Disabled gamers

[ubermatress]

Greetings

I'll start with some facts, wild conjectures and dodgy maths: about 20% of the US population is disabled and nearly 60% of the US population play video games. If we assume those two aren't mutually exclusive (which isn't necessarily true), then about 12% of the US population are disabled gamers. Sorry those stats are only about the US but I could only find those - apparently the rest of us don't count. 12% is almost definitely wrong but if its anywhere close that's a lot of gamers who also happen to be disabled.

I am a so-called disabled gamer myself - I have Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, which means all my muscles are gradually getting weaker. This makes gaming more difficult but still perfectly possible. I play on a PS3 with a normal DualShock 3 controller. I can't use the R3/L3 buttons but can normally compensate. Quick-time events should be horrificaly murdered as far as I'm concerned. The most important thing for me for games to have is remappable controls.

Enough about me though, I want to hear from you. Are you a disabled gamer? Do you know anyone who is? What platform works best for you? How do you manage - special techniques/custom controller/assistive technology/choice of games? What would you like developers to do more of to help you? Can you suggest games/controllers/techniques? Plus anything else - just a few ideas to get you going.

This is my first thread so let me know if I've done anything wrong.

 

[Lieju]

My best friend is visually impaired but he can see a bit. Depends on the game if he can play it. We used to play Super Smash Bros Melee without items on the one stage floating in space, and he did well in that.

He also managed to play pokemon game boy games with the tv using Gamecube.


We are currently playing Mass effect. I'm doing the fighting and running around and read the choices the game gives us out loud and then we decide what we want to do together.

The thing he always likes is full voice acting.

 

[Foolery]

My best friend was born with only one arm. He's far from being disabled though. Better than me at pretty much every video game.

 

[IGetNoSlack]

I have congenital spastic right hemiplagia, a form of cerebral palsy. What this means is that I do everything ("But what about-" EVERYTHING!) with my left hand. Basically, my fine motor skills are slim to non-existent in my right hand, and my gross motor skills are limited in both right extremities.

However, I got extremely lucky, in that whatever happened during my mother's pregnancy that caused this happened in the first trimester. Thus, I lead a pretty normal life.

Well, as normal as being disabled can be, on both the mental and physical fronts.

As for consoles, I usually just grip the controller a certain way. I much prefer the PS3 controller though, because they actually had the common sense to put the thumb sticks right next to each other.

On PC, remappable keys is a demand.

So ya.

 

[krazykidd]

Every hear of broly? He was a disabled pro Street fighter 4 player .



I can't even play half as well as he can . A true inspiration.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

Every hear of broly? He was a disabled pro Street fighter 4 player .



I can't even play half as well as he can . A true inspiration.

Holy crap! He'd mop the floor with me, wow, just wow. That is simply amazing.

 

[Danceofmasks]

The funniest part about that Daigo vs Broly match was:
Daigo was playing the most OP character in the game at the time, whilst Broly was playing a low-mid tier.
He almost beat Daigo, and the next day, during top 8, Daigo did not play anywhere as well as he could have.

This was during the time when Daigo as all serious, "I'm sponsored, it's a job, and I have to pick top tier to win for my employers."

He probably got completely mindfucked, lost some sleep, whatever ...

The next year, Daigo is back to playing a character he loves, "he's not top tier, but he allows me to express myself."

So yeah, go Broly.

 

[antidonkey]

Waaaaaay back in my teenage years of 1993 I used to lan party DOOM with a blind guy. While he could see a little he was legally blind. He used 20" CRT monitor which was crazy huge and expensive at the time and pretty much had his nosed pressed to it when gaming. He was also the best player in the group.

 

[Captain Anon]

yes yes I am, I got Autism, dyslexia, Speech and Language Disorders and a bit of Learning Disability in Maths, I know quite alot of people with disabilities cause I go to school for Disabled kids and I know only of them that are Gamers