Thanks Brett, I'm still trying to get better at double and triple-proofreading.

This was a nice piece. I am a social worker working with the developmentally disabled. I have seen a lot of people in my caseload play the Wii. It's nice to be able to share my hobby with them. Thanks for sharing this.

No problem, Isaiah! Mainly I rearranged some paragraphs to help your ideas flow better. The writing quality was already high!

In addition to being a video game journalist, I'm also a personal trainer. Some of my clients are physically disabled, and for exercise/entertainment, I've recommended many in the past to pick up a Wii with Wii Fit, etc. Now they'll even have more at their disposal with Microsoft's Kinect for Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation Move. Nintendo started a great thing for the disabled and I tip my hat off to them.

When I worked at ODS [office of disability services] and got to know the students, because of limited mobility and general shyness...you find that there are a TON of gamers out there wading through the things they can't play in order to play a Rez or an Echochrome.

I'm also realizing that forcefeed back like [rumble, sound cues, etc] are really adaptible for the visually impaired.

Kinect's 'you can't sit down' issue [or non-issue] kind of has me wondering...I really hope all this stuff finds an audience.

Great to hear Isaiah, my younger brother has cerebral palsy, largely from a similar situation at birth nearly 30 years ago.  When the wii first came to town, the first thing I did was put down a pre-order deposit and wait in line for my purchase.  That Thanksgiving, while my parents and brother were visiting me, I proceeded to fire up wii sports.  Now let me say one thing, growing up from the Atari 2600 to genesis, my brother and I could never really truly compete in any video game, but when the wii arrived, my brother was now given the tools to do so...and he did.  So, I feel your joy and adulation; congrats on the great piece. 

This is excellent, Isaiah. Thank you for sharing. I would love to see developers use motion controllers to help get disabled people into gaming. I think it's a fantastic -- and for some possibly therapeutic -- activity for people with disabilities. Motion controls also have another untapped market: Educational software. Imagine using motion controls to demonstrate how the solar system works and operates, diagramming sentences, or dissecting an animal without killing a living creature. 

First of all I'm glad that you sister found a way to enjoy games and that it is a past time you can do together. Your article was really touching and I commend you on it. However I must disagree with notion that motion controllers are  good for all disabled gamers. I for one have tried the wii system and as someone who is partially handicapped from the waist down it is very difficult to use, particular because of my lack of balance which is what alot of the wii games rely on(at least the ones where the wiimote  and system make the biggest difference over a gamepad or mouse and keyboard), It seems to sense every little tilt and wobble in my stance and I can't stand for long periods of time. Also, and this is the biggest part for me at least, it brings me back to my body,so to speak,which something that I use video games to escape,But I suppose it would be beneficial to those with developmental disabilies or those with upward mobility issues, but you kind of lob everyone into a nonspecific catagory, Though that's understandable.                                                    Also about the kinect, I've read that it won't support  a seated position unless specifically programmed by a developer. If that's the case that's a real  shame because I doubt many developers would go out of the way to  program that.  I think this tech will be beneficial to some but not all. I think I'll keep my buttons and keys,thank you,

@Robert Do you think developers could program the Wii and Kinect to accommodate a variety of disabilities?  

great article, this should get picked up by gamepro for one of those bitmob article spotlight things. 

Well Jason, I think the the question isn't could they, they most certainly could, but would they. You see gamers with disabilities is such a small market that I don't think the developers really bother with implimenting them. There just isn't a financial incentive. I think it's really up to the player to figure out how to best adapt to the game for their  particular situation. For instance in wii bowling I figured out I could place the ball all the way to the right to account for the spin that put my ball into the left gutter  that was caused by my left lean  when I released the bowling ball . It's little stuff like ball spin that seem screw me up with motion controllers. Not  all games allow for such adaptations though .As for the kinect device it's still in development so who knows they may decide to natively allow for players to sit ,not being natively supported doesn't mean it can't  be programmed in mind you. But like I said if it isn't already there then why would developers program for it?  Frankly there just isn't a financial reason to do so and being a business that's kinda important.  There is a good website called ablegamers.com that has all kinds of  stories and info centric to people with disabilities if you interested.

I did a story back in March on the subject covering a South by Southwest panel focused on this subject involving some advocates and a designer that focuses on it.  It was put best there that while it might be a small part of the audience, it would be a loyal one because of of how little concesion is make to them on smaller, easy design decisions to help the color-blind. A lot of it I'd honestly think comes down to two things, a lot of people make the sort of game they want to play and think of people like themselves so, like a lot of things, if it's not something that hits close to home somehow, they may not think of it. That the panel I attended was easily the least attended one I covered says a lot about how front and center the issue is and I don't think that has anything to do with money. Secondly, I can't speak to designing motion controls, but I got from the developers at said panel a lot of cost aversion for some simple things in terms of controllers comes from designing with this sort of thing from the beginning. Often, things that help a disabled gamer are things useful to gamers in general. A lot of stuff that's helped disabled gamers has comes without a thought into helping them. Things like codexes helping people with memory issues or able to map your own controls. Allowing mods in certain PC games have allowed other to make the experience of games like W.O.W. easier on some gamers without the developer really needing to do the heavy lifting.  But again, I fear if there's not a personal incentive to think with this group of consumers in mind from the beginning, I think the status quo continues.

@Robert I'm pretty sure I didn't lob everyone disabled into one category. I even go so far to say why these devices could be good or questionable for specific disabilities. I even state my pensiveness with Kinect/Natal under the actual picture of the happy-attractive lady playing whatever ridiculous game she's playing. 

But thanks for your comment.