Earlier this week, we learned that Microsoft was working on a controller specifically designed for accessibility. Today, the company is celebrating Global Accessibility Awareness Day by fully unveiling the controller.
As showcased in the video above, the controller features two large remappable buttons, and it also features a series of 3.5mm connectors on the back and a USB Type-A connector on each side.
There is a 3.5 mm port for every button on a regular Xbox One controller, and users with disabilities can connect a wide variety of switches and accessories which allow them to trigger those buttons as if they were using a regular controller. The USB ports on the sides are used for connecting joysticks, which emulate the functions of the left and right joysticks on the Xbox Wireless Controller.
Even the input on these ports is customizable, and users can change how any given switch or button behaves through the Xbox Accessories app.
These ports allow for accessories of all kinds that can be used by people with various disabilities. Players can attach foot pedals to play with their feet, or even controllers that can be used with their mouth. In a blog post related to the announcement, Microsoft also showed off some accessories that can be connected to the Adaptive Controller, but there are likely to be many more.
On top of all the customizability allowed by the Adaptive Controller, there"s also support for Microsoft"s Copilot technology, which links two controllers together to act as a single input in games. This means users of the Adaptive controller can play with someone else who is using the regular Xbox Wireless Controller to assist them.
Microsoft is pricing the Adaptive Controller at $99.99, which it claims to be a fair price considering that accessibility technology is typically very expensive. Users will still need to consider the price of the switches which connect to the controller, however.
Source: Microsoft