@Splodge : Indeed. It did get pretty grating that he was constantly pointing out the fact, especially if he indeed had little to no firsthand experience with disabled people. Some much-needed perspective, even from an able-bodied person who has experience with disabled people, would have gone a long way.
I’ve had to trial and error with controllers when giving my sister a Switch (my sister suffers from a few disabilities), and I found that a single Joy-Con (with the now discontinued battery pack/grip accessory) or a Pro Controller were best for her, though she doesn’t have the adequate reflexes to comfortably play a lot of games (another reason why I think Game Freak are idiots for forcing single Joy-Con use in tabletop/docked modes for the Let’s Go Pokémon games). She was also incapable of inserting the Joy-Con into the charging grip, hence the Joy-Con battery pack/grip. My sister expressed interest in the classic DOOM games, but she wouldn’t be able to play those either due to forced analog controls (as opposed to directional buttons as per the original PC versions).
Perhaps I could have gotten her a Switch Lite (and I still might at some point), but she’s quite irresponsible with her belongings, and it would be much too expensive to replace (though I’ll probably get one once Switch Lites are discontinued and plummet in price). I did buy her a 2DS a few years ago (the lack of clamshell sealed the deal for me), which is still in one piece (shockingly) albeit with signs of wear and tear.
I’m not sure if she would benefit from something like the Hori Flex, but the fact that it isn’t wireless rules it out as her Switch is wall-mounted (to prevent her from touching the dock). In any case, I would love to see more accessibility options in more mainstream/casual games moving forward. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a tremendous step in the right direction, and it confounds me that similar modes haven’t been implemented in other games since. With a little assistance, even a blind and/or limbless person could play Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which I think is incredible.
And if Nintendo utilised the HD rumble feature to full effect, they could have given even blind people a competitive edge, but that seems like too niche a function to warrant implementing, but it could prove worthwhile in the long term if care homes buy Switches and copies of accessible games in droves (similar to how many aged care facilities invested in Wiis and games such as Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Just Dance etc.). Now there’s an untapped market that is ripe for the picking.
