Xbox announces new accessibility features for console, PC, and store

Every year in October, Microsoft’s Xbox announces updates for its ‘Gaming & Disability Community’. This year, it has seven announcements to showcase, including updates to the Xbox Store, console, controller, PC, and other general changes. With these announcements, Xbox affirms its commitment to gaming for everyone, including the over 429 million players with disabilities.

Wireless pairing is now more accessible

Xbox in its blog post revealed that it is making wireless pairing more accessible. Now, there’s no need to have direct contact with the console to press and start the pairing process. It can be done from the comfort of your couch. Players can now put their console into pairing mode using the Xbox media remote and digital assistant voice command. They can also use their previously paired controller to connect a new controller to the console.

Use Controller for mouse/keyboard-only games

Furthermore, the Xbox Adaptive Controller and Elite 2 Controller are getting new updates. Players will soon be able to remap controller buttons to almost 90 keyboard keys on the Adaptive Controller and Elite Series 2 Controller, letting players with limited mobility use the aforementioned controllers for games that require mouse/keyboard.

This remapping can be done through the Xbox Accessories app, which is available on console and PC. As of now, this feature is available to Xbox Insiders and Xbox Accessibility Insiders League (XAIL). Expect it to arrive for everyone soon.

It’s now easier to find games with Accessibility features

Back in 2021, Xbox introduced the Xbox Game Accessibility Feature Tags which allowed gamers to easily see games have accessibility features. So far there were 20 tags that represented the accessibility features by using which players were able to find new games to play. Now, Xbox has made finding games with accessibility features easier with the ‘Accessibility in Games’ channel on the Xbox Store. This allows users to find games with accessibility features in one place.

Xbox is also enhancing the accessibility options on PC. Starting October 19, the Xbox widgets in the Game Bar will include their own ‘Game accessibility’ settings menu. This will make it easier for players to locate accessibility settings on the platform. All they will need to do is open the Xbox Game Bar.

Other updates

Apart from this, Xbox also announced its Craig Hospital’s Adaptive Gaming Program.  The program helps Xbox to learn and build more accessibility features.

Xbox also announced its playbook for accessible gaming events. It’s nothing but a guide that shares best practices learned over years of working with the Gaming & Disability Community at events such as GDC, gamescom, E3, Xbox Fanfest, and others.

Microsoft also announced its next chapter of Xbox Ambassador Accessibility Explorer Path. Details for which can be found here.

Lastly, it highlighted the accessibility options in games like Forza Motorsport, Sea of Thieves, and Age of Empires.