Gaming (With) the Xbox Adaptive Controller

This paper describes a workshop that offers participants an opportunity to interact with the Xbox Adaptive Controller, a controller designed for those with motor disabilities. The workshop is designed to prompt discussion and reflection on how controllers affect accessibility in video games. While the Adaptive Controller was designed for those with limited mobility, this workshop uses the controller as a tool for raising awareness about how controllers shape and constrain gameplay and how they can sometimes even serve to exclude certain players. This research is being conducted by a research group at the Rutgers University-Camden Digital Studies Center (DiSC) called Well Played. Well Played conducts hands-on research and leads hands-on workshops about video games. Well Played research has addressed a range of research topics since its launch in 2014. For the past year, the Well Played group has been conducting research on accessibility and video games in collaboration with the Rutgers-Camden Office of Disability Studies. This paper addresses the latest phase of that research by describing a workshop that the group is currently piloting.