care, and innovation for improving and extending the lives of individuals with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a progressive neuromuscular disease that affected the life of Norwegian WoW player Mats "Ibelin" Steen. Netflix has recently released a documentary, "The Remarkable Life of Ibelin," centering around Steen's involvement in a World of Warcraft guild. The film is made up of retrospectives from his guild members and family, alongside excerpts from Steen's blog.

The Reven pack for World of Warcraft features a fox companion ("Reven," meaning "the fox" in Norwegian) and is available for Modern and Classic World of Warcraft.