Sony did a real good thing recently when they sent 21-year-old college student, Peter Byrne, a free controller. It's not just any kind of free controller, it's a specially designed controller to help Byrne play video games comfortably while he battles his cerebral palsy.
Game Informer picked up the story from New Jersey's local station, News 12, where they did a short report on Peter Byrne and how he happened upon his free controller from Sony.
More specifically, they reported on how Peter Byrne wrote to Sony explaining to them that he was having trouble gaming on his PS4 due to the touchpad at the center of the DualShock 4 controller. He would mistakenly press the touchpad during his gaming sessions due to the cerebral palsy, causing the games he was playing to pause at rather inopportune times. For some online games like Destiny or The Division or Warframe, you don't really get pause buttons, so mistakenly opening up the start menu during online sessions can easily disrupt the gameplay in a bad way.
Interestingly enough, Sony's technical support representative Alex Nawabi managed to get the letter and do something about it. Nawabi built a custom DualShock 4 controller where the main center touchpad is disabled. This would allow Byrne to play his games without mistakenly pausing them by moving across the touchpad.
In place of the touchpad, Alex Nawabi implemented another button that carries out the same function, so it's still possible to pause the game and access the system functions and menus at the press of a button. Nawabi shipped out the controller and an extra spare to Byrne just in case anything happens to the first controller.
In the original letter from Alex Nawabi, which was posted up on Facebook, the technical support representative states..
It took 3 controllers to build, 10+ hours of labor & reworking the concept to bring it to life, and a few moments of frustration, but I did it.[…] The email you sent definitely struck a chord within. I'm not sure how you got access to our email but I'm glad I could be of some help. It killed me to hear how something you used to enjoy thoroughly was being ruined because of our new controller design. Although I can't help everyone who has this problem, at least I could help you. I wish I had more to give you.
It's a cool gesture from Sony and easily wins them some internet points, but I do hope they take a step beyond this and seriously consider peripherals for disabled gamers.
This has been a topic that pops up every once in a while in regards to gaming while disabled. We've covered various stories about the topic, but it seems like actual solutions to the problem are far and few between.
Biomechanical robotics are still in their infancy, and while they show a lot of promise, they still aren't adequate enough (yet) to compensate for gamers with missing or disabled limbs. Neuro-response controllers are also highly expensive and still lack input timing and responsiveness to be an adequate replacement for standard controllers.
Maybe after this specific case we'll see some of the larger companies like Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo offering specially modified controllers designed for certain types of disabled gamers? If for nothing else at least Sony's Alex Nawabi took time out of the day to help Peter Byrne enjoy his favorite pastime by finding a solution to overcome Byrne's disability.
