Genius Inventor Creates Controller Setup That Can Be Played With One Hand

Video games are an incredible medium. They offer an unparalleled amount of escapism, allowing anyone, regardless of their age, to experience amazing stories, adventure through vast worlds, and just have fun with friends. 

That said, gaming isn’t always the most accessible hobby for people with physical disabilities. Many games, including really big AAA titles, offer super limited accessibility options, such as larger text sizes for people with visual impairments, and as for the hardware, such as controllers and accessories, there’s even less. Thankfully though, there are some very clever people about, including some who are coming up with genius inventions to help those who might struggle to use box-standard controllers.

Check out this incredible 3D printed accessory, which allows gamers to use PlayStation’s DualShock 4 completely one-handed.

This amazing work comes courtesy of Akaki Kuumeri, who not only sells these add-ons on Etsy, but also offers the files for free, so anyone who has access to a 3D printer can print their own. The DualShock 4 accessory is just one of the accessible gaming setups the inventor has developed - they’ve also made one-handed accessories for the PS5’s DualSense controller and the Xbox Series X/S controller. For all of these, there are two different versions - one for the right hand, and one for the left, making gaming possible for a whole lot more people.

As you can see in the video, the accessory can be used with any game at all - all the buttons, including the back triggers, are all made easily accessible on the side of the controller which best suits the user. Meanwhile, the control stick is used by moving the whole controller while it’s held down to a surface, or on your leg.

While all this stuff is really cool, and immensely useful for those who struggle to use traditional controllers, it has to be said that currently, alternative “official” options for gamers with disabilities leave a lot to be desired. When it comes to the three main games companies, Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox, only Xbox currently offer a first-party controller which was created for people with limited mobility in mind, with their Adaptive Controller. We can only hope that this will improve going forward, but for now, at least people like Akaki Kuumeri are here to offer tools which genuinely have the potential to change lives.