"The right to play is enshrined in Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by the UK government in 1991. The government has a duty under this convention to protect and promote play opportunities for all children and young people."
See also: International Play Association; Children's Right To Play; Play England.
Sony aren't very popular these days are they? They do have a bit of a history of being very heavy handed (remember Lik-Sang, anyone?) with non-conventional use of their PS3. They've bashed the accessibility of their own console since update 3.50, by making it very hard to connect alternative controllers to their console. They've also lost millions of people's personal details and likely credit card details too. Things have got to get better haven't they?
On the up side, there is at least one PS2 to PS3 adapter left that still works, available via the likes of eBay (search on "ps2 xbox 360 ps3 converter adapter"). Like the previously working Logic 3 adapter, hold SELECT then press UP to call up the XMB menu when needed. Please Sony, do the right thing and leave at least this one working!
Tip thanks to Bill Donegan at SpecialEffect's Accessible GameBase.
The video above shows the LEPMIS prototype ORTHROS one-handed controller. Compatible with PS3, Xbox 360 or PC, it's great to see new one-handed solutions coming out.
Highly reconfigurable and available to buy now for around £235 + £375 for the PS3 Switch Access Pod, contact Geoff Harbach for more details.
For alternative one-hand controllers, see the OneSwitch shop.
News-2-You and Inclusive Technology have tied up to bring out free news bulletins on an occasional basis. Their first is on the royal wedding which you may be aware of.
For more regular accessible news, take a look at SymbolWorld.org and the BBC's Accessible news-reader. Amusingly the BBC are running with a "Royal Wedding Sick Bag for sale!" story under the UK news.
Added to the OneSwitch page on accessible news.
Enabled gamer Alex Kostov has given a great interview over at the Accessible GameBase which is well worth a read (and play). If you, or someone you know, would like to be interviewed, please get in touch.
For C-SID users wishing to play Wii games with switches, Wikipedia have a must see list of compatible games. For those wishing to play Japanese compatible games, there's a slim chance that you may be able to use Datel's Freeloader disk.
I've mentioned Burnstudio's Audiotool before, but it's worth a second mention. It's an amazing on-line music creation studio. You can drag and hook up various expensive sound modules, effects pedals and more. Once you've got a nice rhythm flowing you can play/pause using a switch hooked up to the SPACE BAR. Alternatively, you can use left-click to switch some elements on and off that with pre-planning can be very effective.Alternatively, if you have accurate point, click and dragging skills you'll have massive control over creating some fantastic sounding music.
