The development of accessible controllers isn’t a new idea. Tinkerers, generally working independently from the mainstream gaming industry have been working with video games since the days of the Atari. Ken Yankelevitz was one the earliest people working in this field. He began his work in 1981, when Atari referred him to a quadriplegic teenager who, lacking the means for conventional recreation, wanted to play video games. He would go on to do much more of this work through his company KYE, designing custom controllers based on the personal and individual needs of each client, a process which has grown increasingly complicated as games and controllers have advanced.

Source

Related posts:

1. Hacks Allowing Disabled Gamers To Play Guitar Hero
2. Wii-Dum, Wii-Step & Wii-Skab – Nintendo controllers beginning to border the ridiculous
3. Proper precautions can keep gamers injury-free

Rehabilitation specialists have taken to Nintendo’s Wii game console as a way to help motivate patients during physical therapy and rehabilitation. The latest addition to the Wii-hab phenomenon is perhaps its coolest—Air Guitar Hero. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have made the popular Guitar Hero game into a tool for amputees who are being fitted with the next generation of artificial arms. With a few electrodes and some very powerful algorithms, amputees can hit all the notes of Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” using only the electrical signals from their residual muscles.

Source

Related posts:

1. “Air Guitar Hero” Helps Amputees Test Out New Arms
2. Guitar Heroes: APL Riff on Video Game Helps Prosthetic Patients
3. Truly Innovative Controllers For Disabled Gamers