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DisabilityNation recently reported that according to a survey, one in five gamers is disabled. You can count me as one of them. My biggest and longest lasting gaming obsession has been Maxis/EA's The Sims series, but I have played all kinds of games for about as long as I can remember. In fact, the earliest game I remember playing is Space Invaders on a Texas Instruments console (was it called TI-87, possibly?) we had when I was just a toddler.
The TI was just a big, clunky keyboard with cartridge slots that connected to a television, and I honestly don't remember how I played or if I had difficulty doing so. But ever since we got our first original Nintendo several years later, game accessibility has been a constant issue. So I was thrilled to find, through the article linked above, a site just for people facing the same issues: AbleGamers. The aim of the site is to help gamers with all different types of disabilities find games that suit their interests and abilities.
The ironic thing is that for me at least, the earlier systems were far more accessible than today's modern systems are. For the NES, Dana found the NES Advantage arcade stick controller, which I quickly discovered I could operate with my feet while sitting in a chair with it on the floor, and play just as well if not better than my siblings using the regular handheld controllers. Some years later, early in my relationship with Chris, he and I had an original Playstation, then a Nintendo 64 and a Sega Dreamcast, all of which had similar arcade-style controllers, and all of which I played rather well.
Then along came a new generation of game consoles. It started with the original Xbox, then Nintendo's GameCube and Playstation 2. These systems featured more complex controls - more buttons, and two or even three different directional controls. And maybe it was the complexity of these controllers that led the manufacturers to believe it was no longer feasible to produce tabletop arcade controllers to work with these new systems. Or maybe they just decided that those of us who would use them were not important enough to them as customers. The Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 continued this trend. Now the controllers were wireless, but still just as useless to those of us with limited hand dexterity.
Then came something completely different: the Nintendo Wii. I was really excited about this system, because the idea of immersing oneself into the game by playing with actual realistic body movements instead of twitching your fingers just sounds fun! Still I had very little expectation of being able to play it myself, and I was mostly right. My arm range of motion is too limited and too slow to even register with the system. It still shows promise, though. There is one game I have and can play: Big Brain Academy. This is because the whole game only relies upon the point-and-click capabilities of the Wii remote using the sensor bar. There are some games that use the traditional handheld-style controls, and Nintendo has simplified these controls back to the basics, so I'm keeping my fingers - or possibly toes - crossed that they might produce an arcade stick controller for it one of these days.
Obviously I have always found the PC to be the most accessible gaming system available, just because it can be easily modified with all different types of input devices. Hell, I don't even need anything fancy. Just drop the mouse on the floor and I'm all set with any mouse-controlled game. But consoles are where it's at when you're playing games in a group setting, and these have historically had me feeling left out.
Fortunately, it's looking like that may be starting to change. I'm hopeful about Wii Fit, when and if I can get my hands on one. And there is one new type of game controller I have no problem using: the microphone. The singing games started with Karaoke Revolution, then came Rock Band (my idea, by the way!) and SingStar. The only problem I've run into with a microphone is getting it to my mouth. I tried headsets with Karaoke Revolution, which didn't work as well as you might think, because I had to sing extremely loud for it to pick up my voice. And when you're straining to sing that loud, you're going to have trouble staying on pitch. With Rock Band I've had people hold the microphone for me, but that presents problems, too... like the person's arm slowly getting lower and lower until I'm on my hands and knees trying to sing. So I just picked up SingStar for my birthday, and made another purchase to go with it: my very own microphone stand! I bought it online for what seems to be a pretty good price as far as I can tell. It will be here next Tuesday, and when I say I can't wait to try it out, it really is an understatement. 
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