Accessible gaming controller designed by boy with SMA

Oskar, who lives in Sweden with his family and is the oldest of his siblings, was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) Type 2 when he was a baby. A rare neuromuscular condition that causes muscle weakness and, over time, loss of movement.  

As avid gamers, Oskar and his father Andreas regularly adapted various standard controllers to meet his sons ever changing needs, however as Oskar’s disability progressed so did the complexities of the controllers Andreas was having to make.  

Gaming is important to Oskar as Andreas explains,

“In the physical world his body tells him what he can and cannot do, but in the gaming world there are no limits”  

Many games don’t have proper accessibility features and the family were paying out large amounts of money trying to find the right technology that could work – nothing did. Even the Xbox Adaptive Controller, which is designed for disabled players, was not right for Oskar’s needs. SMA Type 2, that Oskar has, means that he is not only unable to walk unaided but has difficulty moving his arms.  

Andreas had written to many gaming manufacturers seeking advice to create his own game controller but was having little success however he eventually got in touch with 8BitDo.  8BitDo is known for creating third party controllers and adapters and when co-founder and chief designer Weiling Li heard about Andreas and Oskar request, he wanted to get involved.  

Li says,

“As a designer I want to use my skills to allow more people to enter the world of gaming. If we didn’t help there would be a lot more children like Oskar who wouldn’t have the chance to play video games.”  

Oskar and Li had many conversations and many prototypes were sent back and forth from 8BitDo’s head office in Shen Zhen, China, to Sweden until they finally had a product. The Lite SE has engineered buttons and joysticks with less resistance and greater sensitivity as well as a more inclusive layout meaning it is more accessible for gamers with limited mobility.  

Andreas says,

“One thing that I would like to mention is that there seem to be so many people out there thinking that there is only one disability, asking questions like ‘Why haven’t you placed the buttons like this or that, it would be smarter if you did it like this. The point they are missing is that this isn’t a controller to rule them all. This is one controller that was made especially for Oskar, that works well for him. That doesn’t mean it will work for everyone, but hopefully it will for some.” 

You can watch Oskar and Li’s collaboration here - https://youtu.be/o5vhf26rwq8  

Find out more about SMA UK by visiting our website - www.smauk.org.uk