Project Leonardo is an accessible PlayStation console for people with disabilities

Video games have always been rough terrain for people with disabilities, who generally find themselves in a scene where there is a shortage of peripherals for the disabled. Because of that, it doesn’t hurt ad echo by Sony is the first accessible console, targeting PlayStation 5 as an official platform.

Sony’s accessible console was christened with the codename Project Leonardo and was announced at the conference presented by the Japanese video game giant last Wednesday at CES 2023. In order to create it, the PlayStation division collaborated with organizations working in favor of accessibility such as AbleGamersAnd overstock s special effect Creates a configurable Split Console layout.

At the conference about the accessible controller, the multinational said it was “designed to address common challenges faced by many gamers with limited motor control, including difficulty holding the controller for long periods of time, and accurately pressing small combinations of buttons.” or triggers or place your thumb and fingers optimally on a standard controller.”

Our team tested over a dozen designs with accessibility experts, looking for approaches that would help address key challenges of effective console use. Since players can customize Project Leonardo to their needs, there is no such thing as the “right” form factor. We want to enable them so that they can create their own configurations“.

In short, the Leonardo project aims to be personalized and adapted to the needs of a wide variety of individuals with disabilities. The console includes interchangeable components to create a variety of console layouts based on the player’s range of motion, strength, and physical needs.

There are also a variety of different buttons that can be programmed to any supported function and it is possible to assign multiple buttons to do the same button functions or two functions in one button, such as the typical action of pressing the left and right rear triggers at the same time. Other possibilities are to change and alter the distance between the left and right analog sticks and adapt the direction of the north point.

Aside from the paucity of devices that are adapted for people with disabilities, perhaps what’s sadder is the lack of greater involvement on the part of first-party manufacturers, i.e. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. The Redmond giant introduced the Xbox Adaptive Controller five years ago, a control designed for use and accessibility for people with limited mobility. Although conceptually very different from Leonardo’s project, it also stood out for its extensive reconfiguration capabilities.