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“Get that ghost, Henry. Get it. Now! ”I heard my 6-year-old son scream as he returned home. It is not uncommon to hear them shouting. But that yes it is unusual to hear the old brother shouting instructions.
I caught the murmur of toasted mini pizza on the ground floor as I set off in search of my family and found a game party. My three children, ages 10, 8, and 6, were divided into furniture and flooring with my husband. Snacks and drinks were scattered throughout the 2006 game Ghost hunters video game For Xbox.
“Look! Henry is using it Xbox Controller Adapter“My husband shouted over the music of the game. I looked up and saw Henry in the bean bag on the chair. Every time his arm touched a big red button, a pack of protons exploded the energy rays of the screen that tied him to the back of the ghost’s end.
A smile spread across my face when I saw my family playing together. It should be a normal event, but it is not. Even though my children are very old, it’s hard to find activities they can share.
Henry is my middle son. He was born early, very young, and needed medical attention. The day after I was born, I found out I had caught a virus (Cytegalegalovirus) when I was pregnant, and it affected the development of his brain. The prognosis was that he would probably never be able to walk or talk independently. It was a diagnosis that forever changed the way we view accessibility and inclusion.
For the first two years of Henry’s life, he had very little control over his muscles. Before 1 year of age, he was diagnosed with spastic tetrapllegia cerebral palsy. Henry has been involved in physiotherapy for hundreds of hours and, over the years, has slowly grown stronger. Now he can lift his body, move his arms and legs and stay in support for a short time. But as he progresses, Henry becomes tired of moving his body.
Despite his physical limitations, Henry is a bright and smart kid who enjoys playing and being in the middle of fun. My husband and I do everything we can to get Henry involved, but it’s not easy. Henry goes to a school other than his siblings and most of his extracurricular activities are not prepared to fit his limits. Family outings, like amusement parks, also present many challenges related to mobility.
Most of Henry’s adaptation equipment, like his wheelchair and his own eye-sight communication device, is expensive. We must request it through a hospital or Henry school equipment clinic. It may take four months or more for the equipment to be accepted and delivered for insurance use (if covered by insurance). We need the help of a specialist to configure the equipment every time we pick up an item, even when it grows and develops.
It is not uncommon to find equipment that can be purchased off the shelf and used immediately, especially with an activity that the whole family enjoys. This includes the Xbox controller adapter. It connects to our Xbox like a typical controller. The biggest difference is that it has big buttons on the cover, that is perfect for someone with reduced mobility.
Henry can use large black buttons on the controller, or we can tie a peripheral button that is light to the touch. Each button can be configured to match the buttons on a typical controller. We can also use several external switches at the same time.
For example, when we play Ghost hunters, the right trigger (RT) button on a normal controller turns on the proton packet. We connect the outer button of Henry to the port labeled “RT” on the back of the adapter controller. Then, when it hits the outside button, it performs a function as if you were pressing the right trigger. The two buttons on the adapter controller can also perform the same function, so if it exceeds the target and loses one button, but hits the other, it will get the result you want.
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