Nintendo's Latest Switch Update Enables Greater Accessibility

April 13, 2020

The newest Switch update, 10.0.0, brought a ton of great features to the console, including the ability to transfer downloaded content back and forth between the system memory and a removable SD card. More importantly, though, Nintendo has given players the ability to change the button layout of Joy-Cons and Pro Controllers. This is an incredible feature for players that may have trouble using the controllers as intended, and will undoubtedly open the doors for many people to play games they otherwise would have never been able to.

While it's true that some games allow button remapping, not all of them do, and a system-wide feature like this means that players can create a layout that works best for them and then use it for every game they play. The Switch update will allow players to create up to 5 unique layouts for each Joy-Con and/or Pro Controller they use, so whether you share your Switch or just need layouts for different games, there should be enough profiles available to fit your needs.

The interface for remapping the buttons is simple to use. From the System Settings menu scroll down the list until you see Controllers and Sensors. From there, the second option is Change Button Mapping. On this menu, simply select the Joy-Con or Pro Controller you want to edit, select change, and select the button, trigger, or control stick you wish to change. Every button is an option, including the buttons from the opposite Joy-Con. You can even disable any button if you need to. You can then save your layout and edit it anytime. If you have a layout saved to the SD card, you can load it in and save the time it would take to recreate it.

The thing about accessibility in gaming is that there is no one size fits all solution. Player's can have so many different types of needs and situations that it is unproductive and impossible to try to solve for every unique need. Instead, the best way to support players is to provide the widest set of options possible so that players can make the games and hardware work for them. This is exactly the way accessibility should be handled and Nintendo has done a great job implementing the feature.

Source: The Gamer