The Most Useful PlayStation and Xbox Accessibility Options
It’s easier to use your gaming console than you might think….
Head to Controllers and you’re able to tweak the behavior of the DualSense Wireless Controller in various ways. You can, for example, set custom button assignments—so the left trigger could become the right trigger, or whatever you need to game more easily. You can also swap the functionality of the left and right sticks on the controller, as well as adjust the press-and-hold delay, the vibration intensity, and the trigger effect intensity. Check Accessories from Settings for more options.
Closed Captions is where you can turn on closed captions for videos—you get full control over the style of the captions, everything from the font style to the size to the opacity of the text. When and where these closed captions will appear depends on the apps you’re using and whether the content you’re watching supports subtitles, but this setting should be enough to enable closed captions wherever they’re available.
Lastly, Chat Transcription turns voice chat from other players into text, so you can read what fellow players are saying rather than listening to it. Again, support for this depends on the particular game you’re playing. What’s more, you can use a connected keyboard to type out your own chats, which are then converted to audio for the people you’re playing with.
Microsoft Xbox Series X and Series S
Over on the Xbox side, launch Settings from the Xbox home screen (it’s the cog icon up in the top right corner), then pick Accessibility. On the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S, there are nine different sections to work through, including Night mode: This dims the screen at night so it’s easier on your eyes, and you can enable it manually or on a set schedule.
Open Narrator and you can have text, buttons, and other onscreen items read out to you—the associated options let you choose a voice speed, pitch, volume, and style. Note that Narrator works best if you’ve got a keyboard connected. There’s also Game and chat transcription, which you can use to have voice messages from other players turned into text, while also having your own typed messages turned into audio if needed.
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